[busydrive]

Recently had been on a family trip to Galibore Nature Camp run by Jungle Lodges & Resorts (JLR) and located near Sangama-Mekedatu. This place is around 120 kms from Bangalore. There are many travelogues within our forum that covers this place. Tried to add some information to make it useful for anyone planning to visit this place.
This was our first overnight outing since the Pandemic began and for obvious reasons we were excited. Our team was six adults and a kid and vehicle for this trip was my Hexa.

Booking Experience
Jungle Lodges has recently updated their booking web engine. Result is a pretty unstable experience, this is as of Dec 2021. Hopefully they fix it soon. For example I wasn't able to book more than one room through the website. Finally called up their helpline number and completed the booking formalities.

Trip Packing
Since this was a two days one night package we had to pack minimum stuff. It wasn't much cold there and so pickedup few warm clothes. We were able to fit our luggage into the minimum space that Hexa has after all rows of seating are up. Since the boot area is less we resorted to backpacks and duffle bags.

The onward journey
We had a late start at 9 AM from Bangalore. Depending on which part of Bangalore you are in it will take two hours to reach Kanakapura road NICE road junction and from there this place is another two hours. I missed taking the outer ring road from Whitefield and was stuck on the Kundanahalli underpass Jam. I guess folks staying at this part of Bangalore have to avoid this stretch till the underpass gets completed.
Anyways we reached Kanakapura road junction 2.5 hours from home and then headed towards Harohalli – Kanakapura. Kanakapura road, a national highway, is going through expansion and the condition of the road from NICE road junction to Harohalli was in very bad condition. Earlier this Kanakapura road was one of my favorite drive-n-getaway options. Now I will avoid this at all cost, specially after this experience. Huge pot holes, broken roads, what not – it was a pain to drive on this road. After Harohalli roads were slightly better, specially where you have the new four lane being laid. I was so fed up on this stretch that I didn't take any photo till we reached the deviation from Sangama! Anyways we continued and reached Kanakapura and after the town took the exit towards Sangama. This road was mostly good with some occasional bad patches. There are signage all around. Plus Gmaps was showing the right route.
There is a small ghat section just before Sangama. This had three hairpins. After the ghat section and just before the checkpost for Sangama one has to take right onto a mud road towards Galibore nature camp. Here I had to make an entry in the forest register. The road that leads to Galibore is a mud road but manageable even by sedans or hatchbacks.
Entrance to the mud road that leads to the camp:

There are two sections which are little tricky. Reached the camp site at 2.30PM which was into their lunch hours.
The Stay, Day 1
We started our stay at Galibore with Lunch! Check-in had to wait as we were hungry and the lunch time was getting over as well. After a sumptuous lunch we came back to the reception to do the check-in formalities. We were soon escorted to our cottages which were on the far end of the camp. In a way that was a great option as there were lots of open spaces around our camps and we could have some feel of seclusion and the being in Jungle feel which we were longing for.
Our Tent

Inside the Tent

In front of the Tent



Like any other JLR camp, this one also has fixed set of itinerary which are run very efficiently following clockwise precision by their very co-operative and engaging support staff. We had a river boat ride in coracles that started at 4PM. The boat ride was nice and we could watch a crocodile from close distance. After the boat ride they ferry the guests back to the camp in a Jeep. This Jeep was pretty old but with all functional meters, including the speedometer.
Some Pictures from Boat Ride below:





The Jeep that got us back:


Back to the Camp, we had Tea, Coffee and evening snacks. While the kid went onto play adventure activities I took some time off to just gaze at the river flowing by.
No mobile network meant lot of peace! They do offer WiFi at the Golghar – the common dining space.
In the evening there was arrangement of barbecue and campfire by the riverside and it was pretty nice. The camp naturalists also arranged for star gazing through a telescope.

Arrangement at Beach

Nice old real Lanterns to light up the beach. Having used this in my childhood this was nostalgic to be fair.

Campfire:


A wildlife movie was shown at Golghar at 7.45 PM and then we we had our dinner being served there. Dinner was also good. Post dinner we returned to our tents with an early alarm set for 6.30 AM. I wanted to join the nature walk next day morning.


Day 2


Next day woke up at 6.25 AM. The camp folks had arranged for a wake up call at 6.30 anyways. Freshened up quickly and headed to the Golghar for some Tea.
Early morning view at the camp:


The naturalist was already waiting for us to take us on the nature walk. There were two groups – one opting for a hike up the trail to a nearby hill and other was a walk to the riverside and further into the jungle. We opted for the second one. The trail was nice and easy, even my father who is 70+ could do it easily. We started at 7 AM sharp. The naturalist showed us lots of birds on the way. We reached a river bank where the sand had lot of shells! Post that we went further into the jungle and connected with the mud road that extends till Muthathi. This road is not allowed for general public and is only accessible to Forest staff. We continued waking on that road and crossed a small stream.
Some snaps from our nature walk:


River Bank:

Shells at the bank:

Water crossing:

Jungle roads:

Then started our return journey and were back in the camp at 8.30 AM.
Breakfast was ready by then and we were hungry from the 3 KM long walk as well. Post breakfast we did some cycling within the campus and kid went onto do another round of adventure activities!
Went back to our cottages and got ready for the return journey. We checked out from the camp at 10.30 AM.

