Gokarna – My most favourite place of all times

Sometimes when we plan things in life, it never turns out according to what we have in our minds. Well at least for me, be it with a small outing to a restaurant or a trip, but I can definitely say that impromptu trips are always the most fun. Which I’m sure all of you quite agree with. Our Gokarna trip was literally planned the night before, went through a lot of hassle with communication but was the perfect relaxing, fun, adventurous vacation with loads of unexpected events. It is a journey of 9 hours from Bangalore to Gokarna and every pre-booked bus leaves in the night and reaches the Gokarna main bus stand early in the morning. We were 4 of us and decided to catch a bus the coming night.

I can 100 percent surely say that the hassles of communication between us started even before we took off on the journey. Me and my other friend Vibha are right on time waiting for the boys at the point, and well what can I say? Boys are boys. The bus was supposed to leave at 9 PM and we were on our knees begging the bus driver not to start the vehicle. The boys lied to us about leaving on time, had to rent a two – wheeler that only gets punctured half their way to the bus stand, had to enter the bus stand in the opposite side, and not only did they make me run in different ways to find them but also managed to let Vibha get practically shouted at for making everyone in the bus wait.

After this huge mess, we were finally onboard the bus, laughing at ourselves and fighting for a better seat. We reached the Gokarna main bus stand at 7 o’clock in the morning. Just when we thought we were done with our share of being in a mess, a whole new day was ahead of us waiting eagerly.  This was my third time in Gokarna and I was so excited to go around because I don’t think I can ever get bored of this place.

Gokarna Day – 1

Upon reaching, we had to rent vehicles to travel for the next 3 days. We rented two vehicles and started off to reach our stay for the coming days. It takes almost 20 mins to get away from the main city. We made a pit stop at an empty ground to rest our heavy baggage, run around to loosen our bodies from the 9 hour bus journey. We then started to see ourselves in another mess.

Our stay was not available on Google maps. I only knew the owner of the place, who was not in Gokarna at the time and was available only on the phone. It took us 2 hours and asking a lot of people to finally understand the location of our stay. We parked the vehicles in the entrance of the beach and walked 10 mins towards our stay. The Sea View Cafe, at the famous Kudle beach. As the name says, we had a perfect view of the sea in front of us.

Our first day was going to be beach hopping. The excited us got ready with our sunscreens, fully charged phones + power banks, a hungry belly and the will to get tanned as hell. We decided to go to 2 beaches starting from Paradise beach. There is no road to directly reach the Paradise beach. We either have to go in a boat or trek to it. We parked our vehicles at God’s own beach because that is the nearest point. And began to trek. My third time being in Gokarna and I don’t know how I still messed it up. I made us walk for half an hour to bring us back to the same point where we started. All of us were devastated. My friends hated me but with Vibha to the rescue we made it to the Paradise beach. 

Now how do I explain how beautiful Paradise beach is? This heaven of a place is so perfectly isolated. There is absolutely no crowd. Most of the beach is filled with hard rocks and the rest has smooth fine sand filled all over. This was also a former Hippie spot where Indians weren’t allowed, but it was very long back and there are obviously no such restrictions now. The place has tall standing coconut trees every 10 inches making it the perfect spot to sit and relax on extreme sunny days.

There are fresh coconut stalls, fresh fruit stalls, a freshwater well and a very diverse crowd wandering around in their own space of mind. We played in the water, took some naps under the trees and on some rocks. Found crabs, clicked our pictures obviously, had lunch in a small stall set up there and decided to leave for Om beach to catch the sunset.

To reach the most renowned beach in Gokarna, the Om beach we had to trek back to our vehicles and ride for around 20 mins. Not a lot of us know this but Om beach is actually in the shape of the representation of Om (ॐ). There is a long story behind this formation. Our timing was perfect considering a lot of factors. ONE – It was absolutely not sunny at all and we could build our little sand castles without worrying about sunburns.

TWO – Staff from the cafes stalled at the beach came out all together with huge fishing nets to catch some fish for their dinner preparations. It was an amazing thing to watch as there were around 20 people holding all corners of the net. Some of them half submerged in water while the others at the shore to put the fish in a plastic cover they got. The fish breed was apparently ‘Sandy’. And Mahanthesh our friend even tried to catch it with his hands and ended up getting bit on his thumb.

THREE – We could see the perfect sunset over the sea. Changing colors gradually from orange to red to finally disappearing and we witnessed this scenic beauty from a cafe on Om beach. Chilling and snacking up, so happy bellies and happy moods.  

We rode back to our stay at Kudle beach to freshen up, get rid of all the sand on our sticky bodies and just when we thought our day was done, we decided to take a walk on the beach. Walking for about 15 mins along the shore only to hear some good loud music playing at a distance. We were obviously curious to see what was happening and walking towards it. We found a huge crowd dancing their hearts away in the night, some of them were randomly fire dancing, some were totally engaged in the music, some were popping & locking to the rhythm while the others were doing a headstand out of nowhere.

We came to know it was Bob Marley’s birthday that day. For a minute we were all lost, seeing such an active crowd at 2 o’clock in the night. We were approached by a magician calling himself ‘Alan’, who exhibited some mad skills with cards and apparently a new technique he was learning called ‘mentalism’. Which totally left us speechless. I swear!  We danced like never before on Reggae music, went hunting to find a shop open, because we were so hungry. Even though we had a confusing start to our day, we surely ended it with a bang!!

