Am going to set a goal.. not sure how much am going to follow.. that is — I should publish articles here within 10 days of my Travel. Taking almost a month is too bad.. 🙁
This trip got almost shaky when there was line of pull outs with their valid reasons. It started way back when Kannan announced Radha will be a mom soon. Vinoth was clear in the 2009 NewYear trip itself that he wont be making it to this one. On the X-mas eve Arun announced he & his family wont make it as well. Height of all, Vijay fractured a ankle bone; I was startled. After a lot of thinking, really lot of thinking, I decided to go on with the trip. (However, madesure to spend good time with Vijay before I headed to the trip).. 😛 People were worried about the pull outs but none has suggested to pull out the trip itself. On 29th evening, half-heartedly, I left Vijay and headed to Bangalore.
Air in Bangalore, does the magic. Some changes in the town, but same comfy feelings. 😉
Persuasion
Krish and Praveen were at home (as Dinesh and Ramesh families out for a mall visit) and there started a discussion of Arun. Both suggested that to talk to Arun about getting him on the trip. When he came and sat with us, in no time, we persuaded him to join. After a little hesitation to leave Kavitha, he agreed to join us and there it was, euphoria!! This will create chaos later in the trip, which is another story. 😛 For more information on this, please reach out to Kavitha/Arun.. 😀
Special guest(??!!) Vinoth came down to give us wishes. We know that we would be missing him very much but no other options were there in the shop. Surprisingly we were all ready by 8:30 PM (may be because of a note I sent – by 7PM sharp, we would start), and to make it less interesting vehicle was late and we ended up in starting our trip around 9:30 PM which means practically, we would reach the destination by next day noon. Damn! … We started our trip. Generally, for New Year Trips, we dont have the habit of a ice-breaking/announcement sessions. But this time, I wanted to talk. Just told our guys – like our “global uncertain times”, this trip also had troubles with key people missing and lets try to make as one of the best trips. Indeed it turned out as one of the best. Special thanks to them again.. 😉 still it could have been a greatest one with all our guys.. 😉
I settled down in the last row of TT which is not as comfortable as the front seats – along with Karthik. Generally he joins me and escapes to front seats when he gets a better seat. I just enjoy the last seat ‘coz its the great seat to enjoy as ‘audience’ to the wits shot. Generally Krish used to sleep even before every one stops talking. Next day he would claim that he didnt sleep at all and that made him so tired (as if he gave company to the driver whole night). He is not the only person, often others say it. 😛 We nag them enough. With enough coffee breaks, we reached Honovar by 7 in the morning. We refreshed with Hotel Kamat’s coffee and continued our trip. I couldnt believe when we made it to “Sea bird Resort” at Gokarna it was 9:30 in the morning. I thanked the drivers for saving my original plans and we got shoved ourselves into our rooms.
Sea Bird Resort – Gokarna
Its a cute little resort (homestay to be exact) which is situated on the meadows/hills of Gokarna. At a distance of 3KMs, the Gokarna beach is situated. From the resort, you can easily get a clue that there is sea in the distance horizon. Initially I had the mind view of a small mountain which ends at sea and this homestay all alone. Anyhow, that didnt ruin our thoughts as getting a decent nightcap during this period is extremely tough. Its like our HIG govt. quarters and each unit has 4 units, 2 at the ground level and the rest at the first floor. Pretty decent for a family. And a elevated small restaurant which served extra-ordinary food. We made sure that our food bills exceed the cost of the stay. Well, thats all about the resort!!..
Krish!!!
We made sure to get ALL of us to the breakfast table in couple of hours. A lovely breakfast, which turned out to be a Brunch and Kasturi who waited till 12PM so that he ‘finishes’ fasting joined and made it as lunch, almost. Fine, as per the plan I suggested we take some rest to get rid of the journey tiredness. When almost everyone okay-ed it, Krish came up with a suggestion that to take a walk towards the beach which is 15 mins walk (as per a resort guy). Somehow, many of them accepted that bad idea. Me, who goes with the crowd, still worried about the scorching sun, agreed. A cap, sun block and a cooler made me little comfortable. When we headed to the sea, within 2 mins, karthik snatched the cap. I had no clue about the sun block. Thank god, they let me use the shades. And the walk continued for almost 30 mins under the sun most of the time, just downhill. Route was, okay!
