Usually I get my car serviced or a general check-up done just before such long trips; actually this is not such a long trip, just ~600 KM total, spread unevenly across 3 days. Since I had got a regular service done for my car recently about 1000 KM ago, I did no preparation on that front this time. May be due to that, we did encounter a couple of abnormal stoppages during this trip, including one serious, on the high way - before Hassan in the onward direction - we had to push and jump-start the car!
That apart, overall it was a very nice trip. There were many memorable moments as you will see from the details and pictures I have posted below.
Places visited
1. Shettihalli Church: About 24 KM from Hassan. This is an unusual old 19th century church built right on the Hemavathi river bed, in the Gorur reservoir area. Though it is nearly in a state of ruin, what is special is that, during high flood levels in the river it gets fully immersed under water and is accessible only when water level is low.
2. Manjarabad / Munzerabad Fort: About 6 KM from Sakleshpur also known as Sakaleshpura. Sakleshpur is the starting point of western ghats where we also start seeing coffee plantations when we travel from Bangalore direction towards Mangalore on NH48. This fort is located at the outskirts of Sakleshpur and was built by Tipu Sultan in the 18th century as a monitoring camp to guard the border at that end of his territory. It is positioned at a slightly elevated ground and gives a nice green view of the surrounding terrain.
3. Tusk & Dawn: About 29 KM from Sakleshpur. A jungle retreat, tucked just into dense forest and located at one of the foothills of the western ghat range. Away from all human activity, with none of the modern facilities available, it is nested in the middle of peaceful surroundings amidst quite a few pet birds walking around.
Route
Here is the round-trip Route that we followed:
Bannergatta road - NICE road entry at Gottigere - Tumkur road exit - Nelamangala - Left turn on NH48 on Mangalore road - Kunigal bypass - Channarayapatna bypass not ready yet - Hassan - Shettihalli Church - Hassan (halt) - Sakleshpur - Manjarabad Fort - Sakleshpur - Hanbal - Agani - Tusk & Dawn Resort (halt) - Sakleshpur - Hassan bypass - Channarayapatna bypass not ready yet - Kunigal bypass - Nelamangala - NICE road entry at Tumkur road - Gottigere exit - Bannergatta road.
Click here for full route map, interactive, on Google Maps.
Read on for more details of the itinerary we followed, of the places we visited, and a lot of photos.