Day – 2

Another day, another great mood waking up to the sound of the waves. I want to mention that my friends are heavy sleepers. But considering the night we came back from it was  understandable. I was the first one to wake up. I could not wait to go and play in the water again, so I got out to the beach only to see a whole lot of people doing yoga on the shore. Like wow these were the same people from the party last night and I’m standing there contemplating. I started to walk along the water line to find sea shells, reaching one end of  Kudle beach. My other two friends later on joined me and we got into a competition to find the prettiest shells possible.

After some fancy looking breakfast and playing Frisbee which I forgot to mention. We happened to buy the worst Frisbee possible out of the lot. It never really went up in the air the way it was supposed to. So it was more like us admiring other Frisbee players than actually us playing with our own. When in Gokarna, you can’t not buy the hippie outfits the place offers. So we bought some, decided to wear them and somehow ended up looking like we were all wearing a uniform. Believe me or see the pictures yourself.

Our plan for today was to visit Yana caves. It is at a distance of 50 kilometres from Gokarna Kudle beach and will take us almost an hour to reach. Yana is a pilgrimage center because of cave temples and is located in Kumta. To reach the cave we have to travel through a thick forest, bumpy roads and trek for half a kilometre. There are police checkpoints before entering the forest area so one should make sure not to carry unwanted things. Yana is known to be the wettest and cleanest village in Karnataka.

The rock formation here is so very peculiar. There are two massive rocks standing each at 390 ft. and 300 ft. in height respectively. So yes, pretty gigantic and you are sure to be spellbound by the girth of it. The story behind the black limestone formations is that a demon called ‘Bhasmasura’ turned himself into ashes somewhere nearby. The fire from this act was so intense that it gave black color to the limestone in this entire region. The entrance to the cave is after climbing some steps and a 10 mins walk inside, to the exit on the opposite end. This cave is very secluded and is a must see if you are visiting Gokarna. 

There was another deviation in the entrance to Yana caves, to a place called Vibhuti falls. I am so glad we decided to visit this falls because, my god, what a beautiful place. Before that we obviously had to have put ourselves into some mess yet again. And this time it was quite different. The place closes at 5 o’clock in the evening and we happened to reach at 5. Yes. We spent 15 minutes begging the security guard to let us in. He didn’t agree so just when we were about to leave we realised our vehicles were out of fuel. We had a 50 kilometres journey back to Kudle and we were almost out of fuel.

It kind of worked towards our favor. The security guard told us to go see the falls while he went to get us fuel for the vehicles. Provided we come back in 45 minutes which is a lot of time you would think. But it takes 15-20 mins to walk to the waterfalls. We sprinted only to see a beautiful waterfall amidst rocks falling into a pool of crystal clear blue water. The temperature of the water was so refreshing my friend had to take a dip and get bitten by fishes. Yet again. We lost track of time and the guard came in search of us and walked us back to the exit. But all this was definitely worth it!

Riding for another hour and a half back, I pitched an idea to eat dinner at Gokarna main beach. Gokarna main beach has the least crowd, it is vast and very peaceful to spend time with friends. We had an average dinner under the clear sky and sat on the beach silently. I was their navigation guide back, and what did I do? Made us ride for 20 mins around the beach and reached the same spot. I don’t understand how I managed to do it again but sure can tell my friends were angrier than before.

It was pretty late in the night and the road back was empty and very freaking scary. The walk down the steps to Kudle beach was even scarier. With dogs sleeping everywhere and not knowing what you would step on. We spent a little more time sitting outside the only cafe which still had their lights turned on. Soon after, the cafe people gave us a clear cut indication that they didn’t want us screaming there by turning the lights off. We had no choice but to leave. The day got us so exhausted, we went to sleep without even trying.

Day – 3

And just like that it was our last day here in Gokarna. We checked out of our stay and kept the baggage lying around in the cafe. The buses back home were scheduled to leave at 8 o’clock in the night. We still had the entire day to spend. After some brisk morning shopping, some fulfilling heavy breakfast and admiring a lot more Frisbee, we went off to visit the only beach we had skipped, the Half – Moon beach. There are again only two ways to reach this place, either by boat or trek. We parked our vehicles at Om beach and started trekking for about 20-25 mins.

On the way to Half Moon, there is a Dolphin spot. If you are lucky enough you can spot Dolphins jumping off the edge of the water. Just like how the third time’s a charm, our third day was indeed lucky. We could spot so many Dolphins while trekking, got the greatest view of the ocean and reached Half Moon. Half Moon beach is also a very secluded shore amidst rocks, like paradise. But a lot more crowded because it hosts stays and cafes. One surprising thing about this beach is there were no prominent harsh waves at all. The water was so calm we floated for I don’t know how long but it was very relaxing.

The boys decided to go kayaking while they left us in-charge of their bags and wallets. It was supposed to be a half an hour ride. They took one hour to come back after they noticed us waving frantically at them to return. We had definitely lost our track of time at this point and started rushing back to our parked vehicles. We ate lunch at the same cafe at Om beach, spent some time watching the sunset again and ran back to our vehicles.

By the time we reached Kudle, we knew we were late and if we did not hurry up we will definitely miss our bus. So it was a running race from the steps to Kudle to our stay, back with our even heavier bags to our vehicles. We decided the boys will go return the vehicles while we yet again stop the bus from leaving. But to our good luck that day, the bus hadn’t arrived yet. And so we boarded the bus with a part of our minds still at the beach, laughed the entire journey back. Talking about our messed up adventures, and slept uncomfortably with the happiest memories of an unforgettable trip on our bumpy ride back home.

If any of you want to inquire about the stay or anything Gokarna related, please feel free to get in touch with me through the contact page.