Wednesday, August 29, 2007

At Bekal on a scorching afternoon, Sometime in year 2006.

View of the fort from the
sea side watch tower

"what the medieval soldiers saw"
view from one of the
watch towers








It was during one of our regular weekend call that Als mentioned that he was to attend a marriage at calicut the next weekend . My home town (Thalassery) was about 2 hours travel from calicut so he suggested we meetup if possible. That was the start.

On the next saturday evening me and Jits were waiting for Als to join us, enjoying the beatiful view of the sea sitting atop Overberry's Folly in Thalassery. In a while Als and Nitin showed up and we decided on our trip to Bekal the next day. The best time to visit Bekal is late evening but that was out of scope as we had to board the 20:30 bus from Thalassery to Bangalore (via Mysore).
Bekal is a 3 hour drive from Thalasery , at 09:00 we set off from my house in my very own maruti 800 (Als Drove it).Picked up Nitin from house and we were at Bekal by 01:00 after a 7up break on the way.

The premises were devoid of tourists as expected and it was hot and humid.
The entrance to the fort is through a corridor with huge stone walls on either side.
Once inside the fort there were scattered watch towers at different altitudes.
The design of the fort clearly indicated that the purpose was defense. checked out each of them, took a snap from the highest tower and we were all alone in a big world for most of the time. Among other things were a well with a bit of water
an underground tunnel which lead to the Sea side.

The sea shore was our main attraction and the view of the fort from the watch tower closest to the sea was breathtaking (no wonder, Maniratnam chose the place for Bombay).

A few snaps of waves hitting the shore and one from the watch tower to cover the view of the fort and then we were done with it With the sun beating down like it was we dint have another option and we had the the bus to catch at 08:30 as well.
We bid good bye to Bekal took the road through Kanhagad town, had malabar Chicken biriyani(not so good) from a restaurant and was there for tea at Nitin's home.

By 06:30 we were back at my home, enough time to board the Bus to Bangalore

Another of that weekend we spent together , Just add Bekal to it , More fun offcourse

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