Two girls staying in a tent for a week in Gokarna! In my experience, it’s completely safe.

Since the last leg of 2019 was not so great to me, I had to make this New year special and start afresh! The thought made me and my friend pack our bags to Gokarna to celebrate the last week of the year. It was her first solo and my second trip to this mystical island town. Like many backpackers, we ran on a tight budget but made sure to not cut down on the fun. Although Gokarna has many budget shacks by the beach, New years’ time could be a little heavy on the pocket and costs vary from the usual season. Plus, a week is a long time to be staying at 1.5k per night’s budget for backpackers. Fortunately, I carried a tent along, initially planned for only paradise beach, which is known to be isolated among the trail and have no shacks or hostels to stay at. My mother purchased the tent online a couple years ago and since then, we hadn’t really used it for a real adventure, except for little outdoor escapes. Thus, it came handy upon reaching Kudle beach and finding out that most shacks are already fully booked and the rest are overly charging for last minute accommodation.

Of course, we were sceptical at first! Two young ladies, sleeping at the beach in complete darkness, under the stars, in front of the infinite looking ocean staring at us like it’s going to eat us up alive, no real security except for one pepper spray, we were losing it! This being my friend’s first trip, it was fair on her part to be a tad bit scared and anxious over this completely crazy thought. So, we decided to stay the day in a moderately well-conditioned room by the beach, to rest from a tiring overnight bus ride from Bangalore, freshen ourselves up, and give this a proper thought and planning.

We made our way to Half moon beach on the second day of this adventure and were surprised by the number of tents laid out in a row! There were about seven tents next to one another, right in front of the beach. It’s the smallest beach of Gokarna and has limited shacks available. We were relived to know we wouldn’t be staying alone through the darker nights of this island and immediately set up our tent at the only spot left for us. By the time we reached half moon beach, it was already time for sunset. As our whole day passed by in hiking from kudle to Om beach, brunching, kayaking and finally arriving here, we spent the remaining time in listening to our favourite music at our favourite café at Half moon, among the only four cafes existing, finishing up our packed snacks from home and being completely mesmerised by the sheer beauty and stillness of this place. A quiet, calm, not overly populated by tourists and many miles away from the rest of the world we knew in existence, this was the best sunset I experienced in Gokarna so far. Right after a considerably heavy dinner after an exhausting day, I grabbed a beer and we made our way to the tent. Our luggage was set up in the corners of the tent to balance the weight and we took out a single sheet to spread across right outside the tent. What we experienced next, was not something you come across very often. Here or anywhere in the world. We saw phytoplanktons! Yes, you heard that right. To finally experience bio luminescence was surreal. We sat there, completely awestruck, in silence, gazing at this unrealistically beautiful phenomenon and wondering if it were all real. No, we weren’t high! It was just too overwhelming to think of ways in which nature could surprise us and how little we have seen and experienced and if ever we will be able to see all of what it has to offer. There was a hipster couple setting up a bonfire right next to our tent. It was quite worrying as it’s not advisable to set up a tent anywhere that close to fire. If we weren’t lucky, we’d be on fire that night. All we could do was to kindly ask them to be precautions, and we did. My tent has a small window (I am not sure we could call it that), through which we could see a zillion stars and the mountain right over us! To be sleeping in the lap of a mountain, listening to the waves crashing throughout the night, overlooking the sheet of stars spread across the sky, it was hard to be asleep.

This surreal experience has a twist though. As the night was progressing, the waves were getting higher and coming awfully closer to the tents each hour. My anxiety struck in and I started thinking of all the possible unrealistic situations we could land up in. As everyone was fast asleep by now except for a group of friends, who probably were too high to even notice, I began to think if I’d wake up in the middle of the ocean the next morning! Sounds hilarious to me right now as I write, but the night was terrifying and the ocean seemed brutal suddenly. I got out of my tent and sat beside it, as if guarding it and ready to fight the ocean if it came any closer. At one point when the waves came as close to a foot’s distance, I surrendered and started praying/requesting to the ocean like a child, to maintain distance and not gulp me in it’s dark as a black hole and deep gut.

As we have heard, adventure is not all fun! The next morning, we found a little burn on our tent and while packing up, we accidently broke one of its legs, which I tried to keep together with a band-aid I had packed in my little first aid kit! Fully content with our experiences at Half moon, I took a last dip into the ocean here and we made our way to Paradise beach via a boat, right before the sunset, the next day. Paradise beach is completely isolated and is nothing like the rest of the beaches of Gokarna. There are no washrooms, no shacks and no network! If ever you feel like cutting out from the rest of the world and escape far away, that is the place to be. Unlike what we had heard and read about this place, on this particular day, it was overly populated and there were tents all over the place. It was not as organised as half moon beach and was filthier. There are only two small eateries set up here providing limited food options. No beers, no fancy breakfasts, just simple food at humble costs. Right after a light dinner, we took our bag of chips and sat on a rock away from all the tents and crowd. The moon was blood red, making the ocean look fiercely gorgeous. An hour or two passed by, talking, munching and counting the waves. As beautiful as this place was, the crowd did not make it all fun for us. The sunset was peaceful but we barely slept through the night. Constantly chattering groups of people outside and no mobile network for any music made it difficult for us to survive the night in calm. By the next morning, we were not in the mood to stay any longer at paradise and were craving to have a proper meal and a shower. Many groups were hiking up to exit this place and others were taking the boat back to either Kudle or Om beach. As we woke up early in the morning, boats were not in sight and our desperation to get out made us inquire at the eatery, the owner of which was kind enough to guide us on how we could make our way to Kumta. Nirvana beach was next on the list. A relative of the owner helped my friend lift her suitcase (not advising it!) for some amount and we reached a bus stand after hiking up miserably. I will skip this part of the trip as Nirvana was another adventure in itself (an article on this will be up soon). We made our way back to Kudle beach for New year’s, after spending an unexpected time in Kumta. While most people were passed out in their respective shacks and hotels, we were the only people to stay in a tent on NYE. Some locals suggested it was not very safe at kudle, some suggested the police might object, but in our experience, it was completely fine and we woke up to the purple sky of the first morning of 2020, with hopes and dreams for the future, leaving behind the crazy times the past week and in fact the whole year had offered us!