Early December this year, I visited Gokarna in Karnataka having wanted to visit the beaches for some time. It was through a meet up conducted by an organization I’ve come to know recently. There were quite a few people going on this trip and there was a bus which picked us up at various pick up points in Bangalore before commencing for the same. We departed late night and reached late, the following morning.
Gokarna also has some religious significance. Lord Shiva was believed to have emerged from the earth here. Gokarna means "Cow's Ear" and the confluence of 2 rivers here is in the shape of a cow's ear. Cow is symbolic of mother earth and hence the belief that Shiva emerged from the earth here. There are also old stories of Ravana and Vishnu associated with the place, but my visit was purely for leisure and entertainment. Not really dealing with the above subject matter.
Typically, people start their Gokarna visit from Ankola beach which is on the north west coast of the state of Karnataka. We were staying at a resort near Kumta Beach, which is also on the west coast, but to the south of Ankola beach, with Kudle beach falling somewhere in between on the west coast. Rest of the notable and not so frequented beaches of Gokarna are towards an intermediate southern coastline of Karnataka. Although if you were to look at the map of India, you may not find the southern coastline I’m talking about. It will mostly appear to be the west coast of Karnataka. There are inlets of Arabian Sea, at places on the west coast which account for these beaches, if one looks closer.
The resort premises were decent and the staff were helpful and resourceful with everything. The surrounding milieu was also quite beautiful. After grabbing some food and a bath at the resort, we first set off for a fort not far from where we were staying early afternoon. It seemed to have some interesting history, going by the placards placed within the premises, but not any I’d heard of. The fort itself was smaller, compared to the usual size of fortresses. But it had an interesting structure and we had a good time roaming around, taking pics within the walls and of the surrounding green terrain. That was followed by lunch at a roadside joint somewhere near Kumta beach. After we’d had our fill, we set off for the beach at around just before 5 p.m. It was surprisingly hot and dry in Gokarna reaching maximum temperatures of above 35 degrees Celsius compared to 15 - 20 degrees Celsius in Bangalore, at the time.
Kumta beach was not really recommended for swimming for unknown reasons. But we did enter the water anyway. While going deeper, I noticed the top of a rock ahead, mostly submerged in the water. This was the point from where we would have to swim, if we wanted to. So, I did for a short stretch to reach the rock. There seemed to be no tides and the water seemed to be receding a bit, which is why more of the rock was revealed after some time. There also seemed to be some kind of mollusk growth, not uncommon for rocks at beaches. But it was sharp and did pierce the skin at places. There was also another interesting rock visible further ahead, but I couldn’t be sure if there were any rocks submerged in the water in between me and the rock ahead. So, I decided not to swim further on that occasion. Perhaps, that was the reason it wasn’t recommended to swim at this beach. There was a starfish in the sands. Anyway, it was evening, and after playing around in the water, we headed back towards the resort by bus. Kumta beach is a fairly calm beach. Not a lot of activity at the shores. One can observe a good sunset here, in the evening.
On returning, we got rid of the saline water from our bodies with another bath and settled down, some enjoying peace, some conversing, while others were playing games. That was followed by dinner at the resort. We retired for the day, shortly afterwards. Next day was going to be something like trek -> beach -> sea -> trek -> beach -> sea… and so on. We would start from Kudle beach and then head towards the southern beaches.
So, next morning after bath and breakfast we headed out to "Kudle Beach" by bus. It was a very sunny day. Perfect day for the beach. There seemed to be no strong tides and conditions seemed ideal for swimming. There was a lot of activity in the water. Apparently, there are water sports also conducted here. The surroundings of this beach are quite beautiful, with rocks, hills, water and sand stretching for some distance. Great place for taking pictures.
