Just Being There

A trip to Gokarna is truly memorable because the place never leaves you

Gokarna, the well-known temple town of the northern district of Karnataka, is a small but splendid jewel on the Karwar coast near the Goa–Karnataka border. Its unique ambience is difficult to miss, even if hard to describe. A little more than 500 kilometers from Bangalore, it’s a treat for travel enthusiasts and nature lovers alike. Easily accessible from Goa and Karnataka by road and rail, it’s the drive until there that makes Gokarna worth visiting.

For travelers from places further south, it is one long immersion in a sea of green, with lush green mountains and forests beginning all the way from Chikmaglur to Gokarna. Sitting at the back of a cab, with Coldplay for some music company; I could feel nature talking to me through Martin’s sonorous voice as I gazed at the verdant landscape, the narrow road snaking through rolling hills, the forests stretching past Shimoga and Jog falls, and finally opening up to the wide vista of the Arabian Sea.

As you enter Gokarna, the first impression is of a rural Goa: of old, serene beaches without the crowds, the clutter, and the construction work. Driving through beautiful paddy fields ringed with mountains, I reached the Om and Kudle beaches. These are among the popular ones in the vicinity of the city area and sport the tell-tale tourist shacks and restaurants. Namaste Café, which has a branch on almost every beach; is the most sought after by tourists. They serve everything from American to traditional north and south Indian food; if you wish to have breakfast, their french toast, waffles and pancakes are to die for. “We get approximately 500 customers a day,” says Joseph, one of the workers of Namaste Café at Kudle beach.

A quick bite and one’s exploring all the good stuff that Gokarna offer has to offer. The boat ride from Om beach, which is just a kilometer from Kudle beach, takes you up the coast along all the beaches in Gokarna. “The entire boat ride was just mind-blowing. The sea looks amazingly beautiful,” said Piyush, a first-time visitor.

Paradise beach, in particular, is a major attraction to the tourists, where you can rent a tent to stay the night. “We see hundreds of tourists coming to stay in the cottages and tents,” says Koni, 22, a local woman who rents cottages to visitors at Kudle beach. “This is our livelihood. We are a community of around 50 families but the municipality doesn’t provide proper waste disposal facilities and the electricity fluctuates too. Our community has lived here since we can remember, and we live together as a family. This place is so beautiful, I can’t imagine living anywhere else,” she says when asked whether she would ever consider leaving Gokarna.

Having left the hustle and bustle of the city behind, I had gone there to enjoy the peace that only nature can offer. That made me wonder, ‘Why is it that even if you live a satisfying life in the big cities, only a complete break from the routine allows you to rejuvenate yourself?’; and ‘Why it always takes a journey to discover that there’s so much more to life?’ Everyone can’t be a Koni, living by the natural rhythms of the seasons and the sea, but the idea that places like Gokarna exist so close to us and are accessible with just the slightest effort; I find so reassuring. Once you’ve experienced it, wherever you might be, a sense of the place always stays with you.