We continued our journey to Karnataka, where we had to drive on disastrous roads and then for about 3 km off the road straight into the jungle to reach the Hermitage Guesthouse. It is completly surrounded by reserved forest.

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Dave, the owner of this place, bought it in 1980 to retreat from the already crowded cities. In the first few years he and his wife were completely cut off during monsoon, there was no way out so they had to live off the forest for about 3 months. Their next neighbours are a tribal village a few kilometers away where they get day labourers to help them out.

Electrified in 1986 they are still on different power schedules every week. That means 4 hours of electricity either from 6-10, 10-2 or 2-6. In the evening they get just enough for the lights and with the help of inverters and generators they can keep a fridge running permanently.

They got a landline just a few years ago, so before that they had to drive a few kilometers to their so called "phone hill" to make phone calls.

When they started hosting guests in 2001 their daughter was studying in Australia and took care of all booking inquiries.

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Apart from relaxing we also went for a nice hike through the jungle:

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