Trekking next to the beach - Gokarna beach trek, Karnataka - All you need to know

You can reach Belakan by auto from Gokarna town. There are many other ways by which you can trek, either from Kumta to Gokarna (total 20kms) or the other way round. We followed the route from Belakan to Om beach which is approximately 5-7kms.

The surroundings of Belakan beach is basically a small village where you can find lot of shacks and small houses. Village people will be engrossed in their daily chores. The road actually ends here and the rest everything is like a forest trail. Keep walking straight on the road and you will encounter a small river. Remove your footwear and carefully find your way to the other side and continue walking on the pretty clear trail. The trail is not so tough and will be like an easy walk in between trees.

Continue for about 40 mins and you will find a clearing in the front leading you to the Paradise beach. Here you can find a few people already camping, soaking in the sun, playing in the beach. You can easily spend an hour here playing in the beach, make sure the waves are not that high and you're good to go! Don't forget to carry a frisbee along with you to enjoy playing in the beach to the fullest :D Here you can also have your lunch if you have bought anything else there is also a local shop which sells rice and sambhar for lunch. Quench your thirst in the hot sun by eating the pineapples, watermelons and coconut water sold here by the locals (seasonal).

Now continue towards the right side where you can spot a place to climb over the rocks and head on the trail. As you walk further you will notice that you will be trekking right beside the beach! With amazing views to your left to accompany you, keep walking to the right till you again fall inside the forest trail. After sometime the trail becomes steep and you have to be careful while coming down. There will be a lot of ups and downs in the trail so keep moving till you come in a pretty big clearing. Now walk straight and little further you will start spotting small huts surrounded by barbed wires. The trail is right next to this and you are about to reach Half Moon beach really soon!

Just a small descent and you have reached the Half Moon beach. It took us 45 mins to reach to this point. There are really no shops present here so you can play in the water here or proceed next. This is the only beach amongst the entire Gokarna beach trek where you will hardly find any people.

This will be the last part of your trek - Half moon to Om beach. So again start walking towards the forest trail for a while until you are out in the open again. Look at your left to find amazing beach views as you trek on the steep slope. Just make sure you always stay on the hill side and not on the valley side to be safe. Very soon you will be again walking through a trail surrounded by trees and the upcoming part is the best of them all till now. 5mins into forest trail you'll again find yourself in a clearing where you will get the most stunning view of the entire Om beach! Do you know why the beach is named Om? Whether it be yes or no, you will get to know the reason just by looking at the beach from this view point! A few more minutes, keep navigating to your right and after a short descent you will find yourself at the destination - Om beach :D

Sit at Om beach and watch the sunset, also observe the play of colors as it changes from a splash of orange to different hues of blue and gold[/caption]Compared to all the previous beaches you will find that this place is an over-crowded one and also full of foreigners. People will be playing on the beach waters and also you can find some of them chilling in one of the many cafes here. You can now just relax in a cafe for sometime and then head over to a proper view point to catch the beautiful sunset over the beach.! This is truly one of the amazing sunsets you will ever witness over the backdrop of this elegant beach.
Vlog of the entire trek will be up on my Youtube channel. Watch this space!

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More details on how to reach, where to stay, when's the best time to visit this place all up on my blog https://rashtravelmusingshome.wordpress.com/