My weekend:400 years old Banyan tree and Manchinabele Dam

[spider77]

Hi This is my first trip in my Baleno. Trip to 400 years old Banyan tree and The Dam , nearly 40Km from my house.Planed to go by 7 in the morning with my wife son and two of my friends, as expected we started by 8:15 (1hour 15minuted late), Got the air and fuel checked at the nearest petrol pump (CV RAMAN NAGAR).journey was quite pleasing as it was holy and there was no trafic problems at all. Reached the Mysore road and was so happy to drive this monster machine, its an awesome road ,i could actually feel the strength of the engine , its quick and very responsive.We stopped in front of RV Engg. College to have the breakfast at the udipi hotel. after having our breakfast we enquired bout the route from the shopkeeper and started again, Hardly after 5 to 6 Km we locted the dental college from where were suppose to turn right,with this turn end the pleasure of driving the baleno , the road to Banyan tree is horrible Infact I will say there is no road at all just the rocky surface the car was just shaking from every directions , we were draging our car at 20kmph and I was just waiting for the Banyan tree now , and finally after half an hour we reached this place, It was intersting to see this tree though it doesnt
look like a singl tree (As they say its 400 years old and spread on 3 acres).but definetly a different kind of place to visit . from here i wanted to go to Manchinabele Dam actually i was intersted in the river
We started from Banyan tree toward the Dam , now again we were on some really bad road and just moving ahed askin the ppl around abou the Dam.After covering around 8 kms we finally got to see the river.. thats it
now i just stoped my car and walked toward the river .We felt so relaxed here , took snaps , spent arond 1 hour near this river and we were fresh and full of energy again. Now we started back , droped the idea of visting the Dam
and move back to bangalore. we All were feeling hungryas it was already 1:30 by time we strted from there. at around 2:30 we reached the Ulsoor Lake, Next to Gurudwara there is nice Dhaba , we had our lunch and with a glass of lassi said bye to the place and reached back.

Distance covered nearly 100 KMS.
Fuel: normal Unleaded Petrol 9 lts.
half the journey on AC


will post the Pics soon
Karan

[vid6639]

I had been the dam last year. the roads at some stretches were really bad. but on the way back I took a different route. this road joins at magadi road west of chord road. that road was much better than the detour of mysore road.

And lunch at bobby da dhaba? Simply amazing parathas with the matha(butter milk) yum yum.

[akroy]

I have visited the Banyan Tree twice in last 4 years....Some famous films like Sholay and Raja Hindustani were shot at this place....Also you will find rose garden on either side while going from Mysore (after the McDowells factory) where they export roses as well...we bought excellent rase sapling (for just a mere Rs 10 per piece)...that is still producing nice roses in my balcony...

Wah, you just reminded me of the Bobby-ka-dhaba for its excellent parathas, may be next weekend we will go there....
Abhi

[chanapli]

I too visited the place lastyear after 12 years stay in Blr - Did' know such a place exists next to bangalore.

Tourism dept should advertise and ofcourse make better roads. Another place where there are no roads is way to "Sagama"

[greatDrive]

I did the same trip in 2005 twice( one with Friends & then with Wife).
It was my first long drive outside Bangalore( in my Newly bought Petra).

When I went there second time, I had a chance to see shooting of some south Indian film.

After visiting, I even started a thread on TBHP on how to reach there.
http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/travel...bangalore.html (Trip to "Banyan Tree/Manchinabele Dam(Bangalore)")

cheers

[mobike008]

Nice brief write-up. Sorry to know your good time was short lived due to the bad roads. I personally research the roads to ensure that drives are always smoother

But, sometimes its just not possible

[Samurai]

I visited this place while I was in college, atleast 20 years ago. Like to see how it looks now. Any snaps?

[greatDrive]

Originally Posted by Samurai

I visited this place while I was in college, atleast 20 years ago. Like to see how it looks now. Any snaps?

you can see some snaps posted in another thread on this place
http://img295.echo.cx/img295/3145/aut67244ru.jpg
http://img295.echo.cx/img295/9587/aut67947rz.jpg
http://img295.echo.cx/img295/5643/aut67953jk.jpg
http://img95.echo.cx/img95/6131/aut67761dm.jpg

Cheers

[superavi]

Some friends did that trip on the 3rd of Feb. We took the Mysore road - a firang was with us on a left side gear shift Enfield - with some hilarious, and some not so hilarious moments.

The road was absolutely pathetic while going, but once we were there, we took another route and came back to Bangalore via magadi road. That road, though narrow, was as smooth as a baby's bottom!

Superavi

[spider77]

I actually followed the thread by greatDrive and came to know about this place.Thanks for the thread dude. Here are some pics of the trip,Ill upload the Banyan tree pics soon these are some river pics,

http://img45.imagevenue.com/img.php?..._122_127lo.jpg

http://img13.imagevenue.com/img.php?..._122_224lo.jpg

http://img105.imagevenue.com/img.php..._122_251lo.jpg

http://img132.imagevenue.com/img.php..._122_106lo.jpg

http://img42.imagevenue.com/img.php?..._122_221lo.jpg

Karan