Bekal Fort - Kasaragod

Bekal Fort is one of the key attractions of Kasaragod (located 15 kms from Kanghangad in Kasargod district) and North Kerala. One should certainly not miss this place if you are in the region. Many of the superhit movies like Bombay of Maniratnam, Omkar and A were shot here.

Whiling returning from Kannur we planned to visit Bekal Fort which is around 93 Kms. Because of small roads it took more than 2 and half hours for us to reach Bekal Fort. We reached Bekal Fort at 2.00PM (which is not recommended time to visit this place) and spent couple of hours around the fort. 
 

The fort is spread over 40 acres and is well maintained by archeological survey of India. This is one of the cleanest and well maintained fort in India. In fact a part of the fort is converted into Garden. Some important features of the fort are the water tank with its flight of steps. The fort was built solely for defence purposes, unlike other Indian forts which also had the residence of the royalty.

The view of the Arabian sea from the strategic locations of the fort gives a remarkable experience to the viewer. The best time to visit the fort is after the rains, that is from  September to November. The entire region is filled with green grass, the green brown colour combination gives a true delight for the cameras.

Sunset at this place will be awesome but we were running short of time to witness it, since we decided to drive back bengaluru on same day we didn't waited for sunset. 

Nice and one of the must visit places. But should plan in winter that to for sunset. Better to avoid visiting places around coastal region in summer, because of heat we will exhaust very soon and loose interest to enjoy the beauty of place. 

Over all awesome trip and enjoyed the long weekend with long drive :)


 

Theyyam Festival @ Thillankeri

Main intention of planning this trip is to be part of Theyyam festival, and to be part of this wonderful tradition.

After experiencing beach drive on the beach we reached the place where this play was going to began. The festival run entire night with wonderful dance performances.

About Theyyam Festival: 

Theyyam, also known as Thirayattam or Kaliyattam, is an exceptional form of dance coming from North Kerala. Majorly performed in the districts of Kannur and Kasargod, it glorifies Goddess Kali. ‘Theyyam’ comes from the Malayalam word, Daivam that means God. Instead of being a stage performance, Theyyam takes places in the open infront of the village crowd generally. The dancers decorate themselves with colorful costumes and heavy makeup while enacting the divine. 

Special thanks to Rahul for giving us an opportunity to witness this wonderful festival and organizing for this trip.  

After experiencing the fantastic festival, we planned to visit Bekal Fort in Kasaragod before reaching Bangalore.

Drive in Beach (Muzhappilangad Beach)

The Muzhappilangadu beach which stretches across 4 Kms of hard sand where we can drive our vehicles for the entire length. This is said to be the largest drive-in beach in Asia. It has a long stretch of drive-in sea shore. Nature has blessed this place with scenic beauty peppered with lush greenery all around. 

Beach is located about 15 km from Kannur and 7 km from Thalassery. Muzhappilangad beach is just a kilometre to the West of National Highway 17.

Rahul suggested us to visit this beach during our stay at his place. We should be very thankful to him, one of his friend Nakul joined us to guide for this drive. 

Entrance for this beach is allowed till 8.00PM after that we cant stay at this place. They will charge 30 Rs. entry charge per vehicle.

We reached the beach around 5.00 PM, witnessed beautiful sunset and very memorable drive across the shore. 

We had some other plans for the evening so we could not spend more time at this place. But seriously it is worth visiting this beach. You will get an unique experience at this beach. 

I enjoyed the drive at this beach & planning to visit again this place without any other plans. Heard about some beach festival here every April and added that to my bucket list. Hopefully will do that in future. 

Once again Thanks to Rahul & Nakul for guiding us and joining us.

Thillankeri

Whenever I plan trip around Kerala my mom’s common question ‘how many times you visit Kerala, what’s special about that place’... My answer always remains same; one can explore this place for life time.

Kerala offers the opportunity to explore the nature’s beauty at its best and leaves everyone in wonder. The tagline, God’s own country, suits it perfectly when it comes to its serene backwaters, never ending tea gardens and palm trees laden beaches. 

This time our visit to Kerala included one more special attraction of Kerala ‘The Theyyam Festival’. Rahul invited us to attend this festival which is going to held at his native Thillankeri. Thillankeri is a town of Kannur district which is around 280Kms from Bangalore. 

Hardly it will take 5 to 6 hours to reach this place depending on Bangalore – Mysore High way traffic. Once you cross Mysore it won’t take much time to reach this place. For Good Friday’s long weekend we planned to visit Rahul’s place. We were group of 4 people (Vedesh, Prajwal & Manju) just to avoid weekend traffic we started early in the evening and reached Thillankeri around 11.00PM.

Rahul offered us stay at his home, when we reached his place we were not noticed the beauty around his place, but morning when he took us a walk around his home we were stunned by seeing awesome place. 

The main attraction was his ancestry’s house: he took us around this wonderful place and let us to capture the beauty of this place in our cameras.  

It’s an wonderful place and one should appreciate the effort of his family in maintaining this place.  

After a relaxing day at his place, plan was to visit drive beach, witness Theyyam Festival & drive to bekal fort.

Thanks to Rahul for inviting us to his home and organizing for this trip.  

One day trekking @ Shivagange

Shivagange (Shivaganga) is rocky hill where trekking and religion comes together to offer you instant weekend getaway. Located just 60 Kms from Bangalore and being well connected by road makes it an ideal tourist attraction. It is said that the hills looks like a ‘Shiva Linga’ when seen from one of the sides. Also it is said that the spring water found here is from the sacred water of ‘Ganga’.

From the religious point of view there are several temples and holy locations like ‘Patalagange’, Olakala teertha, Nandi and Veerabhadreshwara temple in Shivagange. Shivagange is also known as Kaashi of the South. One of the marvelous points to note here is that in Shivagange if you do an Ghee abhisheka in the temple it turns into Butter.

From the trekking point of view, though it not very difficult but still you will face tough challenge in last 2 Kms stretch. Most of the way till the middle or the starting point of the main climb is easy, after which the climb becomes a bit tough with the steps carved out of the hill being narrow at places.

Since trekking can be completed in 4 hours (depends on the group!!), it can be consider as half day trekking. We can plan for this trekking in all seasons (bit dangerous in rainy season as steps on this rocks will be slippery). In summer better to start early morning and get down by 11.00AM.

We planned for this trekking at last moment, since it was a last minute plan only me & vedesh were part of this trekking. Started early morning from Bengaluru, gathered near Gorguntepalya (Tumkur road) and hardly it took 45 mins for us to reach shivagange.

There is a decent parking facility near the temple where we can park vehicles and start our climbing. Started our trekking around 7.30AM, initial climb is not that much tough till we reach Olakala teertha. 

Main challenge starts from this point. 

Almost vertical climb start from here.  

Because of monkeys i could not click more pics of this beautiful place. In this place monkeys are bit wild and it will try to snatch what ever there in your hands. One should be very careful in about there belongings at this place. 

Completed our descending quickly and visited Siddagange as well.

Our main intention was to finish trekking quickly and reach Bangalore before 3.00PM, because on the same day Ind v/s Pak world cup T20 cricket match was scheduled. (How can some cricket fan miss this high voltage match). Indian cricket team does not disappointed their fans too.

Over all it was a quick and nice trekking with decent bike ride. We have many awesome places around Bangalore which is best spot for trekking and Bike ride, Shivagange is one of it which should not miss.