Gokarna to Bekal:
“Every day is a new day, and you'll never be able to find happiness if you don't move on”
New day, out of Bangalore, fresh air, cool sea breeze, I was cuddling in the blanket and at around 5 I saw Lohith wake up and get ready. We had plans to visit the beach before we head out on our wonderful journey, but I was wondering why is he up so early! I know it will be pitch dark till 6:15 at least. I wanted to tell him, and I thought I told him.You know sometimes when your body just wants to sleep, it creates those feelings of waking up and doing some stuff that you have in mind, later you wake up to find it was all games played by mind!! This was one of them. I woke up late, got ready by 6:30 to see a disappointed Lohith sitting in the balcony looking outside, cursing himself for loosing sleep.
Now we start walking, walking to watch the sun rise and bestow all the beautiful golden orange colours that he has on the serene nature before transforming into a burning red hot avatar. The walk to the beach was beautiful and I will let the pictures do the talking.
This is what we saw once we stepped out of the room. It was late when we reached in the night so we couldn’t see on how beautifully the farm house has been maintained.
Now this is where I might have found Lohith, with may be couple of broken teeth had he tried to wade into the beach in the pitch dark.
The beautiful path which leads to another marvel of nature, filled up with cashew nut trees filled with flowers. I so want to be in my home town in summers, this place gave me all the memories of how school and college summers were spent, eating cashew fruit, mango, sleeping off in the trees, roam in the wild collecting peacock feathers. It feels like something that heart wishes to do, but the responsibilities force you to be otherwise.
Now once we crossed this path chatting, making fun of each other, and me asking some silly questions which apparently were bugging him, we see this.
Now, we forgot that we were together. I was filled with joy and happiness, I waded off somewhere and Lohith in the opposite direction, may be ( I don’t know). Clicking pics, soaking in the golden rays of sun, smirking at one nice lady who climbed a rock to start her meditation. Who wants meditation when you are in such a place! Found a Kingfisher sitting on a rock, and I wanted a pic of it. The moment I frame the shot, the bird flew off to another place. Now this continued for at least 15 minutes before I could finally manage one pic of the bird.
Few more snaps from the beach,
Now it was time to leave, we had been on the beach for good 1 and half hours and we had to head on to our next destination. Now I have a problem, I cant start my day without tea. A desperate search resulted in no tea available and we did not want to wait. Headed back and packed our luggage, handed out the keys and went to our bikes to see this!!
Each and every part was red due to the Yana road we had taken, and Gokarna roads were not helping the cause either. Now we had to fill up fuel and hit the ATM for that much needed cash.After waiting for a long time, while Lohith struggled with his tank bag, we moved on only to be amazed by the road we had taken this time. Riding on the mountain, sea on my left, roads that were twisty like a serpents tail, this needed a photo stop. Now photo stops are difficult, remove the helmet, balaclava, gloves, take out the camera and do things in reverse order, but who cares! I am out here to enjoy, take home the memories to cherish (show it my kids someday may be
).
Headed on, it was a small lane, forcefully going through a sea of houses that had their doors right on the edge of the road. This was an awesome feeling twisting and turning, ever so carefully (not to hit any one and get beaten up by crowd) we got out of the lane to see the Gokarna temple. Now on the journey started, another stop at fuel station meant loosing at least 15 mins of time in tying Lohith’s tank bag. Temperature was rising and last thing you want is to become a toast by the end of the day. We stopped for that much needed breakfast soon. Eating to hearts content, we were discussing the plans. I assured Lohith that the roads will be good and we can make up for the lost time.
Headed out into the smooth tarmac, enjoying every minute, Lohith was riding like there was no tomorrow for some reason (May be he wanted to make up for the lost time). We hit the ghat section only to find trucks and cars piled up. It was difficult to stay together in traffic and Lohith overtook a truck and we split up. I like curves, and I started overtaking, carefully and swiftly, I overtook most of the traffic and in the process, left Lohith behind. Now I overtook an Ertiga, and the driver was not amused (How can a bike over take a SUV!). Best part was, driver and the co passengers peeping out of the windows to see what on earth is that
. I stopped for Lohith and saw Snehith’s missed call. He was in Udupi and we made plans to meet up for lunch. Finally after waiting for 20 mins, Lohith turned up. Cursing me for leaving him behind, and telling me stories of how a lady ended up hearing Udupi as Monkey.
It was time to hit the road again, and the mercury level was at its peak. Crosswinds were high and it was getting difficult to overtake trucks without being pushed out to the other side of the road by the winds (I almost ended up under a bus due to this). There on I started calculated overtakes.
West coast is blessed with very serene beach lines.For explorers, Bhatkal has many beaches and a light house that is not crowded or hogged by tourists.
