It’s been very hard leading the routine life daily in office hours and after hours as well. It was time when my mind was totally berserk and frustrated, when my friend Babu (Venkat Ratnam) came up with an idea to visit Gokarna. That is indeed an excellent idea. It reminds me of the famous caption by Idea Mobile “An Idea can change your life!”
We decided to go on a trip which gives peace and stability of mind. As usual there were diverting ways which we decided to break and went on with the plan. Our plan was to visit Gokarna temple of Mahabaleshwara. This temple is famous from the age of Ramayana where the great Ravana being one of the greatest devotees of Lord Shiva achieved Atmalinga (Soul of Shiva, the god of destruction and change) and was deceived by Lord Ganesha who put it down on earth and got fixated there.
Also visit the beaches around Gokarna (Om, Kudle, Half Moon, Paradise and Gokarna) by trekking to those places. And then move on to visit the world’s largest statue of Lord Shiva at Murudeshwar.
Our trip started on September 3rd 2009 night when we boarded the bus to Gokarna at around 9:00 PM. It was raining all the way to Gokarna and somehow bus driver managed to depart us at around 9:00 AM. It was still drizzling in Gokarna. Couple of auto drivers crowded us as soon as we got down from the bus. One of the drivers picked us up and took us to Namastey Guest House on the entrance of Om Beach. The receptionist showed us a room for 600 bucks but as there was a leaking hole in the roof we ignored it. She showed another room stating that the price for that is 700 bucks. We insisted on looking the rom before deciding on the room after having a bitter experience with the first one. The room is very decent and we decided to board the room.
After getting fresh we had breakfast at the restaurant and to the worst it was still raining. Remember that we get only continental food and north Indian food here. The rain God has showed some mercy and we decided to roam on the beach as it was already approaching noon. Om beach is an excellent place and to add to it as it was raining there were literally no people on the beach. We roamed the entire stretch of the beach till 1:30 when we got drenched in the rain which came in occasionally. It was an excellent experience to be alone on the beach with violent waves of the sea kissing the beach. We had lunch and in the afternoon we went to Gokarna (auto for 100 bucks) and enquired about the kind of pujas done at the temple. As the priest said that the next day wasn’t so auspicious, we decided to perform puja on Sunday morning. We rested in the room and got up the next day and planned to take a taxi for 1600 bucks to Murudeshwar which is approximately 70-80 Km from there.
Here we go on the Western Ghats coast line!!! This is the best trip I have been up to now. We have to go through Kumta, town nearby and we decided to visit Devaki Krishna temple on the way. We have taken a sideway from the main route for about 10 Km to reach there, but the kind of greenery adjoining the road was so excellent that we felt it very short. We stopped the taxi at many places on the way to Murudeshwar just to take photos of the best sceneries I have seen until now. We reached Murudeshwar at around 4 PM.
The first look at the entrance gopuram for the temple left me spell bound when the world’s largest idol of Shiva itself was another wonder. After having a visit to the God, we reached the shrine of Shiva which left me speechless. We had a fair photo session covering the beach and sea which is just behind the statue. It started raining heavily again and had to get back to Gokarna. On the way we stopped at the bridge over Saravati river (couldn’t get the spelling right) to have a couple of photos.
The next day we did Rudrabhishekham at the temple of Gokarna and came back to Om beach by 9:00 AM. After having a lazy break we headed on the trek to Kudle beach from Om beach which is around 1-2 KMs. But the path was very slippery due to rains from the previous two days. We took around 40 min to reach Kudle beach adoring the beauty of the sea on the way. After a long time I have taken a long walk in my life. By the time we reached Kudle it started pouring heavily. We halted at a resort which was getting ready for the Dec-Jan season. The waves are very violent here than the Om beach ones which took me on the back seat but Babu guided me towards a hotel at the other end of the beach. Thanks to him!!! After having a break over there we thought of returning back to Om beach but the conversation about the place with the hotel owner made us knowledgeable that Gokarna beach is just 3 KMs away which he said would take an hour. I said to Babu “Lets get our plan complete!!!”. He nodded his head in affirmation and we continued our trek to Gokarna from Kudle beach. The rest is speechless where we went through a pathway up the hill though the trees on both the sides to reach the plains on the hill. We went off route to capture a bunch of photos which enhanced the beauty of our trek.
Overall, the beaches over there were very silent with just the chirping of the birds, the sound made by the waves splashing the rocks over the beach and the sound of the residing waves from the beach. It was indeed a refreshing and rejuvenating trip where we experienced nothing other than solitude and happiness!!!
All the photos of the trip can be found @ http://picasaweb.google.com/vphani4u/GokarnaTrip
