Unhurried hours and a natural rhythm mark the luxury of travelling through the Scotland of India

It’s a monsoon masterpiece that moves into the wintry air as nature stretches green limbs and moves across the mountains. Wandering mists, unending plantations with nodding coffee pods, frequent showers, waterfalls that roar to life and chatty hornbills form the grammar of Coorg. The endemic paradise tucked away in the Western Ghats in Karnataka, with its crests and crashes – of Brahmagiri peaks lidded with clouds that part ways dreamily, and muddy, tuskered paths with chirpy drongos keeping a close watch on all that moves in the forests.

Coorg forms the best pick in a quiet travel odyssey with you and yours with the magic of its shifting micro-climates.

Nature’s palette

…And then some. The coffee flowers running through the plantations resemble tufts of snow, exuding the fragrance of a jasmine flower topping the masses of Arabica and Robusta pods lining the undulations. This annual spin has earned Coorg the moniker, Scotland of India. The herds of colourful butterflies winging their way towards the sun, the deep valleys lined with oranges-clad trees, black termite humps (the mark of a healthy forest!), pagoda style ant nests – that are truly water resistant!; finger-sized limes, wild berries and elephant-eared-fig trees lacing the green run. The fermented sap of the latter wields the impact of alcohol on the fig-loving elephants, especially when they drink it from the tree under the sun – that wins it the toddy tree pseudonym. Jackfruits (the second favourite of the jumbos) abound in the forests.