We moved on, crossed Bhatkal and after a point we started hitting diversions. Man, 4 lane conversion of the NH was in full swing and the roads had more diversions than the holes in a dosa. Now on it was torture for us. Find a good piece of tarmac, twist the throttle, and wham there's the diversion. Finally managed to reach Udupi and called up Sneh bhai, decided to have food at Sharada and we headed there. It was nice to find shade finally and we waited for Sneh for a good 15 mins. He showed up in his car. Showed all the luggage in his cars boot and entered the hotel. Lohith was in hurry to leave, I frankly had no intentions of leaving (I liked being in the cool AC room) and yeah, I got my favourite curd rice for food. Hotel felt like heaven and the hot roads like hell. Had fun chatting catching up on stuff, and then it was time to leave. Thankfully, Sneh thought how to tie the tank bag to Lohith and we hit the road again.
We were in dilemma when we were leaving. Sneh said the roads are not going to improve till Mangalore, we were not sure if we could reach Bekal as planned or would have to stop in Kasargod. We decided that we will see to it in Kasargod and rode on.
The roads as they were, were tiring and the hot and humid weather was not making it any better for us.
The traffic was crazy once we hit the Mangalore-Kasargod road. There was no common sense among drivers, and mainly the frustration of diversions were coming out in the form of road rage. I was almost hit by an unruly driver in Innova who was driving like mad. Lohith saw this too and he surprisingly said lets stop him!! Never expected that from Lohith. Tailgated the Innova for good amount of time which apparently got him scared and he did a mad dash and got out of sight.
The torture of diversions continued till we reached Bekal and it was 8 by the time we reached there. The roads had gone from ridable to unbearable after we had reached Kasargod. It was getting dark and the dust coupled with high beam wielding oncoming traffic was making the progress slow.
On the way we had stopped for tea, Lohith after ordering tea came out and we were chatting. One guy with whom I had enquired about directions started talking to me and I don’t know what prompted Lohith to reply in broken Tamil I think he thought he was being spoken to and when I replied in fluent Malayalam, Lohith was shocked. (I had not told him I lived in Kerala for 3 years during my schooling).
Reached Bekal, it was very dark and we were tired and very exhausted. Looked for a room, found a very spacious one for 1500 bucks after lot of haggling for price. Could not visit the fort as it was too late. Roamed around for food, ate to hearts content and crashed. We decided to leave early next day as the heat was becoming unbearable and tiring. We had plans to leave early cover good grounds before sun comes out all guns blazing so that we could make some ground without getting fried while praying that the roads get better.
Day 3 log is here
“Every day is a new day, and you'll never be able to find happiness if you don't move on”
New day, out of Bangalore, fresh air, cool sea breeze, I was cuddling in the blanket and at around 5 I saw Lohith wake up and get ready. We had plans to visit the beach before we head out on our wonderful journey, but I was wondering why is he up so early! I know it will be pitch dark till 6:15 at least. I wanted to tell him, and I thought I told him.You know sometimes when your body just wants to sleep, it creates those feelings of waking up and doing some stuff that you have in mind, later you wake up to find it was all games played by mind!! This was one of them. I woke up late, got ready by 6:30 to see a disappointed Lohith sitting in the balcony looking outside, cursing himself for loosing sleep.
Now we start walking, walking to watch the sun rise and bestow all the beautiful golden orange colours that he has on the serene nature before transforming into a burning red hot avatar. The walk to the beach was beautiful and I will let the pictures do the talking.
This is what we saw once we stepped out of the room. It was late when we reached in the night so we couldn’t see on how beautifully the farm house has been maintained.
Now this is where I might have found Lohith, with may be couple of broken teeth had he tried to wade into the beach in the pitch dark.
The beautiful path which leads to another marvel of nature, filled up with cashew nut trees filled with flowers. I so want to be in my home town in summers, this place gave me all the memories of how school and college summers were spent, eating cashew fruit, mango, sleeping off in the trees, roam in the wild collecting peacock feathers. It feels like something that heart wishes to do, but the responsibilities force you to be otherwise.
Now once we crossed this path chatting, making fun of each other, and me asking some silly questions which apparently were bugging him, we see this.
Now, we forgot that we were together. I was filled with joy and happiness, I waded off somewhere and Lohith in the opposite direction, may be ( I don’t know). Clicking pics, soaking in the golden rays of sun, smirking at one nice lady who climbed a rock to start her meditation. Who wants meditation when you are in such a place! Found a Kingfisher sitting on a rock, and I wanted a pic of it. The moment I frame the shot, the bird flew off to another place. Now this continued for at least 15 minutes before I could finally manage one pic of the bird.
Few more snaps from the beach,
Now it was time to leave, we had been on the beach for good 1 and half hours and we had to head on to our next destination. Now I have a problem, I cant start my day without tea. A desperate search resulted in no tea available and we did not want to wait. Headed back and packed our luggage, handed out the keys and went to our bikes to see this!!
