As I sit back, with heaps of photographs and some Bombay rain for music, I think – Forests. A tangle of wood and leaf and echo. In trails that never end.

I met these trails in person early this year. Alongside a manor in the mountain I called home for four days.

Our journey began in a rented self-drive car from Chikmagalur and ended in an extremely cliched race against Time-Speed-Distance-Luck through the legendary Bangalore traffic and ended in an almost missed flight to Bombay, although in between – there was such beauty, it made the heart ache.

The plan took us from one coffee country to another, from Chikmagalur to Coorg at noon with full tums of breakfast and the Beatles’ for company. Our 4 hour drive through Karnataka’s countryside was wide and smooth — windswept slopes, plantation greens freshly washed in rain, skies vast and silver-grey.

We remember traversing through these hilly terrains and its mist 5 years ago. And while you can’t really replicate your first time, looking at the same thing again through your lover’s eyes comes a close second. So let’s say that all the roads that led us here this time around were conjured in both – nostalgia, and renewals.

One got plenty of opportunities to park by the sidelines and savor views worthy of postcards pictures. Huge, towering trees of silver oak – their barks clung with coffee and pepper vines. In the distance, a grazing herd of cattle. Around you, a crisp breeze.

Where were we headed? To a plantation paradise.

Made of ease and fancies in equal measure, EvolveBack – Coorg, formerly known as OrangeCounty, is at the nucleus of Coorg’s tourism.

Once you gather yourself from being taken by the landscape, you are met with welcome drinks and smiles from the hospitality staff. During our stay here, we got the chance to cross paths with the Chairman (and founding member) of EvolveBack, Mr. Ramapuram – who is known to often spend his evenings at the Reading Lounge and greet guests. I remember him saying, “It is one thing to offer coffee to your guests, but it is a different thing to do it with a smile!” And smile they do! Smiles that reach their eyes.

It won’t be long before you realize that whoever created EvolveBack, did it with love.

Despite the estate encompassing an abundant 300 acres of land, you notice the thoughtful restraint of the creators, ensuring that EvolveBack be temperate with just 60 villas nestled in nature. Nestled in ways that feel like they were sown to grow from the earth’s crevice just like the trees accompanying them. Rest, reserved for nature herself.

We called their Heritage Pool villa, 4400 sq. ft. in private space, our home for the stay. There is also the ‘Lily Pool’ series including cottages, villas, duplexes and bungalows to choose from – each for varied levels of occupancy and space, all designed around thematic lily ponds.

The villas here boast of ethnic Kodava architecture blending into seamless luxury.
Wood and root and leaf meets courtyard decks and temperature controlled pools and water osmosis! Not to forget, the Sidapura coffee and cookies laid out alongside a basket holding fruits to keep you snacking between meals. A newspaper is left outside your main-door every morning. It is a kind of love, is it not?

The way the villas house ferns, and other green growing lives. The way the curtain allows in just enough sunlight and sky. The way the entire estate is dimly lit in ambience, for you to see the milky way blurring through a clear night sky, or spot a glow-worm or few. And we did both! On our first night here.

Mornings, we were always woken by birdsong that readied us for the itinerary we planned along with our host for the stay – Priyanka. EvolveBack has a curated list of quality Experiences for guests to revel in, each one molded to make you feel one with nature and take back memories for souvenirs. They are organized through the day in hourly batches with well-appointed guides.

Our first was a 7 am Coracle ride over the Cauvery river. I remember us walking down the pathway with Mr. Chami, who told us how he was associated with the estate for over 2 decades. In all fairness, by now I’d fallen in love with the potent agency, and sense of belonging that every member of the staff felt toward the estate. A rarity in this commercial world. We showed Mr. Chami a picture of him from our visit to EvolveBack 5 years ago. He gasped – at the weight he thought he had lost, flung out his 20 feet bamboo and dipped it in the river that began long, long before us. As I sat through the ride, taking in the soft sunshine and watching it break over the river – I could not help but wonder how vain we are to think we make all the discoveries— and how every ‘new discovery’ has always been here—except each day we are more able, willing, blessed, to be able to see. And also how, for the most part, we are nothing but faithful recipients, of gift after gift after gift.

Talking of gifts – the food! Our first meal was at the aptly named restaurant ‘The Granary’, overlooking the family pool and beautiful palm trees. The menu here stays unwritten, food is laid out on a buffet as a living offering – sourced locally and changing daily, seasonally. You can tell that the hearths are wood-fired, so everything is more flavourful. The Kodava cuisine is a big revelation to one’s taste-buds – meaty, starchy, and utterly delicious. Choose what you will. The real joy lies in being there, of course. We had many a meals at The Granary during our stay, in the company of the manager Mr. Ebrahim who had a trove of stories about the history of the estate for us.

