Bangalore - Sakleshpura - Mangalore
It was a trip planned during the Dasara Festival holidays 2023. The original plan was to drive up to Gokarna. Due to the holiday rush, the rooms were not available for night stay; therefore, the trip was limited to Sakleshpura & Mangalore. More than sightseeing, it was relaxing. Last year (2022) during these holidays, I had a motorcycle ride with my friends to Jalukie in Nagaland and, Yangkhullen in Manipur. This time, the trip is planned in a car with my student friend.
Mangalore is 360 km away from Bangalore. Our first-day plan was to reach Saklespura. We started the trip at 6.30 a.m. from Vellara Jn, Ashok Nagar, Bengaluru in a KIA Seltos. Nelamangala – Kunigal – Channarayapatna - Hassan – Saklespura. It was a 225 km ride. The roads were good until Hassan. Afterwards, never-ending roadworks started.
We stopped for breakfast at Hatna - Hotel Dhruvathare at 745 a.m. It is on the highway. There is ample parking and one can eat in the open air or inside the hotel. We preferred to sit outside, in the open air and relax a bit. I want to taste Karnataka Special Davangere Benne Dose, as I saw a description about that Dose on a YouTube channel unfortunately it was not available; removed from the menu. So I was forced to taste ordinary Ghee roast. I also ordered one Pongal, thinking about the tasty Tamil Ven Pongal. Ven Pongal or Pongal is a very popular breakfast dish in Tamil Nadu. It is prepared with rice, split moong dal and mashed for a creamy texture. With that, black pepper and cumin seeds, cashews are added to this mixture with lots of ghee. With this in mind, I ordered; but was disappointed as it was in Karnataka style, with different recipes, textures and tastes. After spending around 30 minutes, we started our journey.
Saklespura was 125 km away from the place where we stopped for breakfast. We had a booking at Munzerabad Club for the day. A club member made the booking. The club was established in 1893 and had a unique architectural style. We visited the club around 10 a.m., confirmed our booking, and went to see the Manjarabad Fort.
Manjarabad Fort is a beautiful, star-shaped fort, an important place to visit at Sakleshpur. As the history books say, Tippu Sultan built this star-shaped fort in 1792 as an ammunition storehouse while he was fighting against the British. One has to climb nearly 250 steps to reach the fort; of course, they are steps, not very steep. However, elderly people, be prepared to walk. The Archaeology department (namesake) maintains the Fort. There is no security, no place to park the vehicles, no one to control the tourists, no clear signboards etc… not popular, maybe because of Tipu Sultan. It remains a completely neglected monument, as of October 2023. We spent around one hour and left the place.
We came back to Munzerabad Club, had some washing and walked to a restaurant for our dinner. After dinner, we took a rest. In the evening, we planned to visit the Abbe Gundi waterfalls. The waterfall was around 30 minutes ride.
