We were planning for a day outing for a long time around Bangalore. After a lot of think-tank, we ended up selecting Bheemeshwari. We booked two tented cottages in Jungle Lodges and Resorts (Bheemeshwari Adventure and Nature Camp) for a one night stay for a family of four.
We were little worried about driving to this place in our VW Polo GT as many reviews pointed out that the roads are in pathetic state and suitable only for SUVs. Finally we thought to try out on our own risk and selected the route whitefield – silkboard – nice road – kanakpura road – halaguru – bheemeswari JLR.
On the day of the trip, we started around 7:00 AM in the morning from Whitefield and our first stop was at MTR, Kanakpura road at around 8:15 AM. Here, we had delicious Masala Dosa and Idly along with some tea and coffee.
We resumed our journey around 9:15 AM and at a steady pace of 60-70 kmph we went till Halagaru. We had to take a left from this place. There is another route which goes via Sathanur but the road condition is worse in that route. After turning left at Halaguru, the bad road started, and we were afraid that this would continue till the end which is almost 17 kms. But then, after going about 500m, to our surprise we saw newly laid out single tar road. This was a beautiful surprise. There is a Forest check-post before entering the forest area where forest officials will check the vehicle and also note down the vehicle details. We did not had any trouble in the Halaguru – Bheemeshwari road. The last 1 km road was broken and had a couple of hairpin curves. Just before we were about to reach the resort, we saw a van honking in some pattern, initially we did not understand why he is doing so in an empty road. Soon we realized when we saw a person from the van coming out with a bag full of bananas and in no time there were hundreds of monkeys around us. We stopped nearby and took some snaps and videos of feeding monkeys from inside our car.
It was around 11:00 AM when we entered the Bheemeshwari Nature and Adventure Camp. At the entry gate, security confirmed with us if we have the reservation for the resort. There is a well spaced parking available for the guests. After parking our car, a person guided us to the reception where we completed the formalities. Then we were offered welcome drink on our way to the tents. Tents are closer to the reception while loghuts are closer to the dining area called as Gol ghar. We were explained how our remaining day is going to be like. Here is the snapshot of the activities –
We relaxed in our tents and hammocks which were just outside our tents before going to lunch at round 1:15 PM. From the tents its almost 500m walk to go to the dining area Golghar. We liked the walk around the trees and flowing Kaveri river. We saw a few langoors as well on our way. The food was as usual JLR type – homely and delicious. We had a good lunch.
After the lunch, we did some photo-shoot beside the river and went back to our tents. Adventure activities were planned to start from 3 PM. There are several adventure activities as mentioned above but we opted to go for only Zip Line which was very enthralling and included four different paths for zip lining. This was obviously the best of the lot. We had lot of fun doing this.
It was already 4:45 PM now, we headed to Gol ghar for tea / coffee and snacks. We had it quickly and went for a coracle ride. It was the most thrilling Coracle ride we ever had. Initially the river water was calm and quite but soon as we progressed, the waves became stronger and started hitting our coracle at high pace. We kept swinging to and fro on our boat and praying for our safety all the way. Ride was almost for 30 mins in the direction of the water current. Then we were dropped at a place where the Jeeps of JLR were available for our pickup. The Jeep brought us back to the resort. The second Jeep brought the boat back to the resort. The ride at the jeep was awesome as the JLR guys allowed us to stand at the back of the jeep.
Next, it was the time for kayaking in the beautiful sunset. We did short kayaking twice and took some lovely snaps.
It was already 7 by this time, we relaxed for a while and headed towards the barbeque party beside the river close to Golghar. It was an nice spread of barbeque both for veg as well as non veg lovers. Immediately after the barbeque, we headed for the dinner. Dinner was plain and simple. After dinner, we walked backed to our tents and relaxed in hammock for sometime and called it a day.
We woke up early morning around 6 and were greeted by tea/coffee and biscuits at our tents. We were also asked to get ready for the nature trek. We freshened up and got ready by 7. Then started our 2 hours long nature walk. We had the same guide who took us for the coracle ride. In the trek we climbed a hill in between the jungles. There is a nice viewpoint at top of the mountain. It was a bit tiring to climb the hill but downhill was relatively easy.
After coming back at around 9 AM, we went straight to Golghar to have our breakfast as we were all very hungry after the tiring and adventurous trek. The buffet breakfast was well spread and there was live omlet and dosa counters. After enjoying the breakfast, we hurried on to pack up our belongings as we had to leave by 10. We left around 10:15 with loads of sweet memories of the place.
Our return journey was peaceful and we were back in Bangalore by 1:15 with a tea break in between. Overall a nice and packed fun-filled day with family. Hope to see you guys soon.
Indranath's Blog 