Roads I Travelled

Wednesday, 28 August 2013

Melukote

Melukote or Melkote in mandya district, Karnataka is around 130 Kms from Bangalore and an ideal place for a day trip.Melukote Wiki We started early on a drizzling saturday morning and reached Melkote around 10'o clock after having our breakfast at Kamat. Immediately After crossing Mandya , take the right turn at the sign board of Melkote which is around 40kms from there.The road is pretty good and scenic.

On the Way to Melkote

On the Way to Melkote

Painted Stork

Much to our delight there is a huge lake on the way to Melkote with few Painted Storks and other birds sitting on the banks.

Devotee taking bath at the Kalyani

At the Kalyani

Yoganarasimha Swamy temple Steps

Yoganarasimha Swamy temple

There was a movie shooting happening at this place during our trip.The other places to see in Melukote are Sanskrit
research institute,Raya Gopura, Akka Thangi Kola.

Yoganarasimha Swamy temple

There is lot more to explore in this place than we did and will be travelling to this place soon. This time during our travel on the Mysore road we saw couple of accidents which could have been easily avoided.The first was a couple driving on their motor bike on the edge of the road which was wet due to rains .They skid and fell down and luckily for them no other vehicle was close behind them else the consequence could be worst. We gave them some first aid and water.The second was after crossing Ramnagara Two guys travelling on their Motor bike were fast on that road(The sigh board on that road says 40Kmph), and a school kid going to school,who's around 13yrs of age was crossing the road with his bicycle when suddenly this motorbike guys hit him.All three fell flat .The driver of the motorbike had some head injuries and few bruises ,pillion driver escaped with some minor injuries ,but the kid was the one who was seriously injured.His eye was swollen with many other injuries on his body.We just arrived that spot and stopped our vehicle ,there were few people who already gathered at that spot. Since the kids school was exactly opposite where the accident happened few of his friends came there. His injuries were very bad though not life threatening. All the three were shifted to hospital after sometime.This could have been avoided if those bikers were driving carefully or rather a bit slowly atleast near the places were people tend to cross the roads .(This place already has speed limit sigh boards and one can clearly see people just tend to walk across,) Most of the times i see people driving crazily while travelling and most of the times it the car drivers who do this. Sometimes it is so ironic to see people driving crazily with a "L" (learning sigh) on their car

View of Melkote Town from the top of the temple

Bekal Beach Trek, Kasaragod

An unexplored beach trek on the sandy shores of Arabian Sea.

Bekal Fort is the same place where the famous, Tu He Re song from the Manirathnam movie Bombay was shot .

Bekal Fort

Having Parathas somewhere on the Hassan Highway

Bekal is around 400 kms from Bangalore and 60 kms from Mangalore.

We started from Bangalore by 2.30 in the afternoon and took Hassan road Via Kunigal. Decided to halt

for the night at Uppinangady which is 75kms from Sakleshpur on the Bangalore- Mangalore

Highway.Stayed at Hotel Adithya which is on the Main Road, NH 48, Near the Forest Check post. A

pretty decent lodge , who charged us Rs 728/- for a room with 3 beds and an extra mattress.

Started the next morning and reached Kasaragod by 9.

Stay at Bekal: Bekal Beach Residency,Less than 1km from the Bekal Fort entrance.
Bekal Beach Residency, M.S.Corner, Beach Road
Ph:0467-2275558 , 9447700313.
Charged Rs1600/- For a 2 bed Room, Hall and a Huge Bath Room with a Wall mounted TV. The rooms
were pretty decent and clean.

Trek Started Here

The trek started at Bekal fort, we need to pay an entrance fee of Rs 5/- and an extra Rs 20/- for the Camera

(Optional if you are carrying one).Walk along the forts wall and pass through a tiny gate which takes you to the bastion of the fort. Initially the Guard did not allow us to climb down the gaps in the rocks to reach the beach, since it was risky to stand on the rocks. We convinced him not to stay on the rocks and continue our trek along the Kappil Beach.

Best time to do the trek here would be from Nov to Feb.March is definitely not a very good time to do the trek because the humidity is more and yes we did it in march :(

There is no defined path to do the trek. We started from the Bekal Fort and Climbed down the bastion and walked till we reached Uduma Fishing Village.

@ Bekal Beach

Walking along the Back Water before Reaching the Uduma Village

Backwater Before Uduma Fishing Village

Fishing Boats Near the Beach of Uduma Village

Abandoned boats near the back waters

Climb over the rock bund and walk into the village to meet friendly fishermen and Lovely kids.We walked from the village to the main road.We walked into the town for 1/2 km to have lunch and walked back through the houses inside the villages to reach the beach and then back to the Fort.

Boys Gang...these stones were permanently placed on the ground

Dil Chatha Hai Birds :) @Bekal Fort

Sunset at the @ Bekal Fort

We stayed for some time to see the sunset at the bekal fort before going back to the hotel.

Sunset at @Bekal Fort

Signature Pose @Bekal Fort

Sunsrise and a bird @ Bekal Beach

The total distance we trekked would be around 5kms and is pretty easy except for the heat.Walking through the Village and the coconut trees was more fun and joy.

We came back to the hotel and it rained heavily much to our delight.

The next morning went for an early morning walk to the beach behind the Hotel( Not a well maintained place.Its basically a fish market with all the fishing boats around)

Waiting for the Boats to return back to shore...He later bought some fishes and walked back to the village.

Washed away by the waves@ Bekal Beach

Robber Fly Near our Hotel

View From Chandragiri Fort

Twany Coster

We headed back to bangalore Via Medikere route as we planned for a brief stop at dubbare elephant camp, not before taking a detour to visit the less known Chandragiri fort.

@Chandragiri Fort Bekal

On the way to medikere @ Pusphagiri Forest reserve

Bangalore Palace

Bangalore Palace was built to look like a smaller replica of the Windsor Castle in England,owned by the current scion of the Mysore royal family, Srikanta Datta Narsimharaja Wadiyar.