New year celebration - it creates a lot of vibes in everyone, especially if it is on a weekend it is a bonus to many people!
Jan 1, 2017 being on Sunday we wanted to move out of Bengaluru to spend time with friends off the city (Sunday and New year, a perfect combination to pull all our buddies without any excuses for a trip)
This is how our trip on that new year weekend came to reality
Then we had a quick discussion to finalize the places. As many of us had not visited Gokarna, it was our unanimous decision as prime attraction. Along with that, we wanted to explore the surroundings near by, to add variety to our memories
Usually our travel begins Friday night and ends on Sunday late night, Bengaluru is our origin and destination too
We planned as below
Day 1:
- Banavasi
- Sirsi
- Yaana
- Vibuthi falls/Benne Hole falls/Unchalli falls
Day 2:
- Gokarna
One of my friend had a contact (his friend's home town) in Gokarna, so he took the responsibility of accommodation within Gokarna city. Without any contact, its difficult to get accommodation here during new year as its a peak season. Another friend booked Tempo Traveler (TT) as we do in general, for our trips. I came up with the above list of places and route map for the visit. That's it, all set to go
We generally encourage one person to maintain financials and share the cost at the end of the trip. Earlier it used to be done manually and now a days, lots of apps are available in android play store to do the needful (can rely on technology to ease our work)
Due to delay in TT arrival, we left Bengaluru at around 2 am and this forced us to change the plan at the last moment and skip the falls and cover Yaana alone on day 1 along with other places as per initial plan and reach Gokarna by evening
When we were kids, we were brought up listening to kannada literature, though we may not remember everything, there are few things which we cannot forget. One of them is related to Banavasi. Pampa, aadikavi of kannada literature says like this in one of his book “ಆರಂಕುಸಮಿತ್ತೋದಂ, ನೆನೆವುದೆನ್ನ ಮನಂ ಬನವಾಸಿ ದೇಶಮಂ!” (Aarankusamittodam, nenevudenna manam banavasi desamam) – meaning “Even if I am fettered like an elephant, my mind will still remember Banavasi") . We can see why that is not an exaggeration, when we visited!
The Madhukeshwara temple dedicated to Lord Shiva is at the heart of Banavasi – the temple derives its name from the honey colour of the Shiva linga here.
We visited river Varada before the temple visit, clean river bank and pure water gives that morning chill feel !
Later with the blessing of Madhukeshwara, we moved towards Sirsi which is around 25 kms from here
This temple was built way back in 17th century as per history and the architecture is one of its kind
Along with Maarikamba's blessings, we got Prasadam (afternoon lunch) as well here
For those who had seen 'Nammora Mandara Huve' movie, our next attraction would be a well known place. Many kids of my generation would have seen this first in this movie unless they love travelling. So, I am talking all about 'Yana' here
Yaana is not just a tourist spot, instead its a holy place. The car festival held here during 'Maha Shivaratri' attracts large number of tourists. Yaana is famous for 61 massive rock outcrops and out of them 2 are well known i.e. 'Bhairaveshwara Shikhara' and the 'Chandika Shikhara' which are tallest
Having said, we visited temple and explored a bit of caves here before we started towards our main attraction for the new year night 'Gokarna'
We just reached a bit late to witness 'Sunset' here, Gokarna being on west coast, one should plan well to enjoy the sunset in lovely and serine beaches of Gokarna
We were unlucky to miss the sunset as we reached the beach just after the sunset, post checking into hotel
We stayed at 'Pitru Chaya Niwas', which is very near to temple and beach. This had ample parking space and decent rooms for stay
New year night (2017):
After sunset, we all assembled at a cafe near beach to see how new year will be celebrated here at Gokarna. There were several parties going on, few hosted by localites and the remaining by outsiders. We didn't take part in any of them, instead we decided to enjoy the dinner in that cafe and relax at the sea shore that night
By sleeping on the sea shore near to cafe, we got lost in the sound of waves and darkness of sky forgetting all that is happening in this world. We were in different world all together, before one of our friend shouted to have our dinner
At night 12, we could see mild celebration at beach by many tourists at the shore. Few of them were screaming 'Happy New Year' with all happiness filled in their voices and many celebrated by lighting 'Sky Lanterns' all along the sea shore. Later local police cleared the crowd by asking them to leave to their places for rest of the night. As we walked towards the room, people on the way greeted us 'Happy New Year' which still stays fresh in my mind
We got up early to take bath before we visited 'Lord Mahabaleshwar' followed by 'Tamra Gowri' and 'Maha Ganapathi' temples
Just to give some historical back ground - "Gokarna means cow's ear. It is believed that Shiva emerged from the ear of a cow (Prithvi, the Mother Earth) here. It is at the ear-shaped confluence of two rivers Gangavali and Aghanashini"
Also, Ravana was given Atmalinga by Shiva and instructed that it would stay permanently where it is first placed on the land. Then, Ganesha came in the form of a boy and planted it in Gokarna, while Ravana was performing rituals. Once placed Ravana could not remove it from the ground
After our temple run for blessings, we started towards the main beach that is near temple followed by 'Om' beach that got its name because of its natural shape resembling 'ॐ Om symbol'
We can visit 'Kudle', 'Half moon' and 'Paradise' beach which are beyond Om beach and are accessible only by trekking or via boat
As we visited this place 4 years back and I am penning it down now, could not recall exactly which beach we visited and which we didn't. For sure, we visited 'Om' beach as I can recall it and shared the pic above
Spent rest of the day in beaches enjoying the beauty of sea, listening to soothing sounds of waves and started towards Bangalore by evening
This was the first ever new year celebration I had along with my friends and the only one till date. This is also the best one I had so far and hence, wanted to share this experience even though this trip was taken long back
Had our late night dinner on the way back home
With this, we just finished another story in our life's book that is worth reading again and again
We stayed in 2 rooms and travelled through TT, having expenses shared it was around 3500/- per person in 2017. We didn't try any water sports here, hence expenses were less. If you are an adventure lover, you can try water sports in any of the beaches here
Please feel free to comment your views about Gokarna and its beaches in the comments section below
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