Sakaleshpura – A Splendid ‘green route’ trek

Sakleshapur or Sakaleshpura is a small town in Hassan district  in the Southern Indian state of Karnataka. Its known for two things (I know only two )

- Tippu Sultan’s Majarabad Fort

- The Green route Trek

The plan to go to sakaleshpur was quite old with us. That trip had been cancelled twice, once since sumanth he had an accident on the very evening we were supposed to leave (he took his bike on that fateful day to office instead of office cab) and once more because Ganesh had fallen ill. Thinking that sakaleshpur was jinxed for us, we decided to switch the plan to Kodachadri. Well, again luck wasn’t on our side. This time it was me who was the reason to cancel it. But we didn’t quite give up the idea (after all the stories, photos and blogs about it). We’ll go for the next trip no matter what, we decided and finally on friday night we were at the majestic bus terminal looking for a bus to sakaleshpur.

It was around 8PM when I reached Ganesh’s house in Jayanagar 4th block. We left from there at around 9  (yepp 9!!!), thanks for Sumanth being late and the last minute shopping for batteries and reached majestic by 9:30PM. There, I met Vignesh for the first time – he had reached majestic by 8:45PM. He wasn’t that mad, he knew Sumanth well I guess.

We wished to travel in a ‘comfortable bus’, but not volvo (after that dreadful Infosys accident). We decided to board the mangalore bus, but due to rains all those were routed through madikeri and not through sakaleshpur. We were left with no option but with express buses (saarige). All through the journey the bus grumbled with each dents of the Indian roads and there was a rock band performing in the back of the bus (we thought). We boarded the bus just before few minutes it left and hence could only manage seats near the back tyre. The seats behind us were unoccupied.

We reached sakaleshpur’s old bus stand at around 3:30AM early in the morning. After some searching, we were at our room, tired and sleepy. We were ready by 6:15AM and with a few snaps outside guest house, we headed for the railway track.

There was some confusion regarding how far ‘Donigal’ was. Donigal is the starting point where the trek begins. Some said it was 8Kms from where we were and some said it was just 2Kms. We stupidly asked an autodriver (never ask them if you intend to take their auto). His charge would be more than Rs.100. I guess he didn’t know that were from Bangalore and we ‘knew’ how truthful auto drivers are. I plainly said a ‘NO’ for I knew it wasn’t so far and we started walking along the highway with Ganesh and his younger brother Girish taking a few snaps of the houses and scenery adjoining the highway. After some 20 mins and with no destination in sight we didn’t know what else to do. We stopped an auto in the middle of highway and Sumanth was able to convince him for Rs.60.

We started the trek at Donigal at 7:30AM. The road crosses the railway track through an over bridge near Donigal station and from then on they part ways. We were all very much excited, finally after all the cancellations that had happened before, we were on the track walking the green route. It was too good to be true. The first bridge that we hit was an awesome and scary experience. Walking on the metal plate in the middle of the track on the bridge was indeed scary. Although you get adjusted to the ‘scary’ part as you cross so many bridges, yet the awe remains the same.

Start of the Green Route at Donigal

First of the many overbridges along Green Route

A Tunnel - the pitch black inside cannot be seen in Bangalore nights

Yepp, its breathtaking...

All along the way, the sun was playing hide and seek behind the watery walls of the clouds, which at times leaked. But it dint play spoilsport for we loved it. It added to the mystic beauty of the place. The dripping walls of the tunnels, small streams flowing beside, small waterfalls, the super cool but not cold weather, the chilly breeze, painful legs, the lush green lives, hundreds of poses for the camera, the gossips, the teasing, the songs and the singing, the ‘where-next-to-stop-for-eating’ and the never ending track  all came into one place, the Green Route.

It was around 3:30 in the afternoon when we reached Yedakumari. It was raining heavily. We rested for a while only to know that the only way out through the forest was not possible since the river or the lake or whatever is full. We asked a few of them about ‘is it that dangerous’, they all replied same, it is. I wanted to see how ‘full’ it was, but that needed us to walk for a while (we would have to walk more than half the supposed distance from station to highway) and then turn back (if its indeed dangerous). So that was out of question. We were very tired (not full time trekkers), we did not want to stay there for the night and trek back! to sakaleshpur or trek towards subramanya. We had others plans for the next day. So, after a lot of heated arguments between us and the railway people (station master and some damned guys), hungry and frustrated, we reached back sakaleshpur at 1:15Am early morning.

Next Morning, I woke up with a headache and a few bed bug bites over my body (damn, I dint clean up the bed, I was too tired) only to know from the ‘methi’ that the same episode had happened to some other group just two weeks back (I dint know how to react to this,  why dint he said this before we left for trek yesterday?).  After breakfast, we headed for Manjarabad fort in an auto. The fort was built by Tippu Sultan and is one of the favourite shooting spots.

Manjarabad Fort

Kadamane - Tea Estate

Next, we headed for a Tea Estate – thanks to the previous auto driver who poisoned minds of Sumanth and Girish – nearby (Kadamane) which is open for visitors only on sunday. It cost us 500 bucks in an auto which would drop us back to sakaleshpur after kadamane visit. On the way to estate, the auto driver proudly showed us a picture frame of him with Ganesh (Kannada movie actor), which was taken in that tea estate some weeks back with him being the one of the goondas (he looked so in reality too) who gets his thing kicked by hero. He blabbered all along the way with topics ranging from ‘bad-habits of a Man’ to ‘those movies’ to whatever came to his mind. All I – sitting beside him in the front! – did was to nod, trying to ignore him, wandering my eyes to the surroundings, with my hand hurting, helping me not to fall off and my mind hoping we reach the tea estate soon.

We came back to sakaleshpur at around 6:30 in the evening. The journey back in that fateful auto was dreadful. The auto would shut off every few meters – because of adulterated petrol – and driver trying to get it somehow to start. After an endless of such stop-go, the auto gave up. The driver put us in an another auto which took 8 people! from there to Sakaleshpur.

At the old bus stand, a few buses were already headed for Bangalore, but we still needed to pack up. The next set of buses for Bangalore was at around 10 PM. We went back to guest house, packed up and headed out for dinner, after which we attended a function open to public (only a few people were present in a big hall). The idyllic tone of one of the female singers and the mesmerizing lyrics still sounds in my ears, Sumanth says. After a long wait for ‘comfortable bus’ in new bus stand (we wanted to avoid endless flow of saarige buses heading to Bangalore, the Rajahamsa buses were full), we boarded a ‘supposed-to-be-comfortable-by-the-looks’ private bus only to realize the other way. I hooked onto music and slept, only to be awakened then and now by some stops. We finally reached Bangalore at 5:15 AM early morning.

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