Gar firdaus bar rue zamin ast hamin ast, hamin ast, hamin ast! ("If there be paradise on earth, it is here, it is here, it is here!")
And for sure Honnemaradu is an amateur swimmers paradise and a trekker’s dream.
But the very question that comes to mind where the hell on this earth is honnemaradu. When I was telling my friends that we will go to honnemaradu, Nirmit asked me, Is it Hone LULU?? Do we need a passport to go to this place? And we all burst into laughter. No more laughter’s now, let me throw some light on what exactly is the place we are talking about, honnemaradu is a place that lies in the heart of Western Ghats formed by the backwaters of Linganmakki dam on Sharawati river that Encompasses an estimated area of 350 sq Km. It’s a treat for nature lovers with wide variety of flora and fauna and has some 110 species of endangered species of birds found in the area
Importance: The Dam generates electricity enough to satisfy the needs of 60% of whole Karnataka demand.
Now the question why it’s known as honnemaradu
The myth: Honne (means gold in kanadda) and maradu (maralu means sand) so Golden Sands.
But here I was unusually wrong in figuring out the exact reason
The truth: Honne is a tree that is found in abundance on this soil, that’s why the name.
Now enough of knowledge sharing, let me come to the point why it was chosen to be destined place, honnemaradu is one of the few places in India known for water sport activities that includes coracling, canoeing, kayaking and wind rafting, and everybody of us for a long time was waiting for some adrenalin getting pumped into the blood, after a long, hectic schedule of a blood sucking job. Here we got an ample opportunity to do something rocking and adventurous.
So TAG INDIA decided to go on an escapade to honnemaradu very remote to any slightest form of civilization. An invite was sent to all the people. We got a nod from a lot of people but only the luckiest fellows got a ticket on board;
Lucky people go to heaven and the luckiest ones go to Honnemaradu J.
And 13 people were there overall who beat everybody else in the race to the paradise; Roopa (owner of TAG INDIA), Giridhar, Chetan, Soma, Nirmit, 10 year old Shreya (the die hard kid), Kumar alias KK (the kid’s DAD), Swapnil, Mangla, Chandan, Saurabh, Suresh and last but not the least Raghu (me). We all gathered at the railway station around 11’0 clock to board Shimoga Express on Friday night the 2nd of May. And we began our journey under the able leadership of Roopa Sreedhar far away from the hustling bustling crowds and irritating noise of the vehicles. After a small gossiping session everybody went to sleep leaving me alone to note down each and every station that falls in the way. There was one more guy who was on his last trip as a bachelor who was wide awake giving detailed reports to his would be ……. Guess who????????? Chetan of course you dumbos. And like a very nice member of the crew I woke them at 6’o clock to pack their luggage. Moved out of the station and caught hold of a bus that drooped us at Sagara, it was a very smooth and nice journey as the road was better than what we find in our own Bengaluru. From there we again boarded a bus to Talaguppa that is nearly 4 km’s from honnemaradu. I wanted to trek to the place but as everybody wanted to conserve their energies for the next 2 days, we hired a cab that took us to a place that was far more beautiful and awe inspiring than what one could imagine; it’s a paradise for sure and nature at its full bloom with bamboo trees about to flower and it’s a treat as the event of bamboo flowering occurs once in 60 years. You see in any direction and will find endless water with so many small islands in between and it feels like the water body is stretched up to eternity.
At honnemaradu we were greeted by Mrs. Nomito who owns and run water activities at the place along with her husband Swami. They also arrange for your food and accommodation. She asked us to get fresh so that we can have our breakfast; I was one of the few along with Suresh and Giridhar who preferred to have our breakfast first as we were feeling really hungry. It was served in an open air theatre where u cannot enter with your slippers on and who did it heard some nice shlokas and words from Nomito. Mrs. Nomito is one of those persons who belong to my cadre, you ask something from me I won’t give a straight forward answer, :D nor will Nomito, and here I was the one who asked the questions.
Me: For how many years you are doing this?
Nomito: My experience is more than your age (that was a googlee)
Me (with a smile on face): So your husband also supports you in your Endeavor, where is he?
Nomito: The guy who served you breakfast, what do you think he is a cook, he’s my husband. (That was a bouncer and was embarrassing).
I was not in a position to ask any more questions, anyways breakfast was over and she asked everybody to make a circle as she had to make some announcements.
