Finally the long awaited holiday time.
We left for Gokarna in Bus this time. The State transport bus picked us up at about 9:10PM from Anand Rao Circle and we soon were into the traffic through Yashwantpur, Jalahalli,Peenya till we touched Tunkur road.
The road was clearing up and the weather was cooling down. the bus stopped at a Dhaba for dinner. We had finger licking Butter roti, paalak paneer and dal fry with deep fried chilli.
post dinner, the bus left and I fell into a happy sleep.
At about 5am, we were hitting the roads through Yana, Kumta and finally to gokarna.
Fresh from the beautiful foggy weather, we planned to walk through the town first. Early morning scene in the town would remind you of the tele serials of malgudi days and lokmanya Tilak, old houses, men in dhoti, women in saree and most activities revolve around temples. We saw tribes selling flowers and sound of the conch shell and bell from the temples around along with chanting. As we took a left lane, we reached the “Kotitheertha”. Huge lake, silent, people praying and bathing…it looked beautiful.
There was a picture of a crocodile on the gate, did not understand what it means since the script was local.
Once done, we walked around and took the other way, saw a library on the way and finally started climbing. We trekked up to watch the coastline and then climbed down to the Kudle Beach. The Beach is desolate at this time of the year except for a couple of places to stay. The gokarna International is one that is open all year round. this place on the whole is just not a great place to stay. just beside this place is the Umamaheshwari Guest house. That is where we checked in. Pocket friendly and cosy place to stay. We spent the day in Kudle, walked around the beach, bathed in the sun, enjoyed the rain and finally sat through the evening counting stars and listening to the waves.
Next day was the day for the beaches. We hired a fishing boat and sailed up to the midsea and go around the coasts. We went to the almost desolate paradise beach and the beautiful half moon beach. Monsoon and off season is the prime reason for the beaches being comparatively empty. There are no shacks as well in huge numbers. Gokarna Beach and Kudle Beach has a couple of places open on the whole.
Once done with all the beaches, we said goodbye to the fishing boat in Om Beach.
At Om beach, we checked-in to the only abode “Namaste Cafe”. This place is open all year round and has accommodation from Rs.2000/- to Rs.300/- per day. Since it was already evening, we did not do much other than enjoying the sea breeze sitting at the restaurant along with awesome seafood.
Next day was very early. I watched the sun rise sitting at the restaurant rim of Namaste Cafe. I watched the day break, the fishermen go to deep sea, tourist start coming to the sea, cloudy sky darken the horizon and the start of the rain. It rained all day and I enjoyed my Novel with amazing Lemon n ginger tea and more seafood. Late afternoon, the rain subsided when we packed our bags and walked up to take an auto and go around the town again to see the Mahabaleshwar- Mahadeva temple, the Ganapathy Temple and the Mahabaleshwar Beach.
In the late evening, we had a good sumptious North Karnataka meal and took our bus back to Bangalore through the rainy roads.
We were back to Bangalore at 7am.
