Mauritius fun

Laguna Beach Resort

It was time for our annual Christmas time vacation with my in laws as my Father in laws birthday is on Dec 25th! The final choice came down to 5 hr. drive to some place in Western Ghats or Mauritius, so dissimilar! Mauritius became an option as we found out it visa free for Indians, there was 6hr direct flight from Bangalore, and island sounded lovely when we looked it up. So, why not. Once decided, we booked the flights quickly getting us a near best deal and set about planning our 5 day stay. Read on to find out what we did....

Day 1: 

On way in the Sienna

The good deal meant that we had a very early 3.20am flight out of Bangalore and had to head to the airport at 11pm. So, no sleep! We managed this slight challenge well and after a quick uneventful flight landed by 8am in Mauritius Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam International Airport to good weather and welcoming immigration and people. Our first task was to get our rental car which was to be our mode of transport on all 5 days. Mauritius drives on left, has excellent road infrastructure and they accept Indian license. Perfect!

Car pick up was not the way we were used to in America. An agent met us as we came out and drove us us a few kilometers where the formalities were completed. We got Toyota Sienna for 3 days that we planned to switch for a fancier car on last 2 days. We were on our way to Laguna just an hour away (everything is within couple of hours!) but detoured for an early lunch at an Indian place in Mahebourg. The drive is very scenic along the coast and we couldn't help but to turn into the quaint La Case Du Pecheur, restaurant for some drinks, views and relaxation. We finally reached our resort, Laguna Beach Hotel and Spa,  to lovely ground floor rooms with views of the bay.

La Case Du Pecheur

They had arranged an elaborate Christmas eve dinner with a lavish buffet, music, games and dance. It was a great way to spend our first night in Mauritius and we all thoroughly enjoyed it.

Laguna Beach Hotel and Spa

Day 2: Sunrise, breakfast, temple run, swimming pool, dinner.

Murugan Temple

We had decided to relax on Day 2 as it was my father in laws birthday. The hosts kindly arranged for a birthday cake and greeted him in the morning after breakfast. We visited several temples nearby the rest of the day. Hightlight was the Murugan Temple at Clemencia. It was by passing that we turned into the road leading to the temple after seeing the board. The temple was lovely but closed. The priest however lived close by and seeing us came up and opened it for us, then invited us to his house for a cup of coffee! True hospitality indeed. Rest of day we relaxed at the resort in their nice pool.

Pool at Laguna

Day 3: Sunrise, Snorkeling, drive to Villa at La Pointe Port Louis. Pool, Grocery, Sunset.

Sunrise at Laguna

Checkout day. We squeezed in snorkeling after going out into the ocean on a speed boat. The experience of the fast ride and observing colorful fishes up close was enjoyable as always. Our next stay was a full Villa with 4 rooms overlooking the Indian ocean on the west side of the Island. So, it was a drive right across the island that took us about an hour. The villa was fantastic with a great view, private pool and a small public right in front. The host had snorkeling gear we could borrow. So,  lots of choices to enjoy around the house itself! Grocery was also required now that we will be on our own food wise for 2 days. London way store was at 10mins walk and we stocked up well quickly. 

Villa Front view

Day 4: Change car to BMW. Asian stir fry lunch, 7 earths visit, Beach stop, dinner at Chinese restaurant.

On this day we had to take care of the car swap logistics. For convenience we had kept drop and pick up location at airport itself. So, it was an hour drive to coordinate both. Soon, we were heading back in a BMW M3 performance model and enjoying the engine and its power on the wonderful Mauritian roads. We made use of the backyard Asian Kitchen and cooked up a tasty stir fry with noodles that was enjoyed by all in front of the pool with an ocean view! Few restaurants can beat that. Finally, we visited our first touristy spot in Mauritius. The Chamarel Seven Colored Earth Geopark. It was interesting and also had a scenic falls and some giant turtles. On the way back we stopped at Flic en Flac city along the coast for dinner. Place was packed and parking tough so we finally ended up at a Chinese restaurant.

Chamarel Seven Colored Earth

Day 5: Beach hopping around and north of Port Louis. Snorkeling. Lunch at Trojan Horse. 

