My Adventures in Gokarna

Rameswar Prasad
Jul 30, 2017 · 16 min read
Sony DSLT Alpha 57

The last day of my trip to Wayanad brought in more suggestions and requests from my group of friends where should we visit next. As the trip was full of nature, lush green fields and mountains, so it was decided the next one should be different and has to be beaches. The first place crossed in my mind was Gokarna. Thus the journey began.

I wanted to go to Gokarna in 2015, however could not make it. As the decision was set for next place to be beach hence we all started to plan for visiting this place before 4 month. However the group got disband due to personal reasons of each member from my last trip group. After so many yes’es and no’es from some other friends, we started with a group of 8 people from Hyderabad to Gokarna.


Duration: 4 days and 3 nights (in Gokarna)

How to reach (from Hyderabad):

By Train: There are 3 trains running from Secunderabad upto Hubli. The average time taken by trains from Secunderabad to Hubli is between 12–15 hours. Hubli bus stop is close to Hubli railway station, nearly 2–3 km. Cab and Autos are easily available. You can take Govt. direct bus from Hubli bus stop to Gokarna. It’s a close to 4 hours journey.

By Bus: There is only 1 bus from Hyderabad to Gokarna. It starts at night 9 O’clock from MGBS, Koti and runs upto Ankola. Reaches mid noon at Ankola. Ankola is nearly 26 Km from Gokarna. You can take a local bus or car.

If you are travelling from Bangalore, the distance is nearly 430 Km to Gokarna. You too can travel upto Hubli and follow the above details.

P.S: The commute details are as of Aug 2016.

Places to see in Gokarna:

  1. Om beach
  2. Paradise beach
  3. Kudle beach
  4. All other beaches (Gokarna, Half moon, Full moon)
  5. Murudeswar Shiva Temple
  6. Mirjan fort (22 Km from Gokarna)
  7. Dev bagh beach resort, Karwar (60 Km from Gokarna)
  8. Jog Falls (112 Km from Gokarna)

Besides these there are many water falls in Karnataka in 60–80 Km range from Gokarna. If you are staying long then better to explore those.

Places to Stay:

I’m just listing here the places recommended by my friends and colleagues who stayed there.

  1. Hari priya residency
  2. Paradise holiday cottage
  3. Lotus rooms, Kudle beach (Economic and authentic sea food)
  4. Namaste café, Om beach
  5. New prasad nilaya, Gokarna beach (Economic)
  6. and Shacks near beaches

Gokarna is a small town in Karnataka, which has beautiful nature and even more beautiful beaches. This place provides so much tranquility which is perfect if you want to take a small break from city life and relax.


Day 0:

I call it day 0 as we started travelling on this day, not details anything regarding Gokarna. Just few pics on our way of train journey.


Day 1:

Sunrise at Hubli. 🌅

We reached at Hubli by train from Hyderabad at morning 7:30. Had our breakfast and got into our bus at 8:45. The bus dropped us at Gokarna bus stand sharp 12:45. Half the day was gone. After getting refreshed in our lodge which was ‘New prasad nilaya’, we started to search for hotels to have lunch. As suggested by our lodge owner, we went to Hotel Vinaya, exactly opposite to International hotel, Gokarna. They provide very nice economical non-veg food. It’s not just this place, everywhere in Gokarna we felt the food was awesome and less costly being a tourist place. A point to remember, though locals refer to this place as ‘Hotel Vinaya’, you won’t find any sign boards regarding the same. When we asked the owner, he said it’s because they are providing as home food, not commercialised. A sign board needs license. Another thing surprised us is when we found most of the hotels don’t use plastic bags, hence you won’t be able to pack food if you wish. Beside International hotel, Gokarna there is another pure veg hotel named Purohit. If you’re a vegetarian then you’re too in luck at Gokarna.

After our tummies filled with great tasty food we headed towards Gokarna beach, which was just around 700 meters from our lodge. Gokarna beach is the main beach close to the town, and it’s polluted. So we spent even less than 30 minutes and started walking towards Kudle beach which is around 1.7 km from Gokarna beach.

Gokarna Beach.
On our way to Kudle beach.

Though Kudle beach is bit secluded we found lot of people there. It’s a nice beach to get in to water. You need to be wary of the small whirlpool that can cause damage from the rocks, if you go further after few meters into water.

Kudle Beach.
Photography enroute Kudle Beach.

It was such a coincidence that I met one of my college friends there who was staying at kudle beach for the weekend. We spent the rest of the evening at the beach, bathing, photo shooting, having tea and of course taking selfies. :) The evening sky was beautiful and being monsoon season, the weather was perfect shifting between drizzling, cloudy sky and rain.

So our day ended with a walk back to room, dinner again at hotel purohit for veggies, rest having tasty food at hotel vinaya.


