On Our Toes

Verdant hills, rolling meadows with cows grazing, gushing waterfalls and breathtaking scenes at every turn….. if this paints the picture of an idyllic holiday for you, then Sakleshpur is your destination!

I often call Sakleshpur ‘the lesser known sister of Coorg and Chikmagalur’. It offers similar vistas of green hills and blue skies and a countryside dotted with coffee plantations. But outside of Karnataka ( especially Bangalore and Mangalore), few people have heard about it.

I’d first heard about this tiny hamlet from my father, who visited Sakleshpur about 40 years ago as a college student, and was wowed by its rustic charm.

I recently got a chance to explore part of Sakleshpur with him, and here’s my experience.

DAY 1: SHETTIHALLI ROSARY CHURCH

We left Bangalore at around 10 am on a Friday morning. Out first stop for brunch was at Udupi Ruchi restaurant on the Bangalore Mangalore highway.

The road was awesome till Hassan. After that, as per our Homestay owner’s suggestions, we took the route to Shettihalli church, which was a narrow single road. However, the condition of the road was fine.

We reached Shettihalli church around 4 pm. It had started drizzling and we were in a dilemma whether to go and visit or not. Luckily we found an umbrella and decided to go ahead and visit. This was the best decision of the trip.

The church was surreal. It’s just ruins, but the view just stays with you. It’s hardly a 10-15 min walk from the main road, and a must visit destination. It is even worth doing a one day trip from Bangalore to visit this place.

The interesting thing about this church is that it gets submerged during monsoon and then in summer, the water recedes, and you can go till the entrance without any problem. We saw it in its submerged state, and some other time we’ll go and visit it in its full glory during summer.

We reached Dhruv Farms Homestay around 5.30 pm. There was a half km dirt track from the main road leading to it. It had 2 rooms on the ground floor, and a big room on the first floor. There were 3 toilets-2 attached and 1 common. The rooms were decent. However, there are no activities offered by the homestay. Even the promised bonfire could not happen due to rain.

Here, we had some snacks and rested. Then we had dinner and slept for the next day’s adventure.

DAY 2: BISLE GHAT

The next day, we started towards Bisle Ghat view point. There is a ticket to enter into the reserve forest and get to the view point(Rs. 20 per head). It was around 40 km from our homestay and took us around 1 hour to reach.

The view point was mesmerizing with undulating views of the ghats. However, in this case, the journey was as beautiful as the destination. Here are some glimpses:

Other Places to Visit

Mallali Falls: From Bisle Ghat, Mallali Falls is just 25 km, and would take another one hour of your time. We were with a small kid, so we didn’t go there lest he tire himself out. But it’s supposed to be superb, and highly recommended. It actually falls in Coorg district, but better to plan with Sakleshpur trip.

Manjarabad Fort: This star shaped fort built by Tipu Sultan is perhaps the most famous of Sakleshpur landmarks. It was just 10 km from our homestay, but we didn’t visit because we were with a kid, and it’s difficult to climb so many steps. If you have time, it may be a nice place to pay a visit.

DAY 3: RETURN TO BANGALORE

There wasn’t much we did on this day. We had Pongal and thatte idli for Breakfast (both were very tasty) and left for Bangalore. We stopped for lunch at Udupi Ruchi again, and reached Bangalore around 5 pm. Thus, our short trip came to an end.

Sakleshpur is very beautiful, and deserves to be explored for its rustic charm and mind boggling views at every turn