Return journey starts:

Return to Bangalore
The return journey till Kanakapura from Galibore was the same route as the one we had taken during the onward journey. Took us 45minutes.
After Kanakapura I took the Kanakapura Ramnagara Road as I wanted to connect back to Mysore road and avoid the torturous Kanakapura road. In hindsight it turned out to be a good decision. The initial parts of this road was freshly laid. Post that it was little patchy but manageable.
Road from Kanakapura to Ramnagara:

Reached Ramanagara in 40 minutes from Kanakapura. Post Ramanagara it was the usual Mysore Bangalore road which is getting developed and has diversions. However the tarmac is good and I will prefer this over Kanakapura road now. Development of the new 10 lane project is still under progress. On stretches where it is completed I was hitting 120 kmph without even realizing it! The completed sections are butter smooth.
I was searching for a good food option on this stretch and I remembered Raasta Cafe where I had been few years ago. A quick search showed the place on a defunct service road and I had to take a detour to reach there. This detour will be tricky at night. This place has still remained the same with lots of greenery even with all the construction mess going on outside it. Ordered their special Pizzas and we were quickly back on the road to Bangalore in under 30 minutes. This is a good option on the Ramanagara to Bangalore stretch. Leaving aside the lunch break we took around 3 hours from Ramanagara to our home at Whitefield but the road conditions were good and the extra distance didn't really matter.

Final words
Our onward journey was 120 Kms. [Bangalore - Kanakapura - Sangama - Galibore]
Return was 150 Kms since we took Mysore road. [Galibore - Sangama - Kanakapura - Ramanagara - Bangalore]
Overall efficiency achieved in this trip was 13KMPL which I felt was decent given the mixed road conditions. Hexa eats up bad roads but that comes at the expense of suspension getting impacted. Hence I decided to drive very slow over the potholes and not just drive over them fast. This trip also had two adults at the last row for the entire to and fro journey. While they didn't complain of the ride quality as bumps were absorbed; they did complain of the body roll which gets prominent on uneven roads.
All in all it was a nice family trip after almost two years. Third JLR trip for me and they continue to impress.

[MobilisAdvento]

Your travellogue gave me a nice reminiscence of my Galibore trip around ten years back. It's a very nice place - Nature at it's best, full of greenery and you can feel the freshness of the air. The pictures show that the place remained almost same as before.
Jungle Lodges are nice places to spend some time out of the busy life, keeping ourselves away from everything. You have written it beautifully, with nice pictures. Thanks for sharing.

[busydrive]

Originally Posted by MobilisAdvento

It's a very nice place - Nature at it's best. The pictures show that the place remained almost same as before.

Glad you liked. This is a very underrated place. Jungle Lodges' Bhimeshwari one is much more popular. The best part here for me was no mobile network and feeling cutoff from the usual chaos. The place is full of greenery and one feels connected to nature. I could spend hours just staring at the flowing Kaveri.

[allinbalance]

Nice and short travelogue, @busydrive! We have a weekend 3 days coming up late January - so let me get in touch with Leelankar at JLR Khanija Bhavan office for a quiet weekend away from rising infections in Bangalore!

By the way - you don't mention any animal or bird sightings - are there any?

[1985Darkkid85]

Nice travelogue, enjoyed this a bit.
A few queries spring to mind.

1. Tariff for 2 adults?
2. Will a hatch like Brio be comfortable on this trail?
3. Do they have any bonfire activity at night.
4. Any alternative route to this, maybe via Mysore road?
Absolutely hate the pathetic stretch in kanakapura Rd.

[pannags]

Originally Posted by MobilisAdvento

Your travellogue gave me a nice reminiscence of my Galibore trip around ten years back. It's a very nice place - Nature at it's best, full of greenery and you can feel the freshness of the air. The pictures show that the place remained almost same as before.

Ditto here, just that the trip we did - was an overnight team outing - happened about 18 years ago. The highlight of our trip was a an hour-long trek up a nearby hill.

[vijaykr]

Very nice travelogue and appreciate the detailed info.

