Gokarana - Honnavara beach trek: BT/3

The konkan coast is famous for its beautiful beaches, landscapes and lush green forests. Planned to trek from Gokarna to Honnavara. Worked on the trail along with Mudassar and finally prepared the route map.  Sent the invitations to the Bangalore ASCENDers group. Huuuhhhh.. the registrations were flooded like Tsunami. Finally confirmed 23 participants and booked to and fro bus journey tickets.
Started our trek from Gokarna beach and ended at Haldipura beach. In between we had covered Kudle, Om, Half moon, Paradise, Barka, Sangam, Holanagadde, Mangodlu, Vanamali, Kumta, Dhareshwar, Ramagandi beaches. This stretch is part of the Golden route, which starts from Ankola to Honnavara.

DAY 0 :
Started from Bangalore by a luxurious and comfortable VRL semi-sleeper. When the bus stopped for dinner, We celebrated  birthday of Ashwini. It was a surprise and memorable birthday for her. Thanks to Ashwal for making the arrangements of plum cakes, candles and greeting card with signatures of all the participants.

The journey was a great musical night, as the birthday baby Ashwini is an great singer. All the team felt her like the "Nightingale of  BASC".Day 1:
Reached Gokarna by 7:30 AM and walked towards the beach. This beach forms the coast of the town while the other four beaches lie to the south of Gokarna beach. Near to the beach a basic hotel and public toilets are available. Finished the basic amenities by 9:30 AM and started the trek. Rajesh, Sreedhar were nominated as the sweepers and myself was the navigator. Filled the water bottles at the temple after crossing Gokarna beach. Here one needs to climb few steps from the temple and a  clear trail will takes you to Kudle beach. Reached Kudle beach by 10:30 AM. At the end of the Kudle beach climbed the hill and just followed the trail. Finally reached Om beach at 11:00 AM; continued on the trail and made to Half moon Beach at 12:00 PM and the Paradise beach at 01:00 PM
The sun was on high and made us low . The team had lunch in a resort at paradise beach. On request we also had a French song from a visitor followed by a photography session
 
Started trek after lunch. Before the end of the paradise beach, on the left hand side there is invisible trail. A steep climb and 15 mins walk from here will takes you to a broken bridge. During monsoons it will be difficult to cross the bridge. Another 30 mins walk through the village will take you to the Tadadi fishing port. Finally all reached Tadadi port by 3PM, waited for the boat to cross the  Aghanashini river. After crossing the river, we started to trek the beautiful Barka beach. After lot of confusion in the trail, we finally managed to reach Barka beach by 4:15 PM. So, to avoid this confusions always follow the trail which is running parallel to the beach.
Tried to explore a new trail in finding out the ruined fort, almost reached the peak. But unable to move further due to the thorny bushes and steep climb. Huuuhh.. We lost the trail... Steep climb and steep decent. Thorny bushes..Few injured people...Sun is setting down and anxiety on the people's faces start increasing....Some time loosing the trail makes the trek more adventurous and memorable.. The communication between the navigator and sweepers through the walkie- Talkie really helped in this situation. keeping the sun set in mind, we got back to the Barka beach and moved towards the Sangham beach. It was already late and few people missed the sun set . Watched sunset from a hill before getting down to the Sangama beach. Spent 1 hour at the Sangama beach and started trek to the camping spot. It was a night trek under the full moon (almost).  Everyone was tired but the weather made us to cover a distance of 7kms. Fi nally reached Ramanjaneya temple at Hollanagadde, which is on a small hill. This is an ideal place for camping as the templ e authorities are co-operative. Had fresh water bath, finished the dinner with Rasam rise, Bisibele bath, Chapathi, veg salad, sweets and many more . Don't be jealous :P.
Later introduction session with lot of PJ’s, where everyone came to know one and another well . The night weather was warm and it was damn good. Before going to bed did some light painting photo experiments