Day 2:

Second day activity started at morning 7 O’clock. We booked a Tata Sumo to visit Mirjan fort, Jog falls, Murudeswar and back at night to Om beach.

Early morning coffee preparation.
Mirjan Fort.

Mirjan Fort was build for defence in early 17th Century. This is a very nice place if you love photography. It’s a beauty to watch this fort in monsoon time due to the greenery on the walls. Needless to say we had our multiple photography session here and after spending 1 hour, started towards our next destination, “Jog falls”. On way had our breakfast at Hotel Sanman, which is a pure veg. They provide awesome puri and good coffee.

Lou for South Indian Dosa at Hotel Sanman. :)

Jog falls is the 2nd highest waterfall in India with highest drop being 253 metres according to Wikipedia. The roads are valley roads and I personally won’t recommend anyone to rent and drive bikes or cars to Jog falls, if not you’re a very skilled driver. People drive here fast and without horns at turns also. It was misty when we visited and I’m happy that we did not get bikes that day on rent.

Enroute Jog falls.

Now jog falls has 4 drops. There 2 site points at either side and you won’t be able to see all the 4 drops at the first site point. Better cross the bridge and go to 2nd & the main view point, hence you can see the complete mighty fall properly.

Jog Falls from view point 1:

There are around 1200 steps to get down to the bottom of the fall so you can see it closely, however govt. has boundary hence bathing is not allowed. The view makes it worth a visit to get down and climb back those steps.

At 3:30 we started back to visit Murudeswar Shiva temple. On way we stopped at Sharavathi suspension bridge and had some snacks, as we had missed lunch and walked up and down 1200 steps, so rats were running in our bellies. Having tea on the bridge, the view and breeze. Oh yeah. It was natural high feeling. 😄

Sharavathi river.

From there we drove to Murudeswar temple. Reaching close to 8 Pm we queued up for darsan. At 8 pm the temple stops allowing people for queueing up however people inside the temple can be on line to visit the deity. After darsan we took few photos of the large Shiva statue and started back to our room as it was almost late.

Murudeswar temple & 70 feet tall Shiva idol.

While returning we had our much needed dinner at hotel Pandurang. We’re thankful that they took our order as rest of the hotels were closed. And also our dinner was the last order in Pandurang that night. We were not able fill our tummies completely because of that reason, however the food was tasty and economic. Reaching in our room at night 11:30, few of us followed to Gokarna beach for drink. At night 1 rest of others joined to bring those back as it’s not safe to get drunk at shore and that too alone at night. So by 2:30 we’re back to our room chanting the slogans of Independence of India all the way, because it was Aug 15th, Independence day of India.


Day 3:

Next day we woke up at 9:30–10, few woke up early and went to beach and back by the time we woke up. By 12 we decided to visit Devbagh private beach resort at Karwar. This place is around 60 km north from Gokarna, so we hired our Tata Sumo once again. On way we had lunch at Hotel Sapna. Food was awesome and cost economic. It’s pure veg. Dev bagh beach is maintained by govt., however you’re not allowed inside the beach without registration. You have to go by a ferry as it’s an island. Before that you need to register at the office. If you wish to spend the day there and return by evening, then cost per head is rs. 1576, spending night is rs. 5800. We paid 500 per head for entry just for 3 hours.

The best part at Karwar beach, is being a private beach you won’t find lot of people here, so beach is all to yourself. Backside of the island provides a great view. Another best part is it has water sports Jet ski, banana ride and para sailing available. We did jet ski for 750 per head for single ride and 550 per head for double. In single ride you’re allowed to drive, however in double ride the trainer will drive. The double ride was too much of a thrill. You should definitely try if you visit there.

The pristine Devbagh private beach.

From dev bagh beach we returned to Gokarna at evening 8. And here’s the best part happens. For me few lessons were there to learn as I planned the trip. First, it was the last night of us at Gokarna and we haven’t visited yet the 2 best beaches of Gokarna, Om beach and Paradise beach. We didn’t visit paradise beach cause we had to trek, and it was monsoon season, so slippery. Remaining was the best beach of Gokarna, Om beach. I was waiting eagerly to visit there, however due to some reason or other all the 3 days it got canceled. So the last night I was adamant to visit that place and planned come back by midnight. Here’s what I got my lesson. Now as I’m a travel freak, I try to keep everything handy when I’m travelling, and suggest the same to others who are with me. On way we discovered all the ATMs were out of cash, because of the long holiday weekend and lot of visitors. When I asked for cash, I got to know half of the group came without cash, like having just 100 or 200 in pocket and rest everything in card. So we didn’t had money to have our dinner. Still I was fine with that. 3 of us had cash and that’s how we paid our driver for the day, next the only problem I was thinking was how to make the bus tickets next day back to Hubli which was more than 1000 totally. We were so lucky to find the next day one ATM working otherwise I don’t think we could have been able to catch our train.

