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Chembra peak trekking

Everyone will be interested to go for a trekking especially once you are frustrated with work, city traffic etc.Trekking will give some good fresh air little bit adventure and sight seeing, making  new friends etc.
Here I am going to tell about a beautiful place which is the highest peak in Wayanad,around 2100 m high from sea level. Its part of Western Ghats,and once you climb the peak there is a heart shaped lake. It will give you a mesmerizing view ,you should visit at least once this place if you are a travel buff.

I have visited chembra peak on last December, my aunts house is in Meppadi, Meppadi is the nearest town ship to chembra.Its around 10km far.Me  and my cousin Geo did an early morning trek to chembra peak. You can go by your own vehicles till the forest office, from there you have to get the pass for the trekking and after that no vehicles are allowed.

For the trekking pass it will cost around 750rs for group of 10 peoples, but if you have gone as single person or two,you have to pay the same.So better to go as a team. Actually we have clubbed with some other team as they were having only 4 people  in their gang.Forest officers won't allow the clubbing of teams , so don't do it in front of them.
Forest officers provide  a guide for a group of 10 people, already the route will be visible as foot line
so you can go by your own if you want.

We took around 2 hr to climb the peak and 1.5 hr to climb back. It was an awesome trucking experience.You should go and explore it.
Best time to go is November to February
before the grass dries and not in the raining season


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Manjarabad fort sakleshpur sunset view

Manjarabad located in the sakleshpur town premise itself, just 4km from sakleshpur town. After visiting kadmaney tea estate we rushed to manjarabad fort because we planned to view the sunset from this fort.luckily we reach around 5 and fort will close by 6 that we are not aware so those who are going they can plan accordingly. If you're doing donigal tunnel trekking manjarabad fort is on your way back to sakleshpur.
Now little bit history about this fort,Its constructed by the mugal empire Tipu Sultan with the help of french architects he want to create a unique fort  as he was fighting against british east india company at that time with the help of french army. So this fort constructed in star shape, you will not get that view if you stand near to the fort to get the correct view it should be a helicopter view or view from some adjacent hills

And there is one more interesting fact about  its name, manajarabd means covered by snow or manju in kannada this place used to be covered with snow in the winter time thats why they named it as manjarabad fort.
Another interesting thing is this fort have connectivity to srirangapatana fort which is far by 150km
So if you visiting sakleshpur this historically important  place you should never miss, happy tripping
Pic courtesy : Nishanth
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Halebidu hoysaleswara temple hassan bike trip

After visiting belur we have planned to visit the next famous hoysaleswara temple which is also proposed as on of the world heritage site by UNESCO, Its around 12km far from belur.
The kannada  word halebidu means old home or old city, as its name indicates it was capital for hoysala empire in the period of 12-13th century. This temple was built in around 1120AD.
Same like belur here also we can see the architectural legacy. each wall of this temple is covered by different sculptures interesting thing is none of them are unique,dancing women to different type of animals.


And we can see a big nandi statue in the temple, Its created using a single stone.
this place also crowded with tourists and devotees.

belur and halebidu you should never miss if you are interested about the history,peoples lived in olden times. this places you can cover either in your sakleshpur trip or chikamagalur trip[ Its default trips for all banglurians] because this place is close to both the routes. 
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Bisle ghat view point bike ride

Sakleshpur : On day 2 early morning 5 'O' clock me and my buddy started our bike ride 2 our first destination of the day. Its  bisle ghat view point.It was an unforgettable bike journey raining mist in the road will block your view but but you can see and feel the beauty of nature. If you're fed up with the work and traffic in the city you need to fresh up your mind this early morning bike journey will be the best.

From sakleshpur it took around 1 and half hour to reach the view point, This bisle ghat view point road will directly connect to kukke subramanya temple, Its around 25 km from bisle ghat view point, this route is going through the bisle reserved forest.
There is no proper network in some of the areas so its better to download  and keep the offline map.
Its better to go as a team rather doing a solo ride, you will be alone in the road so it will always helpful if you go as team,if something happen to vehicle, animals problem etc. we didn't faced any of these issues in the road, but precaution is better than cure
From bisle view point you can see these famous mountain ranges in Karnataka 
 kumara parvatha,enni kallu,patta betta

Bisle ghat early morning bike ride video

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Belur chennakesava temple visit hoysala architecture

We have planned to visit belur after covering sakleshpur, belur comes in our way back to  hassan from sakleshpur, its around 36 km from sakleshpur. belur is historically important ancient hindu temple  constructed by vishnuvardhana(vaishnava) in the name of chennakesava.

Belur was the capital of old hoysala empire.nowadays lot of people are coming to this place  for praying and  seeing the architectural excellence
Belur is proposed as one of the world heritage site by UNESCO.
There are so many guides who will be explaining about the specialties of each and every sculptures mostly foreigners uses these services
If your visiting the hoysala architectural temples for the first time you will get surprised  and you may knock yourself with somany questions
how they made these sculptures and structures in single stone ? , how they used manpower like this ?

It took around 100 years to construct this chennakesava temple.
Temple & archeological department maintaining it in well organized manner
We have covered belur and planned to visit the next hoysaleswara temple halebidu which is 12km far from belur
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Shettihalli church gothic architecture 20km from hassan

Hassan : After visiting belur and halebidu we have planned to go to shettihalli church.This church built in 1860 in french gothic architecture by french missionaries and its abandoned   after the construction of  hemavathi dam.So in monsoon season once the dam get filled up with water the demolished church will get merged into water. half merged  church is famous for its  view but when we visited the church it was submerged  from water and we were able to go near to the church and see the architectural excellence.
This place is around 22km from  hassan and google map can help you to reach this place and check with someone and make sure you're in the right route


We reached shettihalli around 4 O clock there was couple of other bikers who are exploring this place once we reached this place. Heard from the localities that this place used for some kannada movies shooting. This place looks good for pre /post  wedding photo shoots. And one sad thing is this place is not maintaining at all you can see the plastic waste everywhere.
we spend around 1 hour in the place and wind up our day.
This is another picture of the bridge near to hemavathi reservoir

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Kadmane tea estate visit sakleshpur

Kadmane Tea Estate :Its one of the oldest tea plantation present in sakleshpur, after finishing donigal trekk we have planned to cover this place because our next destination is manjarabad fort so next place should be near by so we can reach there by 5 O clock and we can enjoy the sunset. we started from donigal around 12 O clock and set map but we missed the proper road in between that road is not proper if your riding a bike then its fine but if tis 4 wheeler its not good idea to take that route,
but  road works were happening there hope it will be fine now. While coming back we took the correct road its good road.
In kadmaney you can visit the tea factory and check how  they are making  tea powder, but its allowed only on  sunday, other days they won't allow vehicles inside but you can walk into the plantation and see the things.
By the way we were so hungry and time around 2.30 we thought to have lunch from there we saw a small hotel forget the name we got awesome mangalore style meals from there
.

Inside kadmane tea estate if you are going by walk you can see the tea factory workers home, most of them are from Tamilnadu/ Karnataka. tea company has provided them quarters. If its not Sunday its not a good idea to visit this place because you wont be able to see the tea making process etc.
but its calm and quite place to roam around.


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