Every year, summer arrives and I get nostalgic about how we used to climb the trees and pick fresh mangoes or collect the ones that filled the ground post a heavy rainfall.
Being away form home for almost 10 years.. this has just become a far memory in my mind.
In Bangalore, we have to mostly do with the mangoes which are ripened by carbide or are definitely not fresh picks.
This year, we decided to do things a bit differently. During a weekend visit to one of the resorts near Devanahalli, Mik had notices a couple of mango orchards. This gave us the idea to visit the area and try out if we get lucky and are allowed to pick our own mangoes.
From the time we had spotted the orchards, we waited for about a month and half to allow for the mangoes to ripen before heading out on our mission this weekend.
The drive is wonderful with nice roads towards the Bangalore International Airport. Take the first left after the ITC factory on NH-7, International Airport Road (after Navarathna Agrahara bus stop)
The views change form here. Its gets greener and calmer. The drive and the views were so awesome that I can spent hours just driving and admiring the nature around.
The path is lined with quite a few resorts. So you can easily couple some activities in any of these resorts along with your visit to the orchard for a full day program.
From GM Palya, it took us about an hour to reach the orchard, which is about a KM before the Windflower Resort. You have a few other orchards too, but we chose this one as it had a lot of "Totapuri" mango plants which is my Brother's a favorite.
My face immediately lightened up at the sight of the tree laden with ripe mangoes. I couldnt hold my excitement to be among them. We got down from the car and asked the caretaker of the orchard, who were also selling the fresh fruits outside the orchard, for permission to go in and pick our own fruits which we would buy.
Done with the permission, we ran inside the orchard like kids. I was so excited!! We took a few pics and spend some time walking inside the orchard (which was pretty big) before going for picking the mangoes.
Once inside, you feel transformed to a different world, away from the hustle and bustle of the city, so close to nature.. My childhood memories stormed my mind.
We spent about an hour inside the orchard, picked some mangoes and paid for them before heading back home.
You have some small restaurants once you hit the main road for lunch. We had lunch at one of them before driving back to GM Palya.
We reached home not just with bags full of mangoes, but heart filled with happiness and mind filled with wonderful memories. I definitely plan to make it an annual ritual and would also recommend you all to try out the place and let me know about your experience.
By the way, I also spotted some Guava orchards on the way back..they were not ripe yet..hmmm...so next month!!?? Yeah!! Why not!!! :D :D
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