Last time I visited Gokarna it was Kudle Beach I fell in love with and ended up most of my time there. I liked Gokarna so much that when my friends asked me to plan a trip I asked them to go to Gokarna as they have never been there.
Initially we planned to stay in one of the shacks at Kudle Beach but when I called them up some of them were closed and rest were already full. As we were reaching Gokarna at 5:00 AM we decided to book the hotel at-least for first day day and look for a place at Kudle but we ended up staying there for the complete trip.
3 of us who were coming from Pune were already in Gokarna when I joined them in our room near Gokarna Beach. I was very excited to take them to Kudle Beach and so we headed for Kudle just after breakfast at Pai Restaurant. As we reached Kudle all my excitement was washed off by the sea and it turned out that the waves were so strong that right half of the Kudle was already covered with water to the extent that the entrance of many shack were closed. At a point I thought that none of the shack will be open but there were some shacks opened on the left side of the beach. On inquiring we came to know that it has rained heavily in past few days and July to September is not so good time to visit Gokarna. As we sat in one of the shack for some time the water level began to descend and the beach was clear by the evening but as it was very cloudy the sunset was not quite as I expected. Its not that we didn’t enjoyed out time at Kudle we had a great time it was just that my expectations were a lot more but as it was rainy season most of the tourists had already left and will be back in October and I certainly missed the famous jamming session which was the highlight of my previous trip.
The next day we decided to cover Paradise beach which made my entire trip and then spend sometime at Om beach. As it rained heavily we decided not to trek from Om beach but go to Belakan and then hike for around 20 mins to reach Paradise beach. The very first look of Paradise beach excited all of us it was just 4 of us who were there and a family who was living there for past some days and upon talking to them we came to know that they come for almost 3-4 times a year and spend time at Paradise beach. They had also tied 3 hammock on requesting allowed us to use them. As we spend more and more time on Paradise we started falling in love with the place coconut trees, the sound of waves turned into music, the silence and solitude at the beach, the cold breeze blowing against your face, the smell of moist sand made it a perfect place to spend some time in leisure and somehow slowly I started understanding why so many people come to this place and spend months here. I wonder how this place looks at night when the stars come out, can this be the perfect place for stargazing. As it was about to turn dark we decided to head towards Om beach and sat in Paradise cafe for sometime. After sometime we decided to explore Om beach which by the way is in the shape of the word Om. After spending sometime exploring the Om beach we sat on one of the rocks on the right end of Om beach watching waves hitting the rock. After spending sometime at Om beach we headed for Zostel for dinner.
As we were staying close to Gokarna beach we decided to sit in Gokarna beach for a while after dinner. As we were meeting after a long time we had a lot to catch up which made the night memorable, also this was the first time was staying in beach during late night hours and the night at beach have a beauty of their own. You can only see the waves to a short distance but the sound of waves is so loud that you can feel the intensity of it. After spending some hours at Gokarna beach we decided to call it a day.
As we had to leave in evening we decided to head towards Om beach and spend the rest of the time there. We headed to Namaste cafe which overlooks the sea and spent almost 2-3 hours there chilling out. After sometime we decided to take a stroll on Om beach and then again decided to sit on the rocks for sometime before leaving.
Although it was rainy season and my second visit to Gokarna I enjoyed as much as I did on my first one and such is the beauty of Gokarna that I would never give a second thought if I had to visit again. Though not as expected but the 3 days at Gokarna turned out to be great and gave me more reasons to come back to this place in future.
The Itinerant Analyst 