Each and every part was red due to the Yana road we had taken, and Gokarna roads were not helping the cause either. Now we had to fill up fuel and hit the ATM for that much needed cash.After waiting for a long time, while Lohith struggled with his tank bag, we moved on only to be amazed by the road we had taken this time. Riding on the mountain, sea on my left, roads that were twisty like a serpents tail, this needed a photo stop. Now photo stops are difficult, remove the helmet, balaclava, gloves, take out the camera and do things in reverse order, but who cares! I am out here to enjoy, take home the memories to cherish (show it my kids someday may be
).
Headed on, it was a small lane, forcefully going through a sea of houses that had their doors right on the edge of the road. This was an awesome feeling twisting and turning, ever so carefully (not to hit any one and get beaten up by crowd) we got out of the lane to see the Gokarna temple. Now on the journey started, another stop at fuel station meant loosing at least 15 mins of time in tying Lohith’s tank bag. Temperature was rising and last thing you want is to become a toast by the end of the day. We stopped for that much needed breakfast soon. Eating to hearts content, we were discussing the plans. I assured Lohith that the roads will be good and we can make up for the lost time.
Headed out into the smooth tarmac, enjoying every minute, Lohith was riding like there was no tomorrow for some reason (May be he wanted to make up for the lost time). We hit the ghat section only to find trucks and cars piled up. It was difficult to stay together in traffic and Lohith overtook a truck and we split up. I like curves, and I started overtaking, carefully and swiftly, I overtook most of the traffic and in the process, left Lohith behind. Now I overtook an Ertiga, and the driver was not amused (How can a bike over take a SUV!). Best part was, driver and the co passengers peeping out of the windows to see what on earth is that
. I stopped for Lohith and saw Snehith’s missed call. He was in Udupi and we made plans to meet up for lunch. Finally after waiting for 20 mins, Lohith turned up. Cursing me for leaving him behind, and telling me stories of how a lady ended up hearing Udupi as Monkey.It was time to hit the road again, and the mercury level was at its peak. Crosswinds were high and it was getting difficult to overtake trucks without being pushed out to the other side of the road by the winds (I almost ended up under a bus due to this). There on I started calculated overtakes.
West coast is blessed with very serene beach lines.For explorers, Bhatkal has many beaches and a light house that is not crowded or hogged by tourists.
We moved on, crossed Bhatkal and after a point we started hitting diversions. Man, 4 lane conversion of the NH was in full swing and the roads had more diversions than the holes in a dosa. Now on it was torture for us. Find a good piece of tarmac, twist the throttle, and wham there's the diversion. Finally managed to reach Udupi and called up Sneh bhai, decided to have food at Sharada and we headed there. It was nice to find shade finally and we waited for Sneh for a good 15 mins. He showed up in his car. Showed all the luggage in his cars boot and entered the hotel. Lohith was in hurry to leave, I frankly had no intentions of leaving (I liked being in the cool AC room) and yeah, I got my favourite curd rice for food. Hotel felt like heaven and the hot roads like hell. Had fun chatting catching up on stuff, and then it was time to leave. Thankfully, Sneh thought how to tie the tank bag to Lohith and we hit the road again.
We were in dilemma when we were leaving. Sneh said the roads are not going to improve till Mangalore, we were not sure if we could reach Bekal as planned or would have to stop in Kasargod. We decided that we will see to it in Kasargod and rode on.
The roads as they were, were tiring and the hot and humid weather was not making it any better for us.
The traffic was crazy once we hit the Mangalore-Kasargod road. There was no common sense among drivers, and mainly the frustration of diversions were coming out in the form of road rage. I was almost hit by an unruly driver in Innova who was driving like mad. Lohith saw this too and he surprisingly said lets stop him!! Never expected that from Lohith. Tailgated the Innova for good amount of time which apparently got him scared and he did a mad dash and got out of sight.
The torture of diversions continued till we reached Bekal and it was 8 by the time we reached there. The roads had gone from ridable to unbearable after we had reached Kasargod. It was getting dark and the dust coupled with high beam wielding oncoming traffic was making the progress slow.
On the way we had stopped for tea, Lohith after ordering tea came out and we were chatting. One guy with whom I had enquired about directions started talking to me and I don’t know what prompted Lohith to reply in broken Tamil
I think he thought he was being spoken to and when I replied in fluent Malayalam, Lohith was shocked. (I had not told him I lived in Kerala for 3 years during my schooling).Reached Bekal, it was very dark and we were tired and very exhausted. Looked for a room, found a very spacious one for 1500 bucks after lot of haggling for price. Could not visit the fort as it was too late. Roamed around for food, ate to hearts content and crashed. We decided to leave early next day as the heat was becoming unbearable and tiring. We had plans to leave early cover good grounds before sun comes out all guns blazing so that we could make some ground without getting fried while praying that the roads get better.
Day 3 log is here
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