Every Ride is a Tiny Holiday...Exploring Gokarna in the Monsoon

Hi Friends… I am back with my new travel story. I know I have been silent for a pretty long time and I deeply apologize for it. Rather speaking about other unnecessary things I will directly get into the topic.

So this time, our destination was Gokarna. The credit of selecting the place goes to Mr. Faraz. As usual, like every time, this time also his call has been absolutely fantastic. So we did not have any conflict in finalizing the destination.

Gokarna is a town on the Arabian Sea, in the south-western Indian state of Karnataka. A popular pilgrimage destination for Hindus, it’s known for sacred sites like Murudeshwar Temple, which has a shrine dedicated to the deity Shiva. Nearby, Koti Teertha is a temple tank where devotees wash in the holy waters. The town is also home to beaches such as palm-lined Gokarna, in the center, plus Kudle in further South.

The dates and the itinerary were finalized. We decided to start our journey on 16th June and it was going to be 3 days trip. This time we had a larger group. Many new but experienced riders joined us.

So we had 5 bikes and 10 riders in our group this time. Let me give a quick introduction about the new riders. I think people who normally read my travel stories, they know Faraz and Rakiba very well as I have already introduced them in my previous travel blogs.

Let me start with Swaraj and Barsha. Swaraj and Barsha are good friends of Faraz and Rakiba. They are a fantastic couple, very humble and very down to earth. I must say Swaraj is coming with fantastic riding skills and it was an absolute honour for me to have a ride with him. He planned to ride on his Hornet.

Next comes Priyankush and Raina. Priyankush is my childhood friend and Raina is his wife. Both of them are also a lovely couple. I have seen very less people in my life like Raina, she is an all-time entertainer. Priyankush on the other hand is a bit serious and he prefers to be very careful most of the times. He was the only one in our group who has travelled to Gokarna virtually at least 100 times. He used to watch at least 3 to 4 travel videos of Gokarna daily till the riding day. He always wanted to ensure that he had all the necessary information before he starts the ride. The advantage of having Priyankush in the group is that if he is riding then definitely nothing can go wrong because all the probabilities have been already considered by him before and eventually precautions have been taken for that. But jokes apart, apart from being a humble person, Priyankush is also coming with very good riding skill. Although he started riding from last one year, but definitely looking at his riding skill, anybody will call him a pro rider. He was ridng on his black Yamaha R15

I will go next with Arka. Arka is also a friend of mine. I have known him for years. He is a humorous person and he is very new to this riding profession. His riding skills are also equally appreciable but the only thing is that he always to prefer to follow a different route and sometimes that different route leads to a different destination… 

Next comes Anand. Anand and Arka were supposed to ride together in Arka’s Avenger 200. Anand is a very good rider. I have done couple of rides with Anand before. His riding skills are good and his understanding of routes and google maps is fabulous. If Anand is there in the group then you cannot get lost on the way. Anand has been the right companion for Arka in the trip.

Last but not the least, comes Poushali. She was the one who completed our group. She is a good friend of Raina. Poushali is a lovely stunning lady. She travelled from Kolkata all the way to be a part of this ride. Initially we were shocked to know that a girl is travelling from Kolkata to Bangalore just to do a 500kms ride. Her stamina, and dedication were incomparable. In my riding career, she is the best pillion I have ever had. It does not matter how much rashly I would ride, she would never utter a single word. Every time during the pit stops when ask her …Is everything fine, She will always give a sweet smile and say everything is fine although looking at her face I can understand how much pain she is going through. Even when she fell down from bike she gave me a smile in return. I must say she is fantastic pillion who always made me feel comfortable to achieve my speed targets.

The introduction is done now. Let’s start the ride. We decided to start at 1AM in the night but we were not able to start on time. My time management has been poor from the very beginning. Faraz and Swaraj had to wait for me on the road for at least 90 mins. At last we met together at Tin factory and started our ride at 3 AM approximately. The highway was congested with heavy vehicles at night and so we were not able ride at expected speed and had to take frequent breaks. Adding to that Anand and Arka decided to visit Chikmagalur on way to Gokarna…. 