But we wanted to get to "Om Beach" first, without further ado. So, we did. It is a bit of a walk from Kudle to Om beach on a mildly hilly terrain. But we did reach in 30 minutes or so. This seemed to be quite a happening beach too, like Kudle beach. Perhaps more activity than all other beaches. While some others rested and drank at Namaste Café, I decided to enter the water. Upon going quite some distance out into the waters, I just spent time floating about and indulging in relaxed swimming. The gradient of increasing depth of water seemed to be higher at the place I was swimming as compared to Kumta beach the day before, where it was lower. But there seemed to be no great tides and I spent a lot of time fooling around in the water. Upon finally getting out of the water, considering that I intended to get into the water on every following beach, I decided that I would do the rest of the trek in my swimwear. In any case, it was unbearably hot and I had no intention of changing clothes at every beach, wiping off sand and then commencing on the next trek. We did spend some more time at Om beach climbing some random rocks, walking on the beach and doing other stuff. Observing others do their stuff which was fun too.:)
Then, there was the trail to "Half Moon Beach". It was up the hills and then we had to get down on the other side to reach Half Moon beach. This time, the trek was through some dense vegetation although quite doable and there were some very narrow segments with hillside on one side and a steep fall on the other. But I was focused on getting to Half Moon beach at the earliest. We did stop for some pictures in between. But after some continuous walking, we reached Half Moon beach. Since there is some trekking involved to get here, we didn’t find this one to be that crowded. Maybe it took us about 45 minutes. But there were quite a few tourists too, like Om and Kudle beach. But the sandy stretch is smaller here, nestled below the hills. The sand was too hot to stand on. So, the natural thing to do was to enter the water. Most of us did that immediately. The water levels get deep here, quite quickly unlike Kumta beach. Appeared to be steeper than Om beach as well. We shortly commenced with a game of frisbee in the water. I was forming the deeper water periphery for the “catch and throw” game, both because it was my preference and also because I was best suited to do so in deeper waters if the frisbee were to fall in uncharted waters. But it was great fun. I also spent some time gauging the depth of the terrain below water. It was mostly neck deep water except when the waves crashed in to make it deeper, but at one edge of the watery stretch, the feet didn’t seem to touch anything below. So, there I had to resort to consciously taking action to stay afloat. Upon getting out of the water, we had lunch there. There was some nice place at the back to wash off the sand and take a bath if one desired. Several stray dogs and cats too, waiting for a free meal and affection. Apparently. They seemed to be permanent residents of Half Moon beach.:) There also seemed to be a whale head skull kept near the eatery. At least, it seemed like one. We were also told that at times, schools of dolphins are seen quite close to the shore. After spending some picture worthy moments at this beach, we finally set off back up the hill further down the coast, for Paradise beach. The final destination.
The aim was to keep moving up and swerve a bit to the right before coming down the hill to Paradise beach. But at one point, after some rocky terrain, one has the option of going 3 ways. So, one must select the right one to get to "Paradise Beach", also known as "Full Moon Beach". So, after some industrious trekking, we reached our destination. We had some coconut trees and other kinds of vegetation here. It was late evening when we got there. The depth of water was probably the deepest at this beach. One gets to neck deep water in no time. It also felt colder. The tides were stronger. Even stronger than Half Moon beach. Here, people indulged in random games in the water and I spent some relaxing time floating around and giving some tips to others about swimming, floating etc. I probably did some of that at every beach. This was where we could feel the strength of the waves hitting us. Not many people here, as a fair bit of trekking is involved between Om -> Half Moon -> Paradise beach. There were some tourists relaxing on hammocks. Some seemed to have set up camp here for some time, while others returned to Om beach via a ferry. Someone found a small crab inside a shell. Crabs are known to feed on mollusks. While we were examining it closely, the crab opened its claws wider. I was holding the shell at the time and being a bit surprised, dropped it into the water. The sunset was also great to watch from here. Some of us spent their time, just gazing about from the adjacent rocks. We also eventually boarded a ferry after frolicking about in the water for some time. The only other way back is by trekking. There was also a “Hell Beach" somewhere nearby, although we only saw it from a distance on the ferry. I believe there is also a "God's Own Beach" somewhere. Cool names!
Upon reaching Om beach again, we returned to the resort by bus to freshen up, chat and have dinner before setting off for Bangalore. By bus, like the onward journey. We made it in good time, reaching early morning where we bid each other goodbye for the time being. The trip cost came to about Rs. 4200 /-. If you like beaches, trekking and playing around in sea water, this is definitely a great place to be.
