Tree House

We arrived at Tranquil Homestead just after midday on Sunday and were greeted by the owner and his four lovely dogs … Sunshine the Dalmation, Sparky the Golden Retriever, Shadow the (huge) Boxer and Dynamite (of unknown origin but obviously lots of Terrier influence and he loved grabbing things and shaking them violently)  I have lots of photos of them ... but this is Shadow who adopted us for our stay ... mainly because when he let himself into our Treehouse room he knew exactly where the jar of home-made cookies was kept!

We were shown to our Tree House accommodation which is set high on a hillside with stunning views all around. Its been beautifully built of natural woods/materials and has two bath/shower rooms. I instantly claimed the one where the showerhead is set onto the treetrunk growing through the bathroom … fantastic having a shower looking out over the treetops. There is a verandah round 2 sides of the house and its totally private – all you see is trees (and a few monkeys) and the tropical birdsong fills the air. It lives up to its name of Tranquil.

Photos really don't do it justice … but here's a few to give you an idea

'my' shower room .... 'his' is the other one ... boring!!

The balcony 'fencing' is made from polished pieces/branches of the gnarled coffee bushes

Meals are served on the Terrace of the house belonging to the plantation owners and we joined around 20 other people for lunch. There were many nationalities including a group from Israel, four from Denmark and a couple from near Boston, USA.

After lunch we took a short stroll around the plantation. In all there are thirteen walking trails on the 400 acre estate but we opted for the shortest as, despite being in the Hills, we still found the temperatures quite overpowering. We took our cameras with the intention of photographing birds but they were very elusive .. we could hear them everywhere but mostly they stayed in the canopies and were screened by leaves. We're told there are more than 127 species of birds on the plantation and we reckon we've seen around 20 of them today. There are also some beautiful butterflies around but they never settle anywhere so in 2 days I've managed to photograph just one (and its not one of the very exotic varieties either)

We met up with more of our fellow guests for pre-dinner drinks near the pool and then had a lovely buffet meal and a pretty good bottle of red wine which at just £23 was quite a bargain! Wine is seriously expensive in India due to the Govt Taxation

This is an Eagle we photographed on our Monday morning walk .. we believe its a Crested Serpent Eagle but willing to be corrected on that. We started our walk shortly after breakfast in the coolest part of the day but by the time we finished around 11.30am it was stifling so a warm shower, cold drink and 'chill out' on the balcony called for.

 

We skipped lunch as we're enjoying the food too much here and eating far more than usual. But we had a visit from a very worried member of staff asking if everything was OK and had we forgotten about taking lunch … attention to detail is fab here. We've got local chocolates in the room (or should I say 'had' not 'got' as David has polished them off), homemade biscuits, bowls of fresh fruit and lots of soft drinks. Every toiletry you could imagine, walking canes, insect repellant ….and a lovely free hardback book with pages giving information about coffee growing (plus coffee recipes), tea growing (plus recipes), local wildlife/birds and lots of blank pages for our own notes … a very thoughtful gift.

Although there is no WiFi here, I can't say we've missed it for a couple of days. We could use the owner's own computer for a couple of hours in the evening (for a small fee) but really, I'm pleased we can do without it for a while.