Mont Choisy

Last day in Mauritius! We had relaxed too much and hardly seen the country. So, we planned a day of beach hopping, maybe snorkeling and lunch at recommended Trojan Horse in Grand Baie, a lovely water side restaurant. We had to drive through Port Louis to get to our first stop Trou-aux-biches and thats pretty much all we got to see of the capital city. We did our planned snorkeling activity here. The sites were close by and we went in glass bottom boats. The fishes were in a deep section of the ocean and we got to experience the depth with many sea creatures, corals and plants down below as we floated above. Only in Hawaii we had a similar snorkeling site. Rest were shallow. After one more stop at Mont Choisy, we got our fix for beaches and headed back home tired and happy.

Trou-aux-biches

Day 6: Drive to airport

Last day was just packing and head to the airport for an uneventful flight back home to our usual routines.

Mauritius surprised us with its beauty, culture, friend people, roads, beaches, food, and so on. There was not much touristy points to see. But just driving around eating and chillin and snorkeling where we could was perfectly fine for us. Hope to go back again sometime and enjoy more of the wonderful country.

Album of all images

Charging our way to Goa

Sand Plovers at Varca beach, Goa

This post is only partly a nature related one and mostly about a road trip. Intrigued? Read on. 

We have owned an EV (Electric vehicle) since 2008. Starting with REVAi. Then E2o which became Mahindra E2o. Sold it after it was discontinued and chose Tata Tiago which is our commute car now. We have never ventured out of Bangalore in it. So, when a friend asked to join on a road trip to Goa in his new MG ZS EV, we hopped on eagerly to experience an EV road trip. Our friend being the organized planner that he is had all the charging schedule worked out. We could sit back and enjoy the ride with hopefully no need to push the car anywhere.

Nature of course is everywhere. On this trip we stopped for one night each at Sharavathi Jungle Lodges and Bhadra River Tern resort to enjoy those wonderful places as well as for charging, with 3 nights at Mahindra Varca, Goa in between.

Zeon Charging near Hiriyur

Somewhere on NH4

Our EV road trip got under way at Yeshwantpur Metro Station where we were picked up. First stop was Sharavathi Jungle Lodges about 400+ kms away. For ZS, company claims range of 460km, user experience is 350km. With 4 people and AC, we hoped for 300km. This meant at least one recharge was needed. To be safe, he had targeted 3 charging stations though only one was sufficient. But given the unreliability of car charging infrastructure, this was a planned redundancy. Zeon charging station at Hiriyur, next to Paakshala restaurant worked out perfectly for our first stop. The car charged while we had a nice breakfast. We did a short test charge up at a roadside Tata Charging Station. 

Lunch and charge at Harsha the Fern

One more charging stop at Harsha the Fern hotel in Shivamogga, which had charging infrastructure in house making it easy to have lunch while the car was charging. Here, there was a slight issue as both slots were already taken. On enquiry, one of the cars was the Hotel Owners! Thankfully, he took it out on request to let us plug in ours.

Malabar Pit Viper

Boat Safari

We reached Sharavati JLR by late afternoon. After checkin, we sighted a Rouxi Forest Lizard and Malabar Pit Viper (yellow morph) which was perched on a log under a bridge on way to our cottages patiently waiting for prey. The viper interestingly stayed in that same spot and position during our whole stay! We took the evening boat safari which turned out to be a sunset cruise with no nature sightings. Next day morning was a safari to jog fall view points which enabled us to do some good bird watching (check list below). Charging attempt overnight with some adhoc (jugaad) setup did not succeed. So, redundancy in charging paid off.

We headed out after breakfast and charged at a convenient charging station located alongside Hotel Sagar Residency, Honnavar while we had coffee. After lunch at Karwar, we reached Varca late evening with a stop along the way to see the sunset. At varca, the charging situation became easy. Even though the fast charger at the resort was not working, we could have car charged overnight with the regular slow charging plug point.