They were misguided by the google maps near Neelmangla and went on the wrong direction for 20 KMs. That’s where also our time got killed. I think in the first 4 hours we only manage to cover 150 KMS where our destination was 500kms from Bangalore.

We had our breakfast on the highway. We were fortunate enough to find a Punjabi dhaba. We decided during our breakfast that as we were already running late so we are going ride fast and maintain an average speed of 90km/hr. to 100km/hr. That’s when all of our stamina and riding skills were put to test. The good thing is that we all gave our best and we were able to achieve the goal. The roads from Neelmangla to Davangere was very good as it was national highway. Now we had to take a diversion on the left from Davangere and that would take us to Gokarna through a state highway. The condition of the state highway was also good. But the last 60 kms was the toughest patch for us. Firstly it was through the Western Ghats, and secondly all of energy was already drained out. The pillions were trying to give their best support to the riders. I must say Rakiba was the strongest of all the pillions. Her stamina and strength was far better than anyone of us. She was not well when we started the ride and she also puked couple of times on the way but she did not give up till the last. The same goes with Barsha, although this was her first longest ride but she did not allow the pain to conquer her spirit. And if you ask me, when I see pillions like them I get strength from them. It’s a privilege to have people like Barsha and Rakiba in the group.

After crossing Ghats, we reached our resort at 4:30 PM. The property was fantastic and had a private access to the beach. I will share the property details in the last segment.Our pain was almost gone after looking at the waves. Although we were tired but then also we decided to get into the water. That was an awesome stress buster for us. That night we did not have any plans other than taking rest.

Next day unfortunately we started late as people did not manage to wake up on time as they were tired. We decided to go to Honnavar to explore the backwaters. But as the weather forecast had rains expected, so the boat ride was not happening. But again having a view of the back waters was itself awesome. We clicked lot of photos on the jetty and after spending an hour or two we decided to move towards Murudeshwar. Here I played the role of Uncle Podger misguiding the entire group. I took them to a different route which made us travel additionally 40kms. But here Anand and Arka proved to be exceptional. As I have already said before, they always prefer to take a different route and this time they took the right one and reached Murudeshwar before us.

It was hot in Murudeswar. We took a walk on the beach where as Anand and Swaraj went inside the tempe to offer puja. We had our lunch at Murudeshwar and again rode back to Kumta. The day was over . We had a lovely party time in the evening and the resort staffs tried their best to give us the best ambience and feel.

On 18th, we managed to start on time and we were sticking to the plan. This was the first time where our time management was good. We headed towards Gokarana. Instead of taking the road, we decided to take the ferry. This was going to be a different experience. We all enjoyed a lot. We had our breakfast at Kudle Beach and had lunch at Om Beach. The weather was not good. It was drizzling frequently from the morning. We went back to the resort from Om Beach. As this was our last day in Gokarna, we spent maximum time in the water fighting with the waves.

Barsha was having her birthday on 19th June and so Swaraj had already made some lovely plans for her. At the midnight we witnessed some lovely birthday celebration.

Now that day had come when we have to again travel 500 kms to Bangalore. We started early after having breakfast. We managed to maintain a good speed initially. But again, something else was waiting for us on the way. The weather started getting worse as and when we were heading towards Bangalore. The moment when we reached Chitradurga it started down pouring heavily and it accompanied us till Bangalore. Even I have been riding from last 5 years, I also do not have much experience in riding in heavy rain. The good thing was that everyone except me was carrying a rain liner. We did not stop in rain but we reduced our speed.

We had to face hell lot of traffic the moment we entered Bangalore. We were late but definitely each one of us had made it. The one thing that I have learned from this ride is that never underestimate the weather as it can be unpredictable anytime. So it’s always recommended to carry a rain liner during monsoon rides. What I did was an utter foolishness… 