2 t-shirts - check,
2 shorts - check , essentials - check,
did I forget something? I hope not. Put my laptop and official papers inside my
drawer ,locked it with a sense of satisfaction of putting work behind and I set
sail for a trip which was somewhat impromptu at one point of time but turned
out to be one of my best trips till date. It all started when I recalled my mom
asking me to visit kollur mukambika temple since day one of me setting foot on
Bangalore. It is supposed to have lot of followers in Kerala. All my family members had visited while I couldnt
despite being here since a year. Finally I thought of visiting it so that it
doesn't remain one of those things I couldn't do and will keep pricking me.
Only this time I added two more places which I always wanted to visit -
murudeshwar and gokarna. So a quick plan and the itenary was ready.
First in the
itenary was take a bus to Mangalore. Karnataka has good network of ac volvos
called airavat connecting all major towns in the state. I have frequently travelled
in them for official trips but this time I was really looking forward to get
into it. I made calls to my loved ones before starting off. But my excitement
was a bit scarred when I got a work related sms from my boss. I was sure this
would be a deterrent in my trip though it was a weekend. Corporate slavery.
Sigh! So a cellphone was made to pay the price of my trip as I switched it off.
And it wasn't difficult. All the 'what if' thoughts were put to trash and the
driver hit the accelerator. The bus reached early morning to Mangalore and I
had to switch bus to kollur. I was still in sleep while all this happened but
sparkles of rain water woke me up like a stubborn kid and I opened my eyes to
see why it wanted me to be awake. And the reason was totally justified. Had I
slept off I would have missed the lush green earth made stunning by the rains.
The bus cut through the rains as I stuck myself to the window in awe of the
sight outside through droplets of rains on the pane. I suddenly realized I had
missed a very important thing in my checklist - the umbrella. I think a
checklist for checklist is what I need in my next trip.
So I got down
from the bus early morning and checked in a small hotel – ‘kairali residency’
which was fortunately neat. All I had to do here was freshen up, visit the
temple and check out. And I did just that. As I entered the temple premises for
once I thought did the bus bring me to Kerala. After moving at a snail's pace
through a serpentine queue, I finally got darshan. Although I am not very
religious, it felt complete and came at the right time. Fortunately it wasn't
raining, and I had a quick breakfast at adigas and the raingods weren't kind
enough now as it made me strike off one more thing in my checklist that should
have been. I got an umbrella which I doubted it will survive such rains.
Nevertheless! So kollur visit was completed and very quick indeed. I went to
the local bus stand and enquired buses to murudeshwar. Got to know there's
none. So I had to take a private bus to bayandur , again a govt bus to bhatkal
and from there an antique mahindra van (still didn't find its name)to
murudeshwar.
Temple is closed
from 1-3 pm. So I decided to kill time having lunch at naveen beach restaurant.
Great view and simple food. After that I went to a highly recommended ‘konkan café’
in the RNS hotel. Sipped cold coffee and enjoyed a breathtaking view of the
ocean blurred by heavy rains. It was time for the temple to re-open and fortunately
the rain stopped as if it never rained. The entry is from an 18- storeyed
spectacular ‘gopura’ tower. I paid 10 bucks for a lift ride till top. From
there you can view the famous Murudeshwar Shiva statue through a small grilled
window. I risked putting my hands through the grill and clicked a shot of the
statue. It was worth the risk. You will know. The mammoth statue will make you
so small and feel humbled. There's a cave below the statue which has fabulous
claywork depicting stories of lord Shiva and Ganesha. There's a running Kannada
commentary that runs continuously which speaks about the story. I couldn't
understand a thing; it should be in Hindi and English too. As I left the temple
it rained profusely and my umbrella came handy. I got into a rick that took me
till the bus stand. And again there's no direct bus to Gokarna. I had to change
bus from kumta and I finally reached gokarna just before sunset.
I took a rickshaw from the stand to kudle
beach where I was planning to stay at ‘sunset café’. Sunset cafe was my second option,
as the most popular option namaste cafe at Om beach was already full. If you
plan to visit, stay at one of these places. During off season most of these
shacks are closed while namaste is open. So plan your visit between October and
April. I got down from the rick and trekked down from there to reach kudle
beach. All beaches in gokarna have to be accessed on foot trekking down from an
altitude from the point last accessible by automobiles. As I reached the heavy
rains had already swallowed the beach and there were no place open to stay so
there goes my plan to stay near beach for a toss. I climbed back again with my
poor umbrella struggling the heavy lashes of rain and wind to protect me. I
reached the top and took a rickshaw to a hotel away from beach as I didn't have
a choice. Not recommended at all, if you are in gokarna you have stay on the
beach.
