It all started with our previous trip to Chickmagalur. Our cousins, who unfortunately could not join our July trip to chickmagalur, came up with the idea of an only cousins trip.
Next was the voting process(Thanks to Whatsapp group) for the place, we decided to head to Dandeli which is around 460Kms from Bangalore for couple of days in December. But similar to most of our trips, we tried to convince as many people as possible to join us. We ended up changing our travelling date & destination to much nearer Sakleshpura.
After months of planning, excitement and numerous dropouts(7 of us somehow hanged in), finally it was time to relax and have some fun. It was a much needed break.
Day 1: We decided to start around 3 AM, hoping that our Tempo Traveler (TT) will arrive on time and all of us will be ready. But ours was a group that doesn't believe in waking up early. Adding to the group's joy, the vehicle arrived late.
Apparently one of the group member couldn't sleep whole night(Typical for a first timer. :-)). She even tried to wake the sleepy group with a 2 AM Good Morning message.
Finally we started around 3.45 AM and as usual our Kantha (Name changed) had arranged the vehicle, that was below our expectation. Seating facility was bad and Audio system was neither detecting our USB drive drive nor had a good audio adding to this was the driver’s crappy playlist. Surprisingly the vehicle had some crazy lights. It looked as though a retro pub had directly jumped out of an old Bollywood movie.
Because of the early dawn some of us were hungry within half an hour of our journey. So we took tea break & couple of group clicks as well. One major decision made was to select the best camera to tend our photographic needs.
Next pit stop was Kamath Upachar near Hassan for break fast. It was worth spending extra bucks for those really good Idlis & crispy Vadas. Believe us they were really good. We are from Udupi, so we know our Idlis & Dosas.
After a few more random pics and with the help of some people of the local villages we finally reached our reserved Home stay MakkiThitta(Best available one with our budget constraints) around 10.00 AM.
We were welcomed by Home stay owners Tejpal uncle (Known for his Card tricks) & ever smiling Aunty with Coffee (Made from their estate grown Coffee beans). We relaxed till afternoon accompanied with some Badminton and a round of jibber jabber. We had our lunch around 1.00 PM which included mostly South Indian dishes like rasam, sambar, rice & fried rice which were lip smacking. By the way they cook only Vegetarian food & this was one of the reasons we selected this home-stay.
It was time to get wet & dirty. We jumped into the Mud Volley ball court (Must say it looked pretty unique, moreover we don’t find something like that in the city). Initially we were a little hesitant to get in but once we started playing, there was no looking back. We spent a couple of hours playing there before heading to the nearby water stream for cleanup. After having tea in the evening it was time to enjoy Sun set. We climbed the nearby coffee plantation to click a few more snaps during sunset.
The Temperature started dropping as we came back to the Home stay. Weather was just perfect to enjoy Campfire & we wasted no time in getting music going as well. No better way to relax than campfire with some hot bajjis(chilly & banana), spicy music & some local(Annamma) steps.
Again it was time for some delicious food, as roti, sambar & spicy chutney(Missed mentioning it in Lunch menu) was waiting for us. After dinner we gathered to showcase our card playing expertise, but it never took off, we were just eager to hit the bed.
Day 2: : As planned earlier our day started by 6.30 AM .We were completely charged up for a memorable day & thankfully it turned out to be one. After savouring some hot coffee we started the day playing Badminton, in fact it turned out to be a tournament & one of us was seriously showing off some skills and not to mention got a little too aggressive as well :-). Probably the trip away from the city caught the sportsman in him.
Breakfast at 9.00 was just what we needed. We had Pulav & a typical local dish made of rice flour (Not sure how to describe this typical Malnad dish. Its called Pundigatti in local language). After some discussion with Uncle on our day’s plan, we decided to trek a hill which was 15Kms from the home stay.
Around 10.30 AM we started the trek. Not a tough one [no steep hills]. It was a nice place for some quality cousin time & to burn out the camera memory. In no time photography and modelling skills were all on the way.
There was a small Bhyraveshwara(Lord Eshwara) temple below where we had parked our vehicle & it was clearly visible from the top just to guide us in getting down.
This temple is around 700 years old. It is constructed only with the help of stones. Its a beautiful place to sit and relax.
It was not a typical winter day with Mercury level rising to high twenties as we headed down. On the way we decided to visit the waterfall, actually it disappointed us as we could not drench ourselves, thanks to the shitty area around it :-(
Thinking about the menu for lunch, we reached our place. And it was not disappointing, we had some hot parota's, rice, sambar & watermelon. We even asked for the previous days leftover Spicy chutney...
We decided to skip Manjarabad Fort which was a part of our initial plan, as some of us had visited it earlier. After some post lunch chit chat, we hit the mud volleyball court one last time. This time the mud field had more water that was enough to tempt us. We even displayed some Kabbaddi skills, that only meant to pull down every one to the water. Hands down, it was the most memorable moment of the trip..
We had to leave the muddy court, though unwillingly, to the water stream for the final cleanup. This was followed by Aunty hosting us with coffee & some hot bhajjis one last time.
We wrapped up the trip by thanking Mr. And Mrs. Tejpal for their hospitality and yes, settling the bills as well.
Snaps:
MakkiThitta Homestay view from Balcony
View from the top of the Hill
Bhairaveshwara Temple
Mud Volley ball Court
Sun Set from Coffee Estate
