Honey Valley Estate

We spent a very relaxing rest day in the Kodagu region of south-western Karnataka. This area is hilly and verdant, very scenic, and home to India's coffee plantations. The family we stayed with cultivates coffee and cardamom as well as hosts tourists (stressed out IT workers from Bangalore on the weekends and westerners during the week). The hills surrounding the homestay are full of scenic tracks and trails for walking. We were quite beat from the bike ride to get there, so we did not hike that much, but we did climb to the nearby ridge to get some wonderful views.



On the way down in the evening we noticed that a moving brushfire was slowly engulfing the entire hillside above the estate. What should we do? Our first instinct was to run down the hill and grab our passports and high-tail it for the road. We were, after all, blissfully removed from civilization up here in the mountains, so retreat would be difficult and time seemed precious. (Click on the image to view larger version.)


But maybe this is normal for the hill to be ablaze? Maybe it would not burn into the wooded area where we were staying? It's hard, sometimes when traveling in a foreign land, to know what is normal and what is out of the ordinary. For example, burning one's trash in the front yard seems to be part of the waste management scheme here in the country. One's first instinct is often to pretend that what you see happens every day. So I tried not to sound frightened when I asked Suresh about the brushfire. It was actually a sore spot for him since--although illegal--it was started by cow-herds at the top of the hill to promote favorable grazing conditions.

"They do this so that the grass will grow back quickly, and also to destroy the small bushes where tigers can hide. If the tigers have no place to hide, then they will not come into the field and attack the cows."

Tigers? what tigers?