Morning beach walk Varca to Covalessim

Ocean surf

Early next morning, we did a nice relaxed walk all along the beach towards Cavelossim about 5 kms south of Varca. It was reminiscent of my

Sand Plover

longer beach walk and  was equally enjoyable though shorter. Other activites were a visit to Sao Jacinto Islands, eating out at Martins Corner and beach shacks, bit of ocean surf, and generally chilling Goa style. Birding wise, I found a flock of maybe 100 Lesser Sand plovers(or Greater), with few Great Knots and Sandpipers among them on the beach making it an amazing sighting.

Barking Deer

Bridge, River Tern

On our last day we left very early morning to reach River Tern JLR in time for their evening safari. Charging was again at Hotel Sagar Residency where we had our breakfast also. River Tern lodge is nicely nestled along Bhadra Forest and reservoir and hosts the River Tern which come to nest there during winter. We were about a month early though and only spotted couple of tern scouts. The evening boat Safari was still quite good with excellent sightings of a pair of perched darters and near miss of Tiger/Leopard sighting after waiting patiently when Langurs gave incessant alarm calls. Next day morning Jeep Safari was also good with sightings of Barking deer, Malabar Trogon, Forest Owlet, Lesser Adjutant, among others. We took advantage of their natural bay which was like a large pool to do some kayaking and swimming.

Finally, we headed back home and needed only one stop at Hiriyur at the same Zeon charging station and combined it with lunch at Paakshala, and reached home by late evening.

Summary of cost difference between Petrol(assumed) and Electric(actuals) car for this trip.

Petrol car: (~15KMPL) costs Rs 6.5 per KM (@100 Rs/litre)

Electric car: (6KM per KW): Rs 4 per KM (@25 Rs/KW Fast charging)

Links:

Photo album of the trip

Ebird Check List at Sharavati Jungle Lodges

Ebird Check List at Sao Jacinto Island, Goa

Ebird Check List at River Tern Lodge, Boating

Ebird Check List at River Tern Lodge, Safari

Zeon Charging Station, Hiriyur, next to Paakshala

Tata Charging before Chitradurga

Relux Charging, Harsha the Fern, Shivamogga

JioBP Pulse Chrging, Hotel Sagar Residency

Pulse Charging at Harsha Residency, Honnavar

Sunset, Sharavati JLR

Varca Beach

Martins Corner

Sao Jacinto Island

View from room, River Tern Lodge

Kurinjal Peak: A peak over the Sahyadri mountain range

 

Kurinjal Peak, Kudremukh

Location: Bhagwati Nature Camp, Jungle Lodges

Date: Oct 2nd, 2024

To get there: From Bangalore via Hassan or Sakleshpur on the Mangalore Highway. Buses are also connected. Resort does not have phone connectivity so you have to plan the last mile connectivity before hand.

Distance: Apprx 350km, 7hrs by car.

Kurinjal Peak Trail type: Initially flat, then moist rain forests, opens into shola grasslands for a bit. Final ascent is on a rocky trail which needs some scrambling. 7km from trailhead to peak.

Facilities: None. Carry all the food and water you need. Permission to trek is mandatory from the Karnataka Forest department. Pass has to be picked up from the checkpost morning of your trek. Guide is compulsory and provided by KFD.

Map: Kurinjal Peak. Trail head is from the Kalasa main road. Detailed trail infromation from Indiahikes.

Kudremukh (Malleshwara Mining Town for me), influenced my formative years the most making me who I am today. My father worked at Canadian Met-Chem, consulting for KIOCL to set up the infrastructure for mining Iron ore. Our family relocated for 2 of those years and I did my 6th and 7th standard at Giri Jyoti Convent there. It was always my desire to go back and see the town where I first learned to converse in English, appreciate nature, aped the kids in Enid Blyton in the forests around us, had a diverse set of friends ranging from smart city kids to tribal kids, and just grew up into the awkward teens!

River at Bhagwati

So it was, 45 years after those carefree days, my wife and I booked to stay at Bhagwati Nature Camp, Jungle Lodges. It is about 8 km from Malleshwara which we were told had become a ghost town. We drove past it to reach the camp, a typical Jungle Lodges setup with cottages and tents surrounded by Kudremukh National Park and a river flowing by it.

