It was late Friday evening …… we both came back from work late and the whole rudimentary life needed some unwinding ….. Woke up at 5 am in the morning….. backpacked necessities and took the travel book and headed off on the roads leading to Chikmagalur……. No planning , no hotel bookings, new route to drive on and no sense of direction. Our map and people on the streets were our sources to reach our destination and experience the joy of this unplanned trip. We crossed the city roads trying to find our direction, stopped a few places and made sure we were heading the right way. While driving down we love to stop over to eat at the local dabbas, have chai at the local tea shop, and ye… we do carry loads of chocolates with us and stop over when we see children on the way. We love to interact with them and see them smile at the sight of pack of chocolates…. They keep waving and smiling at us as long as our rear view can see them….. it’s beautiful to touch lives in our own way. Here we were, after a long drive finally in the city of Chikmangalur. Everything unusually seemed quite than what we had heard about the hustle and bustle from our friends. We stopped over to find out about our way ahead any clues of hotels or guest houses. We asked a nearby shopkeeper for some water bottles and eatables (just incase we may have to sleep in the car :o) !). He adviced us to find some place to stay in the city as it’s a weekend and everything will be booked…. Also the city was closed for some reason…. Local politics. He tried calling an owner of a coffee estate he knew and that seemed to be closed for the weekend…. Ah!. So here we were debating to move ahead…. To touch 6000 ft…. the idea of staying put down hill did not excite us..so we took the closed guest house owner’s number and went on our seemingly blur uphill road…… It was around 4 pm in the evening and driving on the swirling road around the Chikmagalur hills was just awesome….. there were silver oak tress lined on both sides of the roads amongst other wild forest tress and flowers…. The weather was getting little cloudy , birds chirping all the way…. The roads were narrow and had to be thread very cautiously…. One look down and you know the only prayer of “may your soul rest in peace” was good enough. Difficult paths for 2 vehicles to pass and we would be the most willing to stop at a corner after seeing any vehicle come towards us and give them way to go ahead. After a long drive of around 40 mins we smelled the bitter yet intoxicating aromas of coffee beans on both sides of the road. Massive coffee estates and beautiful houses were a sight to watch out for… unfortunately they were either booked or not for let out. So here I decided to call the owner who had his guest house closed ….. I requested him to open up just one room for us to stay …. It was called Green Dale…. And we felt all excited and a sigh of relief as he seemed convinced to allow us in… guess the bigger challenge now was to find this place amidst no sign boards, locals who are hardly seen on the roads and cannot speak hindi or English …and sudden showers that came pouring down….. we drove a few mins trying to get the landmark… but in vain…. Tried reaching the owner and gues what … our mobile network seemed to left us far behind… WOW! Here we go in no man’s land…. It was 5:30 pm it was still drizzling…. We came to a dead end, we had to decide to take the left or right turn…. We asked a few people about the place to get some clues before we decide which side our tuck should take us… with no help.. we decided to Go Right….. and truly wasn’t the direction we should have been heading which we realized later…. It was little sunny now and we kept driving… 20 mins uphill… appx 4500 ft high… ..we came across an old temple that people still came to worship and pray….we spent a few mins and sunk in the calm and cool wind, viewing the mountain behind us and the valley deep. Realizing we do not have much time before dark… we kept going as the road ahead seemed very exciting…. Unknown but worth a drive… within no time we were at the peak of the mountain 6000 ft high … and what a view…. The sun was just setting , the clouds looked beautiful in all colors…. The valley was getting deeper and darker… we sat and watched … as far as our eyes could see and our minds could capture the special moments… another 300 to 400 ft high we realized there was another temple and there were steps leading high up there… to the highest point. Everything seemed so untouched and serene…… we had to break from here as the rains seems to cloud again and knowing we have very little time to find a place to rest for the night…. We drove downhill…… The Drive downhill started getting slippery as the rains poured in again… we traced back a point to receive the network connection and call the owner who obliged….. he managed to lead us again and this time we made no mistake to spot a very small board giving us lead to our route…. Now it was around 7 pm and pitch dark outside … heavy rains and no soul to ask…. We managed to go by our gut feel through the narrow lanes hoping we hit a point that says GreenDale….. did we see it… Yes ! I stayed in the car while my husband went to ring the bell so the gates could be opened…. We tried banging, knocking, shouting but no one appeared for 20 mins….. and I said “ lets find a place to park the car and sleep in it tonite, car camping” Just when we were sinking in that thought, we saw a black figure with an umbrella and a lantern barely lit. He opened the gates and we drove in…. with a sigh of relief We were led to a small room with basic necessities….. we heard they would make a small hot meal for us with available groceries (sounded good enough !). The owner drove down late that night to meet us….. and make us feel at home… We thoroughly enjoyed a short trek the next day, we were told we are very close to the Nagarhole forests and not to wander too far…. We hoped to see some wild cats… not face to face meet though , we enjoyed bird watching, Roaming around the coffee estate…. Knowing more about coffee beans and the whole pain staking process of growing it…. Business sense around it….. and how can we forget the 2 lovely Puppies who entertained us thoroughly…. The warmth was just amazing. Sometime roads unknown leave you with the best Memories and Experiences…… I’m not a writer but hope this was worth the read ! Have Fun … Just Unwind ! Missing to upload Pics...as I'm travelling without the backup disk... will do as soon as I'm back home ;o)