Day 1: Bangalore – Sakleshpura. - Manjarabad Fort - Makkithitta Homestay

The preparation for the trip went all the way till 12 in the night on 23^rd. This had its effect in starting the trip. We were able to start from Bangalore on 24^th only at 9 after having breakfast at home. When a trip starts late in the day, the enthusiasm dips to certain levels. This made us think for a while as to should we postpone the trip to 25^th but not wanting to waste a day because of delay we headed straight towards Sakleshpura, our first destination on the trip.

The instant we hit the NICE road, winding roads towards Kunigal and all the way till Hassan highway road is very good. The car just cruises along. Though there isn’t anything scenic on this road, the drive itself is quite comfortable. Since the road itself was a delight to drive on we dint have any stops until we reached Chennarayapatna for Tea and an ice candy.

This ice candy is more like a juice filled in a small polythene cover and sealed on both sides and frozen. It reminded me of my summer holidays where the highlight of the holidays was to wait for the candy man to get this juice candies which would cost not more than 50 ps. While I was reliving my summer holidays, Vivek found his summer delight, the green tender ground nuts.

The Manjarabad Fort

Aerial View of the Fort

After a small nostalgic break, it was time to move on. Our next stop was at the Manjarabad fort, which is located just outside Sakleshpura on NH 48. This fort was built by Tippu Sultan and history says that there is a tunnel built which connects this fort with the fort at Srirangapatna.


With few snaps taken at the fort and a rumbling stomach we headed to “Makkithitta” home-stay.

Located at Donahalli enroute Mudigere it’s a place reaching which needs careful driving. The local people would not recognize it as Makkithitta, you could ask for Mr Tejpal’s house. He is the owner of the homestay and heard that people would recognize the home stay by his name. The location of the home-stay is the best thing about the place. Its at the tip of a coffee estate overlooking the paddy fields all of which belongs to the home-stay owner which in turn would mean that people can access both the coffee estates and the paddy fields.

We had a room in the first floor of the house with a balcony common to the other three rooms in this floor. Nothing can be more relaxing here than sipping hot coffee in the balcony with green paddy fields right in front and a thick forest acting as it backdrop.

View from Makkithitta Homestay

After a basic lunch at the home-stay around 4.30 we went for a very peaceful evening walk in the paddy fields along a small stream. We could hear nothing but ourselves and sound of the stream. Once back at the home-stay, we were greeted by yummy hot chilli bajjis with a campfire. Before we realized it was time for dinner and hit the sack after a long day.