I showed this to my wife and she agreed that we need to revisit a JLR property very soon. Hopefully after the Omicron wave subsides a bit, we'll be able to get out there. She's an avid bird-watcher / animal lover (so are my sons), so any input on this will help. Thanks again

[Biker Ram]

Originally Posted by busydrive

Like any other JLR camp, this one also has fixed set of itinerary which are run very efficiently following clockwise precision by their very co-operative and engaging support staff.
The best part here for me was no mobile network and feeling cutoff from the usual chaos. The place is full of greenery and one feels connected to nature. I could spend hours just staring at the flowing Kaveri.

Totally agree. This place has a secluded and off-the-grid kind of environment which is its USP. For the most part mobile network is non existent but at a particular spot they have placed a table, chairs and few stones on the table. Place your mobile there, and voila it starts downloading Whatsapp, email and all other non-essential stuff. I found senior citizens making use of this place more than the youngsters!


My wife and I visited Galibore almost two years ago when corona was not a global problem yet. We rode on our bike, taking a longer Karnataka-Tamilnadu-Karnataka route, ie Bangalore-Hosur-Hogenakal(almost)-Sangam route. Some stretches were beautiful and scenic for a bike ride, most other stretches were okayish w.r.t road surface but beautiful in terms of scenery and remoteness.

I'm a fan of Kenneth Anderson's books. A lot of his stories are from forests around this belt. The vegetation and landscape is just like how he explains it in the books. Don't miss the morning walks arranged by JLR guys. You can choose either to go up a hillock or walk around close to the river. It was a very nice experience just seeing the pug/hoof marks of so many animals, hearing the jungle sounds and smelling fresh forest air. If you are lucky you may spot some animals, but if animal spotting is your primary goal you will be disappointed. Bannerghatta enclosure is the best bet in that case

Originally Posted by 1985Darkkid85

Nice travelogue, enjoyed this a bit.
A few queries spring to mind.

1. Tariff for 2 adults?
2. Will a hatch like Brio be comfortable on this trail?
3. Do they have any bonfire activity at night.
4. Any alternative route to this, maybe via Mysore road?
Absolutely hate the pathetic stretch in kanakapura Rd.

1. JLR site will have the exact info. For a couple for one night stay it's around 20k or so. Expensive compared to other places, but JLR has a different fan following. I wouldn't mind visiting the same place again.
2. I have seen sedans and hatchbaks make it. There are one or two stretches that are rocky and could be tricky. Most other places it's simple mud track like in the photos busydrive posted.
3. There will be one common bonfire by the river. Best enjoyed fully sober. The night sky, river, and sounds of the jungle - you won't get in a city.
4. Go by Google maps. Often Google turns out very adventurous.

[mytbhp_turbo]

Originally Posted by busydrive

Recently had been on a family trip to Galibore Nature Camp run by Jungle Lodges & Resorts (JLR) and located near Sangama-Mekedatu.

What a scenic location ! Added it to my "places to visit " list near Bangalore.

One thing I noticed and mostly out of curiosity, light on right hand side, above fog lamp is missing ?
( sorry for the question, I generally look at car first before my eyes checks the location...bad habbit :-) )

[busydrive]

Originally Posted by allinbalance

By the way - you don't mention any animal or bird sightings - are there any?

Hardly any. We saw one crocodile in the river at a distance and few wild boars. There were lot of birds though but I wasn't having a good camera to capture those.

Originally Posted by 1985Darkkid85

Nice travelogue, enjoyed this a bit.
A few queries spring to mind.

1. Tariff for 2 adults?
2. Will a hatch like Brio be comfortable on this trail?
3. Do they have any bonfire activity at night.
4. Any alternative route to this, maybe via Mysore road?
Absolutely hate the pathetic stretch in kanakapura Rd.

Biker_Ram has already answered the queries. However their rates have reduced a bit now. Per person was around 4.8K.
On routes I came back via Mysore Road, took Ramanagara from Kanakapura.

Originally Posted by vijaykr

She's an avid bird-watcher / animal lover (so are my sons), so any input on this will help. Thanks again

Yes sir, lot of birds. I was not having the right equipment so couldn't capture.

Originally Posted by mytbhp_turbo

One thing I noticed and mostly out of curiosity, light on right hand side, above fog lamp is missing ?

Yes, it was broken and stolen few months ago from a road side parking. No clue what that person will do with a broken fog lamp!

[amay1283]

Originally Posted by Biker Ram

We rode on our bike, taking a longer Karnataka-Tamilnadu-Karnataka route, ie Bangalore-Hosur-Hogenakal(almost)-Sangam route. Some stretches were beautiful and scenic for a bike ride, most other stretches were okayish w.r.t road surface but beautiful in terms of scenery and remoteness.

Hi,

I am planning to go via the Hosure-Thally Road to Galibore. I will be travelling with my car along with my wife and 3 year old kid. Based on your experience, would you say this route is good to go by? Also any recommendations on rest-stops on the way?