Trip to Sakaleshpur-Chikmagalur

The plan:

It was during Anil's Marriage that we had initial discussion of going out somewhere during Christmas vacation. Initially we thought our family, Sushma's family and Srinand's family would make it. We thought Anil can not come as new couple would have planned for their honey moon. Due to unfortunate circumstances, it so happened that new couple could not make honey moon trip. On the other hand Srinand's family could not make it sue to new born. So it was more solid during second week of Dec that We both, Sush-Gautam and Aruna-Anil would be the team

More planning:

We initially had plans to make it somewhere in Chikmagalur or near by Shimoga region. Most of us did not want heavy adventures but loved to enjoy the nature. After a day of research we found coffee valley Home Stay near Sakaleshpur. I bought most of the members buy-in and thought of booking for 2 days. It was turning out to be little expensive and that's the time I realized that we could expand the trip to somewhere else as well restricting Coffee Valley stay for 1 day. Initially it was told that per person per day it would be Rs. 2000/-. Then they reduced a bit and within our planned budget. I booked for one day and planned Kemmannugundi for day 2.

The next we regarding vehicle. Gautam arranged his brother's Bolero four wheel drive for the trip and we decided self driving.

The schedule:

As trip was little tight, we decided to leave very early in the morning like, at around 5AM and reach Coffee Valley Estate at around 11 AM. On the way we visited Manjurabad fort and Bhimeshvara falls, near Sakaleshpur, . At the estate had lunch and rested till evening. Visited Sun Set spot which is very near to the estate and had Camp Fire and played some games like Dumb-Chardes, Adarsha Dampathigalu etc. Had dinner and went to bed. Most highlighted part of the day was "Food" and Host Mrs&Mr.Manjuth's hospitality. We just loved the place.

Host also appointed Chidananda, Chidu as we called him for all our comforts. Next day we all woke up at around 8 AM and had hot bath. Finished tasty breakfast and started towards visiting all beautiful places near by, guided by Chidu. We visited an old temple of Lord Bhairaweshwara and a peaceful lake nearby, where there were hundreds of hungry fishes. We fed them with some Mandakki. Captured hundreds of snaps and moved towards an unnamed waterfalls.

Spent couple of hours in the falls and enjoyed a lot and captured some stunning pics. Went back to estate for yet another tasty meals, which was actually not in the package. We were so impressed by the food, and told the hosts to make it for us and we would pay extra for the same. We checked-out after a series of Couple-Shots and moved towards Chikmagalur. Reached there by evening and rested for the day. We hesitantly stayed in average hotel called Raja Mahal in I.G road. It was not so clean place. But it was ok to spend a night. Most funny thing was their eye-catching multi-colored rooms. :)

Next day was again a hectic day. We visited Here-magalur Sri Rama temple. Priested by famous orator Sri. Heremagalur Kannan. We spent a lot of with him and enjoyed the stay there. Then we started towards Kemmannu Gundi. We decided to directly go to the Hebbe Falls. It was extra-ordinary drive on the rocky mountains to reach the leg of the falls. We started very late from there and reached Bangalore at late night by 1:30 AM

 

Photos:

Enjoy some of the photos of the trip:

Sunflower field on the way

 

From Sakaleshpur 08

From Sakaleshpur 08

 

Manjurabad Fort

 

From Sakaleshpur 08

 

 

From Sakaleshpur2 08

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Coffee Valley Estate:

 

From Sakaleshpur2 08

 

From Sakaleshpur 08

From Sakaleshpur 08

 

 

Falls near Hanbal

From Sakaleshpur2 08

 

Hebbe Falls @Kemmannugundi

From Sakaleshpur2 08

 

Link for entire Album1 and Album2