A trip to Gokarna, Murudeshwara and Honnavara

It's Dasara holidays for my little one and so we were exploring the options from our bucket list. But as there were some exams that my kid has post holidays we couldn't took a long break and after the permutations and combinations we finally zeroed on Costal Karnataka and we have four days to spend on. As the travel time is more that 9 hours from Bangalore to Gokarna so we have decided to go by bus instead of driving on our own, as that will take lot our time in just driving. So we need to plan more precise this time including the travel time as we can't make last minute updates as we don't have our own vehicle to plan for the adhoc changes in the last minute.

Here is the itinerary of our plan.

Day1: Bangalore-Gokarna-Gokarna Mahabaleshwar Temple-Maha Ganapathi Temple-Bhadra Kali temple-Om Beach-Boating and other water activities-Kudle Beach-Gokarna Main beach

Day2: Mirjan Fort - Yana Caves - Vibhuthi Falls.

Day3: Honnavara backwater boating - Mangrove board walk-Eco Beach-Murudeshwar

Day4: Murudeshwar Temple-Scuba Diving(Netravati Island)/Places around Murudeshwar/Water activities in Murudeshwar-Relax in the beach and evening back to Bangalore.

This time we can't deviate our plan as we don't have our own vehicle, so Day0 night we started from Bangalore and reached Gokarna around 9:30AM and we checked in the hotel. We booked the hotel just next to the main temple of Gokarna. There are multiple options to stay in Gokarna either you can chose for a homestay or resorts near Om Beach or Kudle beach or many hotels with in the city. As we don't have our own vehicle we choose next to the temple as we can cover all the temples and other near by teerthas by walk it self that will save us time and efforts. Based on your mode of transport/budget and time you may choose the location to stay.

We got freshen up and first vistied the Mahababaleshwar temple and it took around 30 minutes for Darshan. Here is the story of Atmalinga in Gokarna temple. Ravana desired Atmalinga to present it to his mother for her worship. Ravana’s mother was a staunch devotee of Shiva and when she was dutifully praying to a Shiva linga for her son’s wellbeing, Indra, the god of Heaven, out of spite and envy, threw the Shivalinga in the sea.Angered by this, Ravana underwent rigorous penance and abstinence to please Lord Shiva. He sang praises and made sacrifices to seek the boon of Atmalinga from Lord Shiva. Lord Shiva presented himself to Ravana and gifted him Atmalinga with a condition that he must not put it down to the ground. Agreeing to the same, Ravan heads back to his journey to his mother.Fearing that the Atmalinga would give Ravana immense powers that would lead to destruction, Lord Vishnu creates the illusion of dusk as Ravana makes his journey near Gokarna.As Ravana gets ready for his evening prayers, he is faced with a predicament and unable to fulfill his prayers or keep the Atmalinga on the ground. While he ponders for a solution, a Brahim boy passes his way. Ravana hastily calls out to him and instructs him to hold the Atmalinga and to not put it on the ground while he finishes his rituals.Lord Ganesha who is disguised as the Brahmin boy reassures Ravana that he will call out his name thrice and if he doesn’t return, he will place the Atmalinga to the ground and be on his way.Agreeing to this, Ravana engages in his prayers and hastily Ganesha calls out Ravana’s name thrice. Not getting any response, he places the Atmalinga to the ground and vanishes among his cows.When Ravana realised what had happened, he quickly chased after a cow left behind and only managed to get a hold of the cow’s ears while the rest of the cow’s body vanished below the Earth’s surface.Thus the etymology of the town Gokarna comes from this legendary tale where Gow means Cow and Karna means Ear in Sanskrit.Hopelessly, Ravan tried to lift the Atmalinga off the ground, unable to move it, a temple was built around with the name of “Mahabaleshwar” given to it symbolising the all-powerful Atmalinga it holds.

We also have multiple small temples in the same compound like adi gokarna, tamra gouri temple which is famous for the last rituals as this place is known as "Dakshin Kashi". Just out side of the main temple we have the Ganapathi temple and then we can visit the other places around the temple such as Koti Teertha, rama teertha (they are beautiful lakes and view point). Then we can visit Bhadrakali temple because she is considered as the protector of the silent town of Gokarna. We also have multiple other places around to visit Post the temple spree we have other places such as Anjanya janma sthana etc. There are lot of Bike rental places and it will be easier to hop around these places if you hire one rather than the car as the roads are very narrow and it will be difficult to drive and get a parking around the area.

