Gokarna - with Safarnama
I was yearning to travel Karnataka since the day I moved to Bengaluru, and Gokarna seemed to be the best goto place for a first trip. I checked out available options and travel agencies, and got in touch with Safarnama through Thrillophillia.
Safarnama, formed by a group of travel enthusiasts, who themselves have huge travel experience in there repertoire. Although the group is new, however the leaders have good experience before hand.
We started from Bengaluru at around 9 pm on Friday Night, had our dinner on the way and reached Gokarna bus stand overnight at round 8 am. We per put into a small tempo traveler from the bus stand which took us to Gokarna Beach public point where we walked into our rooms pre-booked for us in a beach side shack. That early morning beach walk from the Main Road to the beach shack gave us an idea what's ahead in store.
After refreshing up and having our breakfast, all sun-screened up and having lightened up our back packs, we started to our first beach boarding the same small bus and reached Belekan, a rocky beach which had a small promenade alongside the beach. This beach had nothing much for a person looking for some exotic water experience.
Paradise beach was just something I have never seen before, only on Instagram pics. This ones at par with Seychelles, Maldives. The beach has few rocks and Sandy areas in between, which makes it a perfect spot for rock diving.
The hike to Paradise beach starts from belekan beach, a cement pathway takes you to the spot where we ascend a hillock. In the month of February you'll still find some shade on the way, you'll need it since it's a decent 45 degree up hill climb after a distance. The view from the top is, well, top class, exquisite being a sophisticated word.
You descend at the very spot you star getting the view of the sea, and another steep descend takes you straight at the Rocky spot on the shore. We had a nice half an hour dip, which wasn't sufficient to quench our thirst for more sea vitamin. The shore has a slight incline which causes waves to break with heavy load of water, so make sure to protect your eye glasses. It's like a mini wave-pool, and chances are it will fill your pockets with lot of sand.
This accompanied by some games and a nice group activities, and we bid adieu to Paradise beach until next time. The next spot was Half moon beach, which honestly is a nice cozy idyllic spot to relax but not in the noon, the time we reached, which is true for any other beach, unless you have a canopy of trees shadowing the sand like the om beach, our next destination. At half moon we just relaxed at a shack, freshened up, replenished our water stock and started towards om beach.
The trail towards Om Beach is slightly different from the previous hillock based, since this had a nice route from dried up fields and some In-habitation, a rural backdrop. At the top we paused for some songs and dance, which dual-ed up as exercise. I personally had a stiff back and thanks to the trip leaders I got that sorted out during the break. The leaders Pranshu and Devanshi upped our enthusiasm after the tough climb, tough mostly because of the heat that had as much climbed up in degrees.
We reached Om beach at about 1 pm and headed straight to Namaste Cafe, which is the typical shiv Sagar type hotel for having a decent meal and not too costly. There were other restaurants catering to foreign tourists which served sea food and "Continental" dishes. Om beach due to it's shape of an om Is divided in two sections, the southern section is occupied mostly by foreigners. You'll see them well equipped with beach gear and enjoying the environment just
like any other tropical island. The northern section is where the Indian crowd predominates. There are plenty of water sport activities as well, kayaking jet ski. We had food and took rest below the shadow canopy.
By sunset, we moved forward to Kudle beach, and it was another hike for few kilometers. Kudle is the typical commercialized beach, there was crowd and shacks and restaurants, lot of buzz. The sea is perfect for swimming without the roughness of the Rocky beaches. Sunset was as usual, ever orange hues, the way we are used to seeing on the Arabian Sea. After a dip there we started back to Gokarna town, which is a 4 km walk from kudle, it takes you through the town market place, the Mahabaleshwar temple, gokarna bus stand. The Mahabaleshwar temple is the one that comes up in Ramayan, where Ravan had given his hard earned shivling ( as a boon by Shiva vardan ravan, which when placed at any location would circulate provide power) to Ganpati who came in disguise of a local kid. To perform his evening ritual, entrusted the local boy to hold the ling, however Ganpati kept the ling here at gokarn. Once the ling touched the ground it could not be lifted, which made Ravan enraged and he decimated the ling. The fragments of the ling emerged as as many temples around gokarn, however the original place of the ling is at the Mahabaleshwar temple.
After reaching the shack on Gokarna Beach, we again freshened up, having a nice cold bath and dinner. They had arranged camp fire outside the shack where our group sat till early morning 2 am, our group leader Pranshu gera anchored the camp fire with his voice and guitar, while we chilled around the bonfire with our beers. We ended up in our tents for the day with all the blissful experience of the different exotic beaches we had seen.
The next day morning we had simple breakfast and then someone demoed their skill of rope walking.
Playing beach volleyball was like what Sagar mentioned cherry on the cake.
On the way back to beanglurur, we visited the Mirzan fort another picturesque old monument.
It was a amazing experience, and although it seems hectic, the time spent is nicely spaced out so you enjoy each and every point during the trail to the fullest.
Gokarna beach trek provides you that opportunity where you sweat and enjoy the sweat smell (success) of reaching another beautiful beach. Special thanks to team safarnama, Leaders, Pranshu and devanshi for making this trip a memorable one.