Guys and Gals you are in honnemaradu and you have to follow some rules.
Rule no 1: don’t try to break any rule.
Rule no 2: If you are going to break any than go back to rule 1.
Rule no 3: no warnings if you break the rules, just pack your bags up and move out.
It was not as stringent as written but it was for our own safety and enjoyment. After having listened to all the safety rules and norms we were taken on a site tour or a short trek from where we can watch the complete view of the place with all its enormity and liveliness. After that we put on our life jackets and went for a swimming session. We had to go to an island on the other shore and come back swimming. That was too much for an asking but we had a die hard kid Shreya with us just 10 years of age and will power more than a grown up. She was my inspiration all the way; nobody knows it yet; if the kid can do it why cannot I, of course I am not as brave as her, but more than her father:J for sure. Giridhar also helped me a lot by motivating me that I can do it nevertheless broke down a rule as he was shouting. And here was Nomito yelling don’t shout guys. The shores are full of Multani mitti (Multani sand) and all of us had a free facial and body massage with it absolutely free of cost that would have meant fortune expenditure in the city. Now after the grueling session I was feeling so hungry in fact everybody of us that we could eat anything at that time; but too our respite food was waiting for us that contained rice, loads of Sāmbhar and we ate like we hadn’t eaten for ages and there would be no tomorrow again. We were asked to take some rest before being taught how to peddle a coracle. It was great fun and I along with Roopa, Mangla, Swapnil were the winners even though we were stuck on the shore for nearly 5 minutes; courtesy Roopa, who prompty slided on the slippery floor & went underneath the coracle.
It was great fun all the way back. In the evening we had a camping session on an island known as kappe chippu (don’t know why the name, may be because it was in the shape of an unopened sea shell). We took our respective coracles and started our journey towards the island. We reached there with our dinner and all the other necessary equipments. Few of us went out in search of dry logs of wood needed for camp fire and the left over guys started to pitch the tents. We had a great antakshari round around the camp fire and we came to knew Chandan and KK are very nice singers (less than me obvious). We slept in the tents and by the time I woke up guys were playing Frisbee and believe me Chandan can throw it as straight as a jalebee so can Giridhar. We had a choice while returning either we can swim all the way or peddle the coracle; and why not we had brave hearts with us Our own Giridhar and Suresh who swam all the way back, even I wanted to do it but had pulled up my arm muscle so decided to go the other way.
A nice breakfast that consisted of karabath and kesribath was awaiting us and I ate like dinosaurs. Now was the time for diving session we went back to water again of course with our jackets on; Nomito was instructing how to dive from a coracle; she told swapnil that he had to jump in that direction, and that fool was not listening and got up to jump in other direction and rightly so got a slap on the other side :D. By that time I and Roopa had already started diving from the barren tree branches inside the water. Giridhar is a great diver and he was giving lessons to all of us the normal one, the front somersault and the back somersault. I tried my hand in all of them and fell on everything other than my palms, I was hit everywhere and once I wanted to cry aloud but I couldn't cry in front of gals and there was be Nomito yelling Don’t shout, so crying was out of question. Then Nirmit came with totally different monkey style diving technique. Soma was a good swimmer and diver but not Mangla. It was grueling and tiresome but rocking adventure and fun all the way. We came out and had our lunch again, now was the time for a canoeing session and I went with Chetan and made him to row all the way, I envy Nirmit as in his canoe there was a scorpion and he squatted and smashed it with his peddle, last time I killed a scorpion was in my hostel room. Kumar & Saurabh also slaughtered a cockroach in the same canoe, hats off to him.
By the time we came out we were tired like anything but that doesn’t prevent us from venturing inside water once again. Time didn’t allow us to go on a kayaking spree. Nobody wanted to come back from the place but unfortunately we had to. After a closing speech from Nomito we left the place as we had to reach Shimoga before 10’ o clock to catch our train, I was telling stories to Mangla, Nirmit , Chetan and Suresh about how I helped dubey and parvesh saini in college to get their true love :D. I am so nice u know.
We reached station at 9.45 Sunday the 4th of may, the train was late by an hour or so and by the time we had a great dinner thanks to Giridhar and Kumar. As soon as the train left we all slept and reached our respective destinations in the morning.
All good things come to an end but sometimes good things are the foundations for a new beginning
Regards
Raghu
Confessions of a lonely woman traveler from India 
