Gokarna really is a gorgeous place. I awoke to the sound of insects outside and on the beach was tickled by the sight of cows leisurely trotting along beside the sea.
I set the alarm to wake me early so that I could try to find the Nirvana Café, after the failed attempt last night. I managed the early get-up, choosing to shower in the shared bathroom…which wasn’t too bad apart from the massive window right at boob-level as you are showering!
I did find the Nirvana Café and it is lovely! I had to walk the full length of the beach in order to locate it, but it was definitely worth it.
After the happy excitement of finding Nirvana, I went back to the Namaste for breakfast. I am sad to say that their cornflakes were disgusting. They were initially like cardboard, but once you made the mistake of pouring milk on them, they had a rather gooey, slime feel to them, the muesli and Chai were much better.
In the Lonely Planet it tells me that it is possible to walk to ‘Half Moon Beach’ and ‘Paradise Beach’ which are 30 minutes and 60 minutes away, respectively. I got to Half Moon, but not Paradise. Basically, I scaled up a dodgy little rock path and over the side of the hill to be brought out on the other side to an amazing little beach. It was fairly empty when I turned up, but after a few hours it was full of (clearly European) tourists.
I did try to get to Paradise but the only person who I could find to get directions from told me I needed to scale over some large rocks and over the sea as it crashed into them. I went back to Half Moon and chilled for a few hours until taking the rocky road home to the hut. After dinner at the Namaste I walked back to the hut in the pitch black. It was quite funny trying to dodge the cow pats and bits of rock!
I decided that I would try to get to ‘Kudle Beach’ this morning and then to ‘Paradise Beach’ in the afternoon. Although it didn’t really work out like that. In the Lonely Planet it says that from the main beach you can walk to Kudle and then on to Om. I thought I’d do it the other way around: Om to Kudle. Lonely Planet says
…a 20 minute hike along the path brings you to a barren headland with expansive sea views. On the Southern side is Kudle…south of Kudle beach, a rack climbs over the next headland, and a further 20 minute walk brings you to Om.
I set off after breakfast heading on the path towards Kudle, it was a nice adventure: part walk, part extreme flip-flopping. Then it stopped being a path and became a wilderness! I started off trying to ramble through the bushes, but I was soon no match for the dense plant life. I turned back and scaled over some particularly large rocks, some of which were HUGE lumps of granite. This took a fair while. Once round the rocks, I quickly found a path again and was back on what I hoped was the correct one (well it was A path). Oh how wrong I was! I was thinking, ‘Wow, I’ve been walking for ages now so I must be near!?’ I came across some fishermen and said our ‘Hellos’ and then carried on. After a short while I arrived at the top of the headland, thinking, ‘Wow, I wonder what the views are like?’ I stepped over the rock and was extremely disappointed when I could only see more rock and sea and wildlife. Needless to say that I went back to ask the fishermen where the bloody beach was!
One of the fishermen kindly told me that it was back towards Om and then up and over the hill, but I must have looked lost as he took me most of the way! I really had missed the turning, though it’s not like there is a signpost at all. Once at ‘Kudle Beach’ I promptly took all my clothes off and charged into the sea, needing the cold water to cool me down somewhat, however, the water was warm! Following this I went to get some hard earned water from a nearby café. I spent most of the rest of the day on the beach, feeling that I had earned it!
Finding paradise…or not
Waking up the next morning, I took an auto-rickshaw into Gokarna town…or should I say village…not sure?!
After town the auto-rickshaw driver to me to ‘Paradise Beach’. Well as far as he could, I still had to hike (in flip flops) for a good twenty minutes to find the actual beach. When I got there I was slightly disappointed, the beach looked like it once had some sort of concrete structure, but it has been reduced to rubble, so the beach would be lovely if it wasn’t for loads of derelict buildings.
I stayed for about an hour, but decided to move round to ‘Half Moon Beach’, which was actually really easy to get to. I did have to scale over some rocks, but they were small ones and there was absolutely no chance at all of falling into the sea, so it wasn’t very extreme. I did see a snake though, but to be honest, after my failed attempt at finding ‘Kudle Beach’ the other day, anything is easy! The rest of the day was spent chilling out and reading or sunbathing. Fun times 🙂
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