MoonLight Beach Trek - Gokarna, Om Beach
On Friday 14 October 2005 one of my most awaited dreams was coming true ……… sitting on the sands of beach … rather sands of time and dream…………..
The team left for Gokarna after we gals had a hot cuppa tea from a street side vendor and the guys ofcourse after their usual round of smoking ( guyz passing around a single cigarette and puffing is a sight to see , what unity ; )
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Stopped for dinner at a highway dhaba at about 11.30 pm for the busy bees and the absent minded professors who had missed out on their dinner. The sizzling cup of masala chai in such weather was awesome. though I dint feel it was the best masala chai’s I had ever tasted , our dear friend Aneesh from US also felt that it was not the best chai he had tasted in India & ofcourse he was too generous to tip Rs 50 for a Rs 5 tea. We gave him tips on tipping!
Our long journey continued all night listening to songs, singing and majority of them snoozing.
Got up the next day to the scorching heat at about 10 am, had breakfast at the best restaurant in Malpe after brushing our teeth standing in a queue in front of the hotel’s washbasins. Most of us remembered our good old hostel days. All of us were damn hungry and ordered all kind of yummy dosas and idlis but disappointed to find them too chewy.
Had a small break after breakfast! Some of us went in search of batteries to begin our photo sessions and rain coat so that Aneesh could perform a rain dance. Alas! he was disappointed with neither a rain coat nor hardly any rain to dance.
We continued our journey to reach Gokarna at about 12.30 p.m. Our driver struggled to reach the beach , we tried all the possible routes except the right one (Murphy’s law)
It was frustrating to see such a beautiful and serene beach right in front of us but unable to touch it. At last we landed right in front of heaven, the scenery was awesome and the beach was breathtaking.
All of us enjoyed playing Frisbee, volleyball, and throw ball. I was surprised for the first time in my life, seeing guys not playing their favorite game “CRICKET”. . We enjoyed the beach hitting the highest waves and shouting at the top of our voices. Some of us lay down on the sands of beach relaxing. Some guys were relaxing with rest of them smearing them with wet sand and trying to bury them and having typical GUYZ kind of fun. I was capturing all this on the camera LIVE!
We left the beach totally tired, beyond exhaustion, hungry like hell only to find our bus disappeared. We had to trek for 1.5 hours to find our bus in the town. En-route we could catch a glimpse of the sunset and beautiful landscapes. Guys were busy posing for the cameras to post it on the matrimony sites;)..We wouldn’t have the opportunity to experience nature’s bounty if not for our driver...thanks to him.
We started our moonlight trek at about 9.15 pm, walked about 1 km, only to find by the local’s that we were misguided by another set of locals. Our core committee contacted our driver to bring the bus to the current spot. In the meantime, we had yummy rotis & MTR subzis using MTR cartons as plates and the water used to heat the packs as our finger bowls. All of us hogged like there was no tomorrow. We took some photo session of the moon, the hero of our trek :)
Full tummy, sleepy eyes made us all a bit tired but we were all looking forward to start our trek.
The bus took us to a village called…I don’t remember at 12.20 am. The boatman was generous enough to help us cross the river. My heart went thud thud thud, when the motor of the boat started so much that I could not feel the motion of the boat. What if the boat toppled with 35 of us in it and our Lady Roopa advised me that I shouldn’t be holding the hair or dress of the person who would save me but hold at the back and I would be safe. An excellent tip for all amaetuer swimmers likes me and professional drowners like many ;(
We landed in search of the beach to start our trek flashing different kinds of torches, none of it as strong as the moon. We walked for about half an hour only to reach a dead end, with nowhere to go and dogs barking in the background. I was too scared and concentrated on only dogs barking, I was petrified imagining dogs tearing me to pieces.
We knocked on a door and the master of the house a thorough gentleman was kind enough to guide us. We continued our quest for finding the beach passing through many private fields and ofcourse much to my terror the dogs continued to howl.
Atlast we reached our destination …beach …from where began our journey to reach the destination. It was the most beautiful night with moon playing hide and seek. Sometimes it would be so bright and I could see the moon smiling and the waves calm and soothing...the next moment the moon would become angry and frown and the waves would react with a scary sound. I had a nice chat with Chaitali discussing how beach could be an inanimate object when it could raise such a range of emotions in me.
We finished our moonlight trek @ 4 am, Our journey was so good …. So true … “It’s not the destination that matters but the journey itself “
All of us just flopped down on the shore snoring away to glory only to be awakened by the smell of tea and sandwiches with all kind of fillings ….God knows what….
Courtesy: TAJ WESTEND…OOPS……..Chaitali and Smitha.
We started walking back to Gokarna to visit the temples at 9.30 am smearing lots of sunscreens and ‘Sun Walls’ :)
With all our fresh clothes left in the bus …we gals had to shop (our favorite time pass) for some colorful clothes. Had our bath in the hotel rooms. It was the best feeling of the world having a cold shower after a record time of 48 hours. Cleansing away our dirt to cleanse our souls :)
We visited Ganesh and Shiva temple. Shiva temple being one of a kind in the world called atma linga which was brought by Ravana for his mom.
We had a sumptuous meal at brahmana maha sabha with live commentary about what dish comes next.. ofcourse the menu consisted of only 5 items. I thought what would happen if menu had 30 to 40 items …would they still give a running commentary..just kiddin’
We left for Bangalore @ 2.30 pm Sunday 16 Oct 2005, lucky to experience candle light dinner with heavy rains due to power outage. Had lot of fun singing, dancing and playing dumb charades
Reached Bangalore at 8 am, all of us tensed whether we would make it to the office well on time. We went back with smile on our face, tired bodies, and feelings beyond description…Bidding adieu to each other hoping to meet in the next trek. Thanks Roopa for the amazing outing!
Regards,
Chandrika G Rao
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