So hungry with empty pockets all of us visited Om beach. Now in Om beach the only food point is Namaste café and they don’t accept card. After some request they agreed on a point if the machine works then only. Luckily the machine was working and that’s how we had our dinner at Namaste Café. The dinner was great, so was the sizzler. I was sad because prawns were almost over as here too, ours was the last order of the day. But the Calamari Squid Fry made everyone double happy. If you’re visiting Namaste café, the must try item is Calamari Squid Fry.

Food at Namaste café:

Post dinner we sat at the beach just beholding the beauty of moonlit night and looking at the glittering surface of water. Time was passing slowly. It was so tranquil that we decided to stay at the beach whole night. Everyone slept on the beach except me. Close to 2 am, I thought of sleeping just for sometime to get some energy, only to wake up after 5 minutes to the shouting of my friend. I woke up and saw there were 3 cow standing close to my head. When I looked the other way, I saw around 15–25 cows coming towards us. The scary thing was all of them were surprisingly black. Not even a single one with mixed colors. We all woke up. After sometime me and one more friend guarded and rest of everyone went to sleep. Though it was adventurous to stay out and sleep there, I would not recommend anyone to do the same. There are many reasons I will point out later. The night was sometimes becoming cloudy, drizzling a little and other times shining with moon light. Night 3:30, there was a heavy rain nearly lasting 5–10 minutes. One of our friends so cold and started requesting so much to return to room and come back in the morning. I know it’s impossible to come back in the morning as it was close to 4 am and we had to go 5 km to reach our room. So here’s how our next adventure began.

One of us went to search wood pieces to make a bonfire. Then me and one more friend joined him for the same, while rest others were deep asleep. We found enough wood pieces. However due to the drizzling and rain, all of those are wet and we didn’t had any other fuel to lit those up. After trying for 20 minutes, I remembered we saw a small bonfire some other people had done that night, so I went hoping to find some warm pieces of wood. While scavenging wood pieces from ashes of the bonfire, I found a spark, filtering a bit more, there were few more sparks. So we 3 tried to gather around there and after 20 more minutes of diehard trials, blowing air onto the spark and using lighter, we finally able to lit a small fire. It was truly adventurous and we felt like it was Bear grylls show kind of experience to try that. The best part was after failing consistently we didn’t give up and nearly 30 minutes we successfully able to fuel the fire. Called our sleeping friends to warm up at 4:40 in the morning. It was too much of happiness at the end, bonfire, the morning sky and stars. We found more wood pieces and continued the fire until morning.

Bonfire at morning 4 under drizzling sky at Om beach.

Day 4:

The sun came up in the sky at 6:15 am. All of us were gazing in awe at the morning sky. The centre of Om beach has a rock formation which is kind of slippery normally. Still some of us went ahead a climbed up a big rock which seemed like 20–25 feet high. It was dangerous, and we later got to know from local fishermen that sometimes water comes up to middle of the rock, so if that happened then we would have had to stay on the rock till the water gets out.

At 7 am in the morning there were a group of fishermen pulling their fishing net out of the sea. It was too much fun to pull the net with them, brahmin birds circling over our head for catching fish from the net. The fishing net seemed like more than 500 meters, I am not sure how long it was exactly. After pulling for around 20–30 minutes finally the complete net was out of water. We saw variety of fishes including bubble fish, cat fish and others name which I don’t even know, crabs, prawn etc.

Then we went in to water and had lot of fun again. After being so tired, we started to head back at 9:30. Here’s something we saw which we didn’t anticipate earlier. In the night we were sleeping around 25–30 feet away from the water on the beach. At 9:30 in the morning water came up and touching the place we were sleeping at. Though I’m glad that we did it and slept on the beach and had all the fun, I would still not recommend after all the things I saw in the morning and the details we got from local fishermen.

One, there could be police patrolling in the night at beach. Then the herd of cows. And of course the water is dangerous. Waves can come anytime. The water at Om beach is polluted. However I’m not sure that stays same in winter, as most local people informed us that the right time to visit Gokarna is between mid September to December.

Near Om beach entry point

On the last day after returning from beach, we got freshen up and visited Maha Ganpati temple and Shiva temple. We had our lunch at Shiva temple. As I expressed earlier we were lucky to find a working ATM, that’s how everything got fine and we started back to Hubli to catch our train. So that’s how our trip came to an end.

Here’s a tip: If you are planning to visit Gokarna then 3 days are enough, in case you don’t plan to visit outside of Gokarna. Else there are lot of nice places and waterfalls you can cover up, if you’re taking 5 or more days to stay there.

Happy travelling. Cheers!!

Window Seat

Sharing travel experiences. One story at a time.

Rameswar Prasad

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Window Seat

Sharing travel experiences. One story at a time.

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