After covering the devotional areas we choose to move to the fun part that are beaches hopping. First we hire an auto and we first visited Om Beach and there we have loads of water activities such as parasailing, banana boat, speed boat etc. We went on the boating and they will cover four places such as Paradise beach, half moon beach, light house, nirvana beach and the merger of the Aghnashini River into the Arabian sea. That will take around 30-45 minutes. There is a famous beach trecking in Gokarna which is around 10-12 Kms and if you can't do it then it will be the best way to visit these places as there is no road connect these areas. Just to mind you that via boating they will just take you around and will not let you get down in any of these beaches. There are some stays in these beaches as well and there won't be any electricity in few beaches and some of them will have only solar facility. So choose to stay there only if you are ok with these. You can also cover the Kudle beach post that but the road is not that good to reach that place. We have loads of cafes near these beaches we had our lunch in the famous Namste Cafe in Om Beach. The food is fine but I feel its a bit expensive. After this we came back to visit the Gokarna Main beach. All the beaches are very beautiful and worth spending the time. After the exaustive day we take a hot shower and call it a day. One very important tip is that irrespective of which season you go to Gokarna, book only AC accommodation and make sure you carry lighter clothes it will be extremely humid and you will sweat like crazy.

Next Day is the plan to visit the near by areas we started early and visted the Mirjan Fort. There are many versions to the dating of this fort. The first historical vision the Mirjan Fort was built initially by a Nawayath asper Ibn_Battuta book this fort was first built by Nawayath Sultanates early 1200, then it came under the Vijayanagara Empire. Then the fort was refurbished in 1608 (Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) refers to its building over a period of 1608–1640) on the south east coastal part of the Tadri Creek. Another version that is traced to the period 1552–1606 is that the Mirjan Fort was built initially by Queen Chennabhairadevi. She was from the Tuluva-Saluva clan and ruled for a long period (for 54 years) under the protection of the Vijayanagara Empire (the queen preferred to be subordinate (mahamandaleshwara) of Vijayanagar rulers), as the queen of Gersoppa (a small town on the northern banks of the Sharavati River). She was given the epithet "the Pepper Queen or Raina da Pimenta'.

Next place to visit will be Yana Caves and we have two ways to reach this place one is from the Kumta side and one more is from Sirsi side. We visited from Kumta side and you need to walk around 3KMs+ through the forest which is very beautiful experience where in you can visit water falls around the walk area and you can here just birds chirping and its a beautiful walk in the midst of the forest. But you need to claimb around 200-250 steps as well apart from the forest trek. So wear comfortable foot wear and dresses to make your trek comfortable and its a moderate to difficult trek. There is a Bhairaweshwara temple on the top and we also can claimb around 100-150 steps after the temple to complete the remaining rocks. The story behind these rocks is that this is the place where Mohini (feminine version of lord vishnu) tricked Bhasmasura to keep his hand on his own head and he turned into ashes. That is the reason behind all the rocks are covered with ashes.

Next stop is Vibhuthi falls, The word "Vibhuthi" means limestone. The water in this falls comes past limestone rocks near Yana and so the falls is called as "Vibhuthi Falls". We need to walk around 2Kms through the forest then you can visit this beautiful place. That ends up Day2. Though there are only 3 places as there is a trek and walk for Yana caves and Vibhuthi falls, it will be better not to plan any more places as it will be tiresome, unless you have a group of fittest people.

Next day will be the drive to Honnavara in Honnavara we have 3 major places that we have covered Honnavara boating in sharavathi back waters, then we have a board walk through mangroves and then we can also visit the eco beach which is worth watching. There are so many other places that can be covered around Honnavar if you want to spend some more time there. You may explore those places such as Apsarakonda water falls, Hanging bridge etc. Then we have reached Murudeshwar by the evening.

Murudeshwar is famous for the world's second tallest Shiva statue, the town lies on the coast of the Arabian Sea and is also famous for the Murudeshwara Temple. The story around the Murudeshwar temple is the extension of the story on the Gokarna. Due to the force exerted by Ravana, some pieces were scattered. One such piece from the head of the linga is said to have fallen in present-day Surathkal. The famous Sadashiva temple is said to be built around that piece of linga. Then he decided to destroy the covering of the Atma-Linga, and threw the case covering it to a place called Sajjeshwar, 37 kilometers away. Then he threw the lid of the case to a place called Guneshwar (now Gunavanthe) and Dhareshwar, 16-19 kilometers away. Finally, he threw the cloth covering the Atma-Linga to a place called Mrideshwar in Kanduka-Giri (Kanduka Hill). Mrideshwar has been renamed to Murdeshwar.