Bike Ride to Sakleshpur

After bike ride to Leh, it’s been long time went out for a bike ride and personally I would like to go for a ride in winter. Checked with couple of my friends for their plans for weekend and briefed about my plan for bike ride. Seena suggested couple of places and finally we decided ride to Sakleshpur.

We finalised the date and booked Resort near Sakleshpur. Booked Ibbani Resort which is around 30 Kms from Sakleshpur. Initially when we planned for this ride we were group of 6 members, but as always couple of guys dropped out at last moment. Because of dropouts we were not ready to change our plans, we decided to stick to our plan and go for a ride.

Saturday early morning we decided to gather near DG Petrol bunk signal, me, Kiran and Deepu reached spot on time at 4.00AM. Seena left his home on time, but police stopped him for verification…!! He kept his vehicle document in his back pack, took more than 30 mins to reach vehicle docs in his bag. By the time he reached us it was almost 4.45AM…!!!

Finally all set to go, as always Deepu led from front and I was sweeper. First tea break we took near Nelmangala Junction. We decided to not to stop for many breaks and cover as much as possible before it get hot. Next we stopped for breakfast at Kamat hotel near Channarayapattana. We reached our destination well before the estimated time. Initially when we planned we thought it may require 6 hours to reach our designation including all our breaks but we took only 4 hours (including our break)  to reach Ibbani Resort.

Ibbani Resort:

Once we cross Sakleshpur, road towards resort is not so good, but we enjoyed the bumpy roads. Finally reached Resort before the expected time, by the time we reached resort already tents were pitched in (instead of regular rooms we opted of tentsJ).

Our initial plan was to go for a ride on Jeep track to view point of nearby mountain, but one of our bikes had problem and we were not okay to take chance, so we dropped that plan.

We checked with resort people for trekking, but they informed morning they will take us for trekking now it’s not possible. So we thought of spending time in water games.  In resort we will get many water games, they have created one artificial lake and provide activities like Coracle ride (ride on small bamboo made boats), Rope walking, Mud valley ball, etc.,

After relaxing hour in lake it was time to have lunch, came back near our tents and changed our wet cloths and had lunch. After lunch we were not in mood to play any other games, since we were group of only 4 people and need minimum 10 to 12 people to enjoy the outdoor games. 

Deepu tried to fix the issue with seena’s bike for some time. There was a little crack near Engine oil cylinder and oil was flowing from that crack. Pasted M-Seal and left it to dry. Later we decided to go for a walk and spot a perfect place for sun set. Personally I like to witness sun set In Western Ghats (not only me most of the people :P), checked with resort guy about sun set point and started a small trekking.

There was no proper route till the peak and easily we could have lost in that mountain since we didn’t took guide with us, so thought of not taking chance and returned to resort before its get dark. 

Around 7.00PM resort guys arranged for camp fire, it was nice weather and perfect place for camp fire. Had chit chat with friends for some time and finished our dinner and got inside the tents for much needed sleep. 

Day – 2:

We were not in a mood to go for a trekking, since crowd was more in the other team. More over guide told us since the other group is asked them to end up trekking at nearest peak which is around 2KMs; they will be coming back from that point. So we thought of stay back at resort only and do photo session J

After finishing breakfast we started our journey back to Bangalore and on the way planned to visit Manjarabad Fort in Sakleshpur. Reached Manjarabad fort around 1.00 PM, many times I passed in the same road but have not visited the fort before. 

After seeing condition of that fort, seriously I felt its waste of time to visit that fort. Only thing I liked at this fort is view point. At each corner of the fort you can see beautiful view of Western Ghats. 

Clicked couple of photos and decided to start our journey to Bangalore. 

Since time was just 2.00PM we thought of reaching Hasan and stop for lunch. On the way we stopped at Sakleshpur town near one mechanic shop to get issue fixed but it could not helped. Because of bike issue we could not cross speed of 50 KPH so took long time to reach Bangalore.

Over all it’s a nice bike ride after long time. At this ride I remembered one famous saying (forgot where I read this line), “Sometime more than destination which we travel, we like the journey” this was very much true in this ride.

Will write about my dream ride once I complete it… J  Hopefully will complete that ride soon…!!! 

Keep traveling… Cheers… J