Got up early
morning to visit a very famous gokarna mahabaleshwara temple and after that started
my trail of trek and beaches for the entire day. First stop the gokarna beach
at town. It was very dirty and not at all worth your time. I trekked from there
to kudle beach. It starts with a normal road and slowly converts itself to a
small path going upwards. I was exhausted and a good Samaritan passing by gave
me lift on his bike voluntarily. He dropped me at a place, from where I walked
more and you finally reached kudle beach. I could see the beach today and
couldn't believe it didn't exist yesterday. From there I trekked a cliff to
reach the most popular beach in gokarna - Om beach. It is named so as it is
shaped like 'Om'. I got into the popular ‘namaste café’ for my breakfast. It is
just at the start of the beach. Good place to relax and lay back and enjoy the
sea and food. I ordered Spanish breakfast which has a Spanish omlette, toasts,
hash burn and a juice. I also ordered a recommended nutella pancake with cold
coffee. Both were good. I knew I had to come back for lunch here.
I walked through the beach as it seemed the
waves were talking to me. As I crossed it and was just about to start my next
trek to ‘half moon’ beach it rained and I realized I had lost my umbrella in
the rickshaw this morning. I took shelter in a nearby abandoned shack and
waited for the rain to subside. Two more travellers joined and gave me company
till it was time to venture out. I began my next trek which turned out to be
the best one in my life. Its a trek from Om beach to half moon beach . I was
planning to take a safer route as the riskier one would have been slippery as
it had rained. It went parallel to the sea and just one step away for you to
fall into Indian Ocean. But fate has it ways as I lost my way and unknowingly I
took the riskier route. It’s quite something that you just follow a path made
by strangers who traveled before and trust them blindly while you cannot trust
even the closest people in your life. Trekking through this path will take you
to a point from where you can have a spectacular view of Om beach. It’s a narrow path running at the edge of the
hill surrounding the sea. Be careful not
to get swayed by the magnificent sight and lose a step. After a while you trek through
bushes, jump down at few places, use both hands and feet to climb and finally
reach a small beach called half moon beach. I sat here for a while on one of
many rocks around to see waves trying to fight these huge rocks.
From
there I asked a villager the way out, he said something I didn't understand and
I went that way he pointed out which started with just rocks which I had to
climb through. Then I walked up a hillock through a not so developed path and I
realized probably it wasn’t a popular path. I still went ahead as I didn't want
to climb down from those rocks and I couldn't have. I was huffing and panting
as I pulled myself through this torturous route which went through forest like
surroundings. I could hear wild birds hooting. My thoughts got hallucinated and
I started worrying about wild animals. I was dead tired and wished someone
could just pick me and put me out of this forest. I couldn’t stop too fearing
wild animals. I didnt even know if I was walking out of the forest or further deeper. Never take this route. Never! It was a really long and tiring
walk till I found a human soul. I asked him the way and he said 4 more kms to
hit main road. The path got better and after walking some more I saw a road. I
felt like Robinson Crusoe for some time. I sat beside the road and emptied my
water bottle. I breathed heavily to kill my tiredness. Truly living is nothing
but to keep breathing.
I waited for a rickshaw but it didn't come and
a virtual me gave me a hand to make me stand up and walk again. I walked for
another couple of miles and reached Om beach again. I went straight to namaste
cafe for lunch and decided to not move even my hair for the rest of the day. I
had some yummy prawn curry with rice. Simple and best. After a couple of hours
I decided to hit the beach and spend time there till sunset. I wrote all that
you have read now as I sat on the beach with sound of waves in background.
Looking back as I am about to sign off from gokarna seeing the sunset , I have
to say I was oblivious to the world outside, unaware of time as I had forgotten
my watch, cut off from whatsapp, Facebook, Google maps throughout my trip and
all other new world pleasures. I was completely dependent on random strangers
and public transport to reach places, to ask what time is it and for the
occasional lifts. And yet somewhere...I was free!
P.S. :
1.Pics for the trip can be found below:
2. People have a tendency to give strange looks to solo travelers, keep calm and keep travelling!
3. There are direct buses to Murudeshwar & Gokarna, my trip was longer since I included Kollur too
4. Carry a lot of cash, there are no ATMs on the way to beaches.
5. Only take the trek from Om Beach to Half Moon Beach if you are short of time. It simply cannot be missed.
6. Go during season, you can do much more things in Gokarna