Coorg also inhabits the second largest commune of Tibetan lamas in India. On day 2, we set out on a quest to see the Namdroling Tibetan Monastery, an hour’s drive from EvolveBack. We lost our way there, but oh what joy. Our drive to the monastery took us through the Dubare Forest reserve, where you need to drive at 30/kmph without halt. As soon as we crossed the gateway of the forest, the world opened up into endless gorges – with perennials replenished, moss on the slopes dripping wet, and most of all, the trees of greeeen. Sigh. How to describe it to you, this colour? So rich, so fresh, it seemed newly sprung from the earth, drummed out by the mightiest rain. Above us, skies of gorgeous, as we drove through patches of rain, fog, and clearness. The Monastery in itself was quite okay, but all the getting lost? 10/10 recommend.

We reached EvolveBack just in time for dinner. Priyanka, our host for the stay, had organized a beautiful 7-course meal for us by the lakeside at Peppercorn – another restaurant of service at the property. It was candle lit. Actually, more like ‘lantern’ lit. We felt extremely one with the place through the night, celebrating its sustainability and slowness.

There is also The Machan, their tree-top private restaurant for two. When I saw this place, I truly thought if I were an experience curator, this is what I would create. It felt like the restaurant version of my personality. Surrounded by forest views on three sides, and the lake on one – you can watch your food being prepared thanks to their open kitchen, with breeze blowing in fine misty spray.

By now, we were very sure we could not top the experiences we had had so far on this vacation. But then, at 7 am on the third day of our stay, we met Subbaiah.

If there’s one thing I’ve learnt over the years, through conversation, therapy and thought, it is that first, above all else, in our quest to live a life less lost, we ought to orient ourselves. Find our stillness. Our centre. One that stands. That grounds. And then, and only then, does the world orient itself around us. The forests find us. Love too. And friendship. And connection. And meaningful work, and meaningful place. Subbaiah was our forest guide for a private Plantation 4×4 tour, part of the curated Experiences offered at EvolveBack. In our interaction with him, we sensed his strong orientation almost instantly.

What was supposed to be a 1 hour forest tour adapted itself into a 4 hour long drive with halts for forest walks and plenty a conversation about the physiology of coffee, multigenerational societies of elephants, evasive civet cats, flying squirrels, the Chinese government, Indian laws for Sheesham trees, Western ghats, farm-produce trade cycles, Engineering, avocados, rain, life!

He was 6’4 inches tall, “It’s my warrior genes” – he told us, with a self-assured smile. He hailed from the trenches of the Kodagu hills, a Coorgi through and through. He studied Engineering, worked as a Forest ranger in the Satpura Tiger reserve and eventually chose to return to his roots. I asked him if he would be able to find his way back to EvolveBack, if I left him alone in the middle of the 300 acre plantation estate. He broke into his self-assured smile again, and I didn’t need an answer. For a person who spoke of trees like they were sentient, living beings – not just ‘trees’, he could find at least five ways back. One rarely meets people like Subbaiah, who retain and re-tell anecdotes of nature – of chestnuts falling on the root, guavas ripening in deep October, plums in the rain, and coffee flowering through January, with such gleaming eyes.

I feel like I came out a richer, more evolved version of myself from this Plantation 4×4 experience. It ended in a surprise planned for us by Subbaiah – breakfast and wine on a tree-top in the middle of a coffee meadow. I will never forget the sight of it.

Our last morning – we brewed and drank Moroccan coffee at the Reading Room, thanks to Mr. Vinod. It tasted like if dark chocolate were a type of coffee. We picked up wine and keepsakes for our friends and family back home from EvolveBack’s cute gift shop, tucked opposite the Reading Room.

For ourselves, though, we made do with the many moments of gratitude we felt towards this place and its people and their kind smiles.

We met and thanked our host Priyanka for taking care of us through our stay, only to find out that she had a lunch bag packed for us for our drive back to Bangalore. Some gestures make you feel like you’re being held, safely. The hospitality at EvolveBack can be summarized to that effect. You would have to experience it to believe it.

It was hard to drive away from this place, but we did. With a heaviness and many backward glances.

Next morning, we received a text from Priyanka to check if we reached home safely. It is a kind of love.

May we move, always, toward more love. And the landscapes we carry.