Trip to Malnad - Kuvempu Memorial

We had several plans in mind for this year end holidays. Nothing worked out due to various factors. One of them was a trip to Delhi. The ticket costs were prohibitive and we dropped that.  At the end it turned out to be a good decision after reading flight delays and diversion in Delhi due to fog for last few days. At the last moment we had to decide on a getaway and we decided to visit my cousin sister in Mangalore. On the way we planned to stay somewhere in Malnad and see some places there. I searched for homestays and found a reference from one of my colleagues about Bananki Homestay in Tirthahalli.

We started in the morning from Bangalore and took Tumkur road.  We then took NH206 from Tumkur towards Shimoga. Till Tumkur it was toll road which was excellent. NH206 was not as good but a descent road. But it is far far better than the road I was to travel in the later parts of this trip. From Shimoga you have to take NH13 to go to Tirthahalli which was a narrow but good and scenic drive.

We reached Tirthahalli around 3PM and Bananki Homestay was around 8km from the town towards Koppa on NH13. The homestay is run by a couple and their parents. The house is in the middle of a farm comprising of Aracanut and rubber cultivation. Aracanut seems to be a big crop and business in the Malnad area and you can see it everywhere you turn.

Bananki Homestay at Tirthahalli

As soon as we reached there, lunch was served to us. It was typical home made Malnad cuisine and very delicious. I later found out that it was for food many travelers choose this home-stay and they continued service excellent food to us till we left. After taking some rest we inquired about nearest places to see and decided to visit Poet Kuvempu's house which was around 6km from the home-stay. Kuvempu (Kuppali Venkatappagowda Puttappa) is a noted Kannada writer and poet.  Since I haven't visited such memorials before, we decided have try.