Gokarna - Monsoon Destination of Another Kind

It is mid-month afternoon in June 2017, cloudy but cool. As the train that brought me to Gokarna Road station from Bangaluru slowly chugged out and away towards Karwar, we were just a few souls left with an eerie silence. The railway station is small, humble, with no human population around. The IMD had earlier forecast a delayed monsoon over north Karnataka and I was hoping for a warm drenching anytime.

The rickshaw drove 13 kms west and climbed a steep gradient to drop me at Zostel where I was one of the six backpackers sharing an air-conditioned, self-contained dorm. The young backpackers were fun loving and some of them were bikers out to have a quiet weekend. We struck friendship immediately.

Just as I was about to enter the room, the exclusivity and the ambiance of the accommodation suddenly hit me without a warning. I could not believe that we were at a height looking down at Gokarna beach lined with continuously rolling, crashing white waves for as long as the eyes could see; overhead, there were layers upon layers of thick, black clouds about to burst; the scene was capped by the hills in the background. And the pleasure was compounded as it began pouring with stiff winds; at last, God bless, the heavens opened up!

For those religiously inclined, the etymology informs us that Lord Shiva emerged from the ear of a cow (Prithvi, the Mother Earth) here at Gokarna which is situated at the ear-shaped confluence of two rivers Gangavali and Aghanashini. Gokarna is mentioned in the Shrimad Bhagwata Purana as being the home of the brothers Gokarna and Dhundhakari.

To my well traveled mind, Gokarna stands out as a distinctly conspicuous place with the plains of palm fringed Goa to the north and with a similar landscape of the Mangalore-Udupi region to the south. Here though, there are hills covered with evergreen forests all over with a few coconut palms here and there; and the forested hills go down to the beach fronts, sometimes quite sharply; often, the forests overhang the beach! 

The local authorities have done well to provide stepping stones going down to a beach. There are plenty of watering holes, cafeteria shacks and some villas on all beaches. And there are no high rises.

They have paved concrete paths and roads throughout the small town and outgoing stretches. After all, Gokarna is famous for its religious tourism; among the several temples, I visited two showcasing heritage values; the Mahabaleshwar depicting Lord Shiva, and the Mahaganapati temple. They have been preserved well and rich in its wooden architecture and atmospherics. On any typical day, carloads of pilgrims descend on Gokarna. But it is on Mahashivratri day that about 5 lakh pilgrims crowd the small, two-street town. This was monsoon however, a lean season and thankfully, I was lucky to be just one of the few ‘pilgrims’!

I rued the short stay of two nights; of the many beaches (they are never the same and each has a distinct character) that I could visit were Kudle beach and Om beach, the second time on a bike in driving rain!  Kudle, unfortunately, had a lot of solid waste flotsam, the accepted bad habit of the visiting masses! Om beach was beautiful, shaped like a ‘Om’ if viewed from a hill top.

With Gokarna not yet commercialised (but about to it seems), it is being labelled as a ‘poor man’s Goa’; things are much cheaper for a tourist town. One can walk down the concrete path with an umbrella to the town and have a drink or a meal. However and except at Zostel, non-veg meals are not known here.

As I relaxed on the porch gazing away at night, exhausted after walking around and trekking the beaches (and pillion riding), it was still raining. Those sounds on the tarpaulin shelter was mixed with nature’s orchestra played out by the waves down below; add to this the uninhibited view of the forested dropping hill and one gets a perspective of the beautiful, surreal ambiance that one can experience only at this beautiful accommodation!

Enough trips to Goa; but one never knows! Next time, once again, and surely in monsoon, it has to be Gokarna, a  destination with a character! 

CHEERS!!

Note: All photographs by the Author under copyright.

Fact File

Gokarna is about 238 km north of Mangalore 483 km from Bengaluru and about 59 km. from Karwar. 

Gokarna can be reached by buses and maxicabs from Kumta (30 km) on National Highway 17.

Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) runs long-journey buses from cities like Panaji, Bengaluru and Mangalore.

It can be reached by train on the Mumbai to Mangalore route or Goa to Mangalore route. The railway station (called Gokarna Road) is 6 km from the town. From Ahmedabad, Bikaner Express is one of the few weekly long-distance trains that halts at Kumta (22 hrs).

Both, Goa International Airport at Dabolim and the Mangalore International Airport at Bajpe, Karnataka are the nearest air terminals for reaching at Gokarna.

Zostel (Trade Marked) can be browsed on the web.