Gokarnatha temple
I must say this. Town still lives in 80s. Bit eerie, even for a total-guys-trip. Streets are narrow, clumsy, little ugly and full of cow’s dung. Interestingly full of whites (no idea whether they are from US or European countries). I have already had the idea of why they are there. To put it simple, heights of spiritual feelings and the best effects of drugs are easily available, say from a petty shop too. hmmmm.. I should admit, few looked really weird and many looked awesome with the best shape of their lives. especially women. am still wondering, what on earth, would have made them to choose that little town, giving up their home country, parents, education and totally their life. Its hard to get convinced that they gave up all for drugs and spiritual stuffs.
Gokarnatha temple is one of the oldest ( a 1000 years old) temple around which has heavy touches of Kerala architecture. As the route towards the beach has this temple, we visited the temple to mark it ‘complete’ in the schedule. Its as usual a good temple where you would feel good and little bad about the cleanliness. Interestingly, Temple has people living with their families in them and also a school to learn chantings. When I passed through them, I felt like seeing students of a school with some impositions to say some mantra’s 10000 times. But honestly, somehow, somewhere, their life is much better I should say. While Arun did a good housekeeping for our stuffs, we finished praying for him as well.
Gokarna Beach
This is the main beach around the area for tourists which literally means bad-idea if you look for ‘beach effect’. To be frank nothing is there to write about this beach. Just near the beach, a junkie was taking some powder (drug) in the most peculiar way I have ever seen (ofcourse, am referring to the movies I saw). This guy was sitting on a bench of a petty shop which is the main street that connects the temple and the beach and always crowded. He took a plastic bag which had white-ish patches all over it. He made it to looklike a small balloon and gave a good inhale to that. Seems he got enough; as he had the reactions of chewing a live wire. We moved on to the shops and as usual we were window-shopping.. :-P. We were hell tired by that time that made us to catch autos to get back to the resort.
Earlier, we thought to skip lunch (before this mini trekking), but when we got back to the resort, we unanimously decided to go for the lunch. We were at it again. 🙁
Om Beach
When we were done with the lunch we had very little time for the sunset which is the last one for 2009. We took round trips to keep our guys ‘up’; Else, we could miss the sunset forever. We headed straight to Om Beach (which got its name because of the shape almost looks like the Om symbol). Om Beach is much better than the Gokarna. Its crowded but just with the beach lovers. Om beach has very good viewpoints to watch Sunset. we splitted in to teams as we ran all directions to catch a glimpse of the sunset. Luckily when I had hit the rocks (its not sand beach), some 5-10 mins of rays were waiting. However, we knew we will not have the sunset to our eyes because a good cloud set was mating the distance horizon. Still colors looked good and so does the water. When we gave up on the sun, moon invited us with the most alluring size. Indeed, it was sooooooo big when raised. I tried my various skills on shooting it. When myself and dinesh got tired, we started looking for our guys. It was almost pitch dark. Our guys were at a KM distance and invited us to join them. Good god, mobiles working. Well, having no plans for rest of the evening made us to take slow walk towards them. They happily had a bath by then and shown some interest towards eating at the beach hut (shop). We got excused and sat outside the shop. Rest tried and concluded they didnt like the taste. 😀
We went back to the resort and ordered our dinner. It was the eve of the New Year. How can it end without a campfire and a good round of talk. With lots of beers and bacardi breezers, our dinner tasted soooo great. During camp fire, we just talked on what we achieved in 2009 and what we would like to achieve in 2010. Many interesting things came out and am sure going to write about that in 2011. Most interesting thing was Kasturi’s who told us that he would get a gal in 2009 (during 2009 New Year trip) confessed that he tried and there was a flop show. 😛 Who didnt have that??? 😀
When the clock ticked to 12:00, we had a winner, who got the honor to cut the cake. This time it was Selvakarthik…
With clear notes, I told my guys that on 1st of Jan 2010, all should be out of their rooms by 7 AM sharp so that we can have the beach trek which would be easy on us. Despite my warnings, (Dinesh!!!!!), people came out after their bath by 8:30. By that time, I had finished my coffees and calls. I was just curious – as I got up first, I took bath, but what made these guys to take bath when I told them we would trek for 3 hours. Then came the stuff. Our great Kasturi told that there was a “grahanam” so he wont come out with a bath. Well – rest followed it!!..