For More such Pictures of the trip:
Subscribe:
https://www.instagram.com/gnaroot/
Also subscribe to My youtube just like that:
https://www.youtube.com/user/eyenandu
Safarnama, formed by a group of travel enthusiasts, who themselves have huge travel experience in there repertoire. Although the group is new, however the leaders have good experience before hand.
We started from Bengaluru at around 9 pm on Friday Night, had our dinner on the way and reached Gokarna bus stand overnight at round 8 am. We per put into a small tempo traveler from the bus stand which took us to Gokarna Beach public point where we walked into our rooms pre-booked for us in a beach side shack. That early morning beach walk from the Main Road to the beach shack gave us an idea what's ahead in store.
After refreshing up and having our breakfast, all sun-screened up and having lightened up our back packs, we started to our first beach boarding the same small bus and reached Belekan, a rocky beach which had a small promenade alongside the beach. This beach had nothing much for a person looking for some exotic water experience.
Paradise beach was just something I have never seen before, only on Instagram pics. This ones at par with Seychelles, Maldives. The beach has few rocks and Sandy areas in between, which makes it a perfect spot for rock diving.
The hike to Paradise beach starts from belekan beach, a cement pathway takes you to the spot where we ascend a hillock. In the month of February you'll still find some shade on the way, you'll need it since it's a decent 45 degree up hill climb after a distance. The view from the top is, well, top class, exquisite being a sophisticated word.
You descend at the very spot you star getting the view of the sea, and another steep descend takes you straight at the Rocky spot on the shore. We had a nice half an hour dip, which wasn't sufficient to quench our thirst for more sea vitamin. The shore has a slight incline which causes waves to break with heavy load of water, so make sure to protect your eye glasses. It's like a mini wave-pool, and chances are it will fill your pockets with lot of sand.
This accompanied by some games and a nice group activities, and we bid adieu to Paradise beach until next time. The next spot was Half moon beach, which honestly is a nice cozy idyllic spot to relax but not in the noon, the time we reached, which is true for any other beach, unless you have a canopy of trees shadowing the sand like the om beach, our next destination. At half moon we just relaxed at a shack, freshened up, replenished our water stock and started towards om beach. The trail towards Om Beach is slightly different from the previous hillock based, since this had a nice route from dried up fields and some In-habitation, a rural backdrop. At the top we paused for some songs and dance, which dual-ed up as exercise. I personally had a stiff back and thanks to the trip leaders I got that sorted out during the break. The leaders Pranshu and Devanshi upped our enthusiasm after the tough climb, tough mostly because of the heat that had as much climbed up in degrees.
We reached Om beach at about 1 pm and headed straight to Namaste Cafe, which is the typical shiv Sagar type hotel for having a decent meal and not too costly. There were other restaurants catering to foreign tourists which served sea food and "Continental" dishes. Om beach due to it's shape of an om Is divided in two sections, the southern section is occupied mostly by foreigners. You'll see them well equipped with beach gear and enjoying the environment just
like any other tropical island. The northern section is where the Indian crowd predominates. There are plenty of water sport activities as well, kayaking jet ski. We had food and took rest below the shadow canopy.
By sunset, we moved forward to Kudle beach, and it was another hike for few kilometers. Kudle is the typical commercialized beach, there was crowd and shacks and restaurants, lot of buzz. The sea is perfect for swimming without the roughness of the Rocky beaches. Sunset was as usual, ever orange hues, the way we are used to seeing on the Arabian Sea. After a dip there we started back to Gokarna town, which is a 4 km walk from kudle, it takes you through the town market place, the Mahabaleshwar temple, gokarna bus stand. The Mahabaleshwar temple is the one that comes up in Ramayan, where Ravan had given his hard earned shivling ( as a boon by Shiva vardan ravan, which when placed at any location would circulate provide power) to Ganpati who came in disguise of a local kid. To perform his evening ritual, entrusted the local boy to hold the ling, however Ganpati kept the ling here at gokarn. Once the ling touched the ground it could not be lifted, which made Ravan enraged and he decimated the ling. The fragments of the ling emerged as as many temples around gokarn, however the original place of the ling is at the Mahabaleshwar temple.
After reaching the shack on Gokarna Beach, we again freshened up, having a nice cold bath and dinner. They had arranged camp fire outside the shack where our group sat till early morning 2 am, our group leader Pranshu gera anchored the camp fire with his voice and guitar, while we chilled around the bonfire with our beers. We ended up in our tents for the day with all the blissful experience of the different exotic beaches we had seen.
The next day morning we had simple breakfast and then someone demoed their skill of rope walking.
Playing beach volleyball was like what Sagar mentioned cherry on the cake.
On the way back to beanglurur, we visited the Mirzan fort another picturesque old monument.
It was a amazing experience, and although it seems hectic, the time spent is nicely spaced out so you enjoy each and every point during the trail to the fullest.
Gokarna beach trek provides you that opportunity where you sweat and enjoy the sweat smell (success) of reaching another beautiful beach. Special thanks to team safarnama, Leaders, Pranshu and devanshi for making this trip a memorable one.
For More such Pictures of the trip:
Subscribe:
https://www.instagram.com/gnaroot/
Also subscribe to My youtube just like that:
https://www.youtube.com/user/eyenandu
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