Day 2:
Wake up..... Wake up.... Ramkumar started shouting at 05:30 AM. I thought of beating him like hell and finally requested him to let me sleep for another 30 mins. After another 15 mins the priest came and  Started ringing the bells of the temple. Finally we woke up and got ready for the breakfast. Near the foot hills of the temple there is a hotel, had yummy yummy upma, poori, blah blah blah..
The day started with a beautiful sun rise Manghodlu beach - 9:15 AM; reached Vanamali beach - 9:40 AM
From here most of the beaches looks like private beaches and beautiful Kumta headbunder beach - 10 :15 AM were we neededto cross the backwaters, this 50 mt's width back waters made us to trek additional 5 kms. On the way we noticed so many star fishes, Looks like sub marines. Landed Dhareswar beach - 1:15 PM ;covered Ramagandi beach and finally reached Haldipura beach by 4:30PM. Played beach kabadi, It was full of masti and josh... The kabadi series was draw by 1-1 score.
Enjoyed in the sea waters for 1 hour and took a fresh water bath at a nearby villagers home. Thanks a lot for the villagers for their cooperation. Then after a beautiful sun set and bid goodbye to the beaches.

Honnavara - 8PM
At the end of the day after reaching Honnavara everyone was hungry, the team divided into veg and non-veg groups. Actually I planned this trek for having sea food. Our non-veg group had great time with fish meal, fish fry. Then we had a gudbud ice- cream..it was dam good…After a strenuous trek having a good meal makes us to forget the pains and only remember the sweet memories. The return journey was by the VRL full sleeper. so had a nice sleep and was dreaming about the next trek.

The team who covered the entire stretch of 47 kms. 

A sincere thanks to Rajesh, Abhi, Srikanth for helping me in organizing the trek and a big thanks to everyone for making this event successful.

Also read one more write-up from Ramkumar CLICK HERE

Summary and info for future trekkers:
Theme              : Beach Trek
Terrain              : Beach, Boulders, Hills.
Grade               : Difficult
Start time          : 09:30 AM, Sat, 18th Dec, 2010
End time           : 08:00 PM, Sunday, 19th Dec, 2010
Trek Distance   : 47 Km’s
Nearest town    : Gokarna, Kumta & Honnavar
Team size         : 23
Total expenses : 930 INR/head
Camping           : Hollanagadde Ramanjaneya temple. Good place
                              with sweet water and wash rooms.
Transportation  : VRL Travels, KSRTC

Day 0: (Friday night)
08:00 pm - Start from Bangalore.

Day 1: (19 km’s trek)
07:30 am - Reached Gokarna, fresh up and Breakfast.
09:30 am - Gokarna beach.
10:30 am - Kudle beach.
11:00 am - Om beach.
12:00 pm - Halfmoon beach.
01:00 pm - Paradise beach, Lunch break.
03:00 pm - Aganashini river bank.
03:15 pm - Tadadi port
04:15 pm - Barka beach
05:45 pm - Sangam  beach & Sun set.
07:30 pm - Camping at hollanagadde Ramanjaneya temple.

Day 2: (28 Km’s trek)
06: 00 am - wake up and refresh
08: 00 am - Holanagadde beach
09: 15 am - Mangodlu beach and Halt for Break fast
09: 40 am - Vanamali beach
10: 15 am - Kumta Beach
10: 45 am - Kumta fish market
11: 20 am - Kumta beach
01: 15 pm - Dhareswar beach and Halt for Lunch
03: 30 pm - Ramagandi Beach
04: 15 pm - Haldipur beach
07: 00 pm - Exit to Haldipur village
07: 30 pm - Main road to board bus to Honnavara
08: 00 pm - Dinner at Honnavar
08: 30 pm - Start from Honnavar

Day 3:
07: 30 am – Reach Bangalore.

Few tips from our experiences:
* Carry proper sun gear and full sleeves dress to avoid sun tan.
* Start early on day1 so that you can reach the camping spot before sun set.
* Don't use floaters for this trek.
* Don't forget to carry energy drinks.(non-alcoholic )
* Kindly follow no trace policy and save mother earth.

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Written by: Rafi (Courtesy: http://mohammadrafishaik.blogspot.com) 
Event organized by: Rafi
Image Gallery:
Rafi, Rajani, Rahul, Srikanth, Ravichandran, Suresh, Ramkumar