Beach Trek
The greatest part of our trip starts here. We were late to the trek. still dont forget we are at the west coast where sun would be little lazier to scorch us in the morning. We got dropped near Kudle beach. We decided to trek the route –> Kudle beach – Om Beach – Halfmoon beach – Paradise beach along the shores. I knew it would be tough.
We started to Kudle beach from the place we got dropped. When we reached Kudle beach it was almost lonely (except few homestays – most eco friendly ones). It was cute and small. A guy (white) was sleeping and a cow sniffed him to check if he was eatable and changed its mind later. Actual trek plan was to trek the whole route but from Om Beach. Kudle beach was ‘included’ on-the-go. But we were almost pessimistic to start the trek from Kudle as there were no route to Om beach from there. It was rocks, cliffs and nothing more to see. While our guys enjoyed the panorama, Praveen headed to the cliffs to find if we have a path towards the Om beach. Do note, this Kudle beach to Om beach stretch is almost like a Big “O” which is slightly attached to the land which would make the stretch a longgggg one (which we will get to know at the end)..
Praveen, didnt return in a while and my calls (heyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy praveeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeen), didnt get a positive reply on heading further. Arun has followed Praveen to get him back so that we could start from Om beach. However, even he was not sure. Well, I got into the business. God, going to the nearest rock from kudle beach was itself a tough but achievable task. I did it as my heavy DSLR bag was carried by selvakarthik then. When I went, we almost concluded that its not possible. I requested arun to check on the route which looked like it went uphill. but he came back saying that it was hard to penetrate, may be a good trekking knife could help. So am left with one option. Continue the route along the dangerous cliff or to go back. When I explored a little, the cliff didnt look so dangerous, so I encouraged our guys to come. With some helps here and there, all reached the place. I worried much. Not about the girls, but about Dinesh, Ramesh and Kasturi a little. 😛
With little briefings to be more careful, I got my heavy DSLR bag. Selvakarthik was left with my heavy DSLR. Then why am I feeling my bag is heavy?? realized – our guys, after seeing how tough the trek could be, shoved all of their cameras. Honestly, a special thanks to Karthik, who took everyone’s picture and his own shadows during the trek when everyone concentrated on one thing – to reach safe.
The real trek started..
As we proceeded further and further, route became tougher and tougher. While Arun tried to look for uphill practiced routes, I managed to walk the team on the cliff with constant helping and advising where to keep the leg to pass particular rocks.
One good thing about the place : Once you reach the place, it wont tell you how tougher the next rock can be as it wont be visible. We hoped for next better but all we got was worse and worst. Infact good thrills. At one point of time, we were ready to take any risk, just to avoid going back on the same path. Trust me, we all thought the same. Sun was helping a little as the cliffs didnt get the rays directly. We enjoyed the views and worried even more about the path. Well – thats what will make us to feel good about the trip when we chew the trip sitting at home.. It was lot of fun.. 😉
We were totally fearless. The sea is gargling right beneath us and we are on the rocks. One bad step or a spoiled grip could prove fatal. Luckily my guardian angel was on my shoulder all the way. What am wondering still is, how the situation makes us fearless. If am there all of a sudden at that place, I would feel my knees shaking. But there, I stood, explored, and guided. Sea wasnt scaring me. Is this what we call practice? a 2 hours of scary cliff walking could make me a fearless? Indeed it did. Atleat out there.
