Exploring India: Trip around Gokarna beaches

Hi dear Hive community,

Our day started very early at 5 o'clock in the morning, when it was still dark and most people were sleeping. The reason for that was because a long way was ahead of us. From Agonda we drove with scooter for more than two hours to reach Gokarna, which is around 90 kilometers away. During the drive it was a little bit cold, but it was nice due to empty roads. We enjoyed even though we had later horrible pain in the ass from sitting on motorbike for so long.

Gokarna is a smaller town with around 20,000 inhabitants. For Hindus it's nice to visit as it has some special pilgrim temples. Meaning of the name Gokarna is the land of the cows, and we definitely saw many of them everywhere. For foreign people it's popular and known for nice beaches and peaceful environment in comparison to Goa with rich night life and crowded places. Local people and tourist are more calm and the energy is not so intense here.

When we reached the center of the town, we bumped into a crowd of people and lots of swamis in black lunghis, which were traveling to Sabarimala temple in Kerala. Many people came from the temple from morning prayers. We wanted to avoid this masses so we parked outside the center. After a delicious masala dosa in a local restaurant, we got some new strength to start with the walk nearby the coast.

Firtly, we reached to Kudli beach, which was full of Indian tourists. There were many guest houses and hotels on the coast, on the hills we saw they are evening expanding and building new tourist resorts. The beach was full of cows, which were sunbathing and enjoying the warm sand. On the shore were locals with boats offering trips to other beaches.

We walked along the whole beach and enjoyed putting our feet into the sea. At the end we followed a narrow pathway into the jungle, which is connecting all the beaches. The top of the hill was without much vegetation, more like a sandy area reminding on a hot desert. From there the path leads downward, back to the sea. Quiet fast we reached to the next beach called Om beach, as the shape from the top looks like Om symbol. This beach was already less crowded and majority of people staying there were foreigners. There we greeted with a guy named Guy from Israel, which was grinding the coconut shell to make a nice bowl out of it. We had a nice conversation and later he asked if he can join us to see the next two beaches. We packed our things and continue back to the jungle.

After maybe 15 minutes we reached the Halfmoon beach, which is the smallest of all. There is also not many places to stay. Maybe we saw one hut complex and it appeared to be more made for camping. The beach was almost empty and there was not much to see or do there, so we continued without taking any breaks.

A way from the Halfmoon beach to the Paradise beach was the most difficult of them all. Some parts are going through the jungle, along the steep hilly areas and also crossing big rocks next to the sea. There we saw many crabs hidding in rock holes. The view from the way was amazing and we stopped to enjoy it, due to very very hot climate and strong sun. Finally we reached and wenr straight to the sea to refresh ourselves. Water was clear and so pleasant. This beach was also empty, but at least there were some bars offering fresh juices. People here were nice, they were taking care of the group of curios goats.

The day was coming to an end, so we returned back to the city to have another meal. Happy from seeing and exploring all day, we sat again on the scooter and drove back home.

Thank you for reading. Wish you a nice day!