We had not really planned any activities other than exploring the abandoned town. But when the other guests, a young couple and four engineering students, started planning a trek to Kurinjal Peak, we joined enthusiastically. It checked off a long-standing box for us to trek in the Western Ghats shola forests, after several treks overseas and in the Himalayas. They helpfully took care of getting the trek permit from Karnataka Forest Department that required a drive to the checkpoint early on the morning of the trek.

Shola Grasslands

Kurinjal Peak Trailhead

The trek is 7km each way with some elevation gain and usually takes about 5 hrs. to complete. Our assigned guide Kumar was ready to start around 7am which is ideal as it was predicted to get hot and humid later with chances of heavy rain with lightning by late afternoon. Crazy change of weather from cold to hot/humid to monsoon. However, we decided to have breakfast before the trek which pushed our start to nearly 10am. It meant we would be under a time constraint and could not go slow or rest in between or on the peak to avoid getting caught in dangerous weather conditions. Of course, the abundance of leeches in the rainforests ensured we were not tardy anywhere! 

Bridge at start

We parked our vehicles at the Bhagwati Nature Camp turnoff on the main road and walked a few hundred meters to the Kurunjal Peak trailhead. After crossing a bridge across a scenic river, the trail winds through rainforests and shola grasslands. Birds were scarce but butterflies were plenty. I enjoyed and captured their images for later identification as best as I could, despite the fast pace we were maintaining.

Rain forests

As soon as we entered the moist forest trails of Sahyadris, we were greeted by leeches lying in wait for us on the ground, plants that we brushed, and one even dropped down from a tree, a la Mission Impossible style! Everyone was helping everyone else to flick the creepy crawlies which do a very quick downward dog asana climbing technique, to find a nice succulent spot to latch on and suck blood. They anesthetize the spot so that we won't even feel the bite until they drop off, belly full of our precious blood and the wound starts bleeding heavily because they also inject something to prevent clotting! Like they were vampire insects. By the end, we had all contributed to their meal for the day in spite of the precautions we took. 

View point 1km before peak

Good place to relax

After about 6kms which took 2 hours, we reached a lovely viewpoint. Here we could see the majestic Sahyadri range with its rolling shola forests covered in low clouds. Finally, had a breather, and took some nice photos, before we started the final ascent to the peak towering about 200-300 meters above us. Here we had the option of scrambling up a narrow trail or walking on a road that led to an abandoned house midway. 

Go pro leading the way up

Final ascent

A quick rest at the house and the final ascent to reach the peak with its magnificent 360-degree views. I found myself more tired than usual for a moderate climb. Maybe it was age catching up or the fast pace without breaks or just one of those days. I also felt quite nauseous and nearly threw up. This was because of eating the excellent but oily Mangalore Buns for breakfast. Lesson learned. Avoid oily food before any serious treks.

Kurinjal Peak conquerors

Tailed Jay

Some rest. Obligatory photos. Phone calls as this was the only spot where we got a signal. Group shot. And down we started to avoid getting caught in the lightning, rain, or mist. Guide chose a shorter route but steeper descent which supposedly was 2 km less but felt same for us. After an eventless trek down, with beautiful butterfly sightings, we were back in our camp for a well-deserved lunch and a relaxing afternoon nap. 

Kudremukh View point

Overall, Kurinjal Peak is a wonderful beginner trek, easy to moderate level of difficulty, that lets you enjoy the lovely Sahyadri mountains. We were quite disappointed with the lack of any avian activity but the views, butterflies, and wildflowers made up for it. Another activity offered at Bhagwati is a landscape Safari to the Kudremukh view point. It is worth doing as jeep ride and views are very fun and enjoyable.

Abandoned Apartments

Of course, I didn't miss out on visiting my childhood home in Kudremukh town, about 8kms from the camp. On our way back to Bangalore, we drove around it for a couple of hours visiting the Helipad, the apartments where we stayed, and my school Giri Jyoti Convent. All were still standing but dilapidated. They did jog my memory and I enjoyed the wave of nostalgia leading me to share some inane events from that time of my life with others who listened patiently and hopefully enjoyed too and did not get bored. The town did give us a sighting of the Malabar Barbet and Malabar Giant Squirrel, which was a bonus.

Click here for some more images from the trek and trip.