After couple of hours, we had a little break. Our guys left all the snacks in the vehicle considering a cool walk and the snacks for ‘after trek’. However, we carried juices, little water and some choco wafers. We energized ourselves and continued our trek. It was bit easy – not sure ‘coz we ate something or it was really not tough. At one point of time, I felt like am standing at a land which acted as a huge lighthouse. We continued further and further but Om beach was not visible after a good 3 hours trek. It started worrying me. Even then, I was sure that we were on track and not too far from Om beach. I started to see the symptoms of tiredness with everyone of them and am no exception. We went on further and avoided the beach a little to find a local. He confirmed that we should take the estate route which would take us to the Om beach. So we ignored the beach route for the ‘sure known’ path. When we walked little further, a surprised awaited for us.
We saw the flat land, a home, few cars. Good, but what we were in need was water. In no time, we realized that was exactly where we started our trek in the morning. Damn, that was so self-teasing to us. Now you know the Big-‘O’ matter. Honestly, we tried to get into the gated house to look for water. We found none but a big vessel of drinking water. Our guys left a little for them. 😐
Luckily, there were some autos’, we sent the girls and few guys to the Om beach so that they can get more water. Rest of us to choose to go to the Om beach by walking. Infact, that was less than a KM walk. When the auto reached the beach, we did too. Well, on-the-go plan change time. Initial plan was to trek till Paradise beach and come back to Om beach via boat. Now the new plan is via boat, both to and fro. We bargained and settled for 100 rs per person for halfmoon beach and paradise beach where the boat will stop for 10 mins. we agreed and took the boat. our gang was little relieved with the life-jacket and the thought that “no more walking”.
Halfmoon beach is secluded but small. I didnt wait for the boat to reach the shore. I got in to the sea and rest followed. Its heavenly. Ofcourse, you should know swimming!!.. 😛
Paradise beach is even smaller. Again we got into the water. I felt we should have tented here. I pray I should get a chance to backpack and tent there. hhmmmmm..
We went back to resort and had a good bath to shake-off the sand we gathered. After that a good lunch. As we covered the temple the previous day itself, we had the evening which we thought to use it for a nearby waterfalls visit. But people out there suggested a place yana – a temple again. While Arun ran into his little ‘couple chat’, we got pressure to start, else going there would be a fatal mistake.
All we knew was, we got into the vehicle. And we were woken up by the driver saying this is the place and it was almost getting dark. So, for 2 hours on a very bad road, we slept like dead. All. Power of beach trekking.. 😉 well, I ran ahead thinking about a falls to catch few glimpses before its really dark. I had no idea and was running barefoot which pained like hell. When I went down, there was shock of the day to me. There were huge rocks (very huge) and all looked like fork at the edges. They looked like witch mountain palaces. I had no clue so for in my life that those kind of rocks exist in India. At the base, it had a cave and a temple. We clicked few snaps and settled for a peculiar drink and headed back to the vehicle in pitch dark – assuming the path. Arun has recollected that he had come here earlier once.
With that, our first day of New year got completed and we resumed to bed. On 2nd, we got readied and had a lousy breakfast and checked-out. Plan is to return to Bangalore and covering Jog falls on the go. We watched a movie and took a small much needed break. Ramesh was full of ideas again to play little games. We played advocate-client game which was really funny.
Jog Falls
We reached Jog falls around noon. My god, nature is the best of all and am standing in front of a sample again in my life. There were many times in my life, I fantasized about the size of the sharavathi river. (Dam is closed for public). And the river creates this Jog falls which is massive and gorgeous especially during monsoon period. This is post monsoon, so the falls was running on budget concerns of water. Still its astonishing. A good two hours trek can get us to the base; having to reach bangalore before midnight made us to skip that idea.
Rest of the day was eventless
We reached Bangalore midnight Another memorable journey came to end.. Just waiting for 2011, and am okay that am getting aged.. 😉Here is better version of pics!
1 Comment
Rahul · January 1, 2012 at 12:18 pm
loved the way you have carried this journey…well articulated with nice photographs…