An Errant in Monsoon

Monsoon Beach Trek - Kumta to Dareshwar.

The jungle, waterfalls, beach, streams, rivers, and hills. All these marvellous creations wake up to a new life in monsoons. The monsoon months of June to September are truly marvellous, a time of year when nature is at her very best.  

Its monsoon (bliss J ), I desperately wanted to go for a trek, as it had been more than five months since I trekked last time. The exams were over and I was sitting at home doing nothing adding to my desperation. I met Vinu Sharma and planned to go for a trek in Ooty but that got cancelled as others (vivek and Santhosh) couldn’t make it.

Then came this day when Vivek  texted me  that we should go for a trek the same weekend, and as usual, I agreed without even thinking twice. I was in Hassan then and had to cut short my stay. I came back to Bangalore the next day for this reason. Meanwhile, Vinu had enquired in Ooty and came to know that it was raining cats and dogs there and we cannot go for trek!!! L.We came to know about this on Thursday evening and cancelled the Ooty plan lowering our spirits but we wanted to go somewhere badly!!

On Friday around 11’o clock, we finally decided that we are heading off to a venturesomely thrilling monsoon trek to Kumta. I asked Hemanth aka Golti, Ajeeth and Avinash (forgot to ask Anup who is pissed with me for not calling him) if they could join us.  Hemanth agreed immediately.  Now the place and people (, Vivek, Vinu, Vinay, Santhosh, Hemanth, Madhu sir and myself) were finalised but we had to book bus tickets. All the KSRTC buses and other private buses leaving to Kumta from Bangalore were full and after a bit of struggle, Vivek managed to get 7 tickets in Sugma travels.

We, except Vinu and Sailor who were little late met up near Sugma travels ,as we waited for them a friend of mine called me up adding to my anxiety( as my final sem engineering results were to be announced) and it literally gave me a jolt as I had secured 80% for the first time J . The bus departed Bangalore  at 9’o clock. Madhu sir boarded the bus near Rajajinagar.

Kumta, a coastal town, is about 377.3 km from Bangalore and is an overnight journey by bus from Bangalore. The town of Kumta is located on the Arabian Sea coast in the district of Uttara Kannada and just to the north of town; the Aghanashini River joins the Arabian Sea on her way rendering stunning scenery.

We reached Kumta at around 7.30 AM, as we got down from the bus, the rain welcomed us. We stopped by a roadside petrol bunk, hoping that the rain would stop. Meanwhile Santosh, Vinu and Sailor went in the rain to enquire about hotel so that we could freshen up and have our breakfast. The hotel was close to the new bus stand next to the railway track. The rain never looked like coming down so; we started walking in the rain towards hotel. Our monsoon trek which was supposed to start in Baada, started here. Within an hour we were ready and all set to go. We boarded the bus from kumta to Baada (7kms).

As we got down from the bus, we could see a beautiful Kanchikaamba temple and other small shops where we bought water bottles. It was still drizzling there and right in front of the temple was a mantapa where we wrapped up ourselves in plastic and were ready to embrace the rain.

                                                                                               Kanchikaamba Temple

Green , Green and Green

The trek started from this place. It was still raining and as we climbed the steps of Kanchikaamba temple, we took the left mud path deviation. Proceeding with our trail and walking for some 300 mts, the lush green picturesque environment led us to the Baada beach, the first of the many beaches we visited.

First view of the Beach

                    

Loong stretch of the Beach

                                           

As it was raining heavily we couldn’t take many photos. We started walking across the long beach stretch. A slight drizzle and cool breeze made our walk easy. As we walked along the beach; we could see few abandoned huts and fishing boats.The view of the loooooong beach with a small hill at a distance was phenomenal. A few minutes’ walk along the picturesque location took us to the foot of the hill. We climbed the hill, captured few pictures in our camera and rested there for a while.

                                                              

The Mount

                                                                            View from the top

After a brief repose we continued our journey. As we walked we could see a resort and by this time what initially looked like a drizzle turned into more of a thunderstorm in a matter of seconds. We jumped the resort compound and took shelter in a deserted room. After a while we were back on track, a few minutes’ walk from here took us to the foot of another hill. We first tried crossing this hill by climbing but failed to do so as the hill was covered with thorny bushes on top. 

Then we thought of crossing the hill by walking on the rocks near the shore.  Sailor and I gave it a try but we couldn’t continue as the rocks were too big and slippery.  We decided to cross the hill via road and walked back. We found a construction site nearby and it was around 12 ’o clock and we had our lunch there. The workers were very co-operative and they even showed us the route which we took next.

                                                                                                        The Group

                                                                          Road ( supposedly!! )

After having light lunch and saying goodbye to the workers we started walking along the road. As we walked, we spotted a few birds on this stretch. We saw quite a few birds but couldn’t take the pictures of all the birds due to poor light and rain. Santosh and Madhu sir managed to take few pictures as I stood wondering when will I be able to afford to buy an SLR camera.  Meanwhile, I saw fruit exactly like jamun and even ate it, only to suffer irritation in my mouth for next few days. (Lesson learnt – never get deceived by looks J ). After a few minutes of walk on the road we were back to sea but we decided to walk on the road for a while!!!

                                                                                                    Greater coucal

                                                                                                 Pied Kingfisher

                                                      White Bellied Fish Eagle (all 3 pic's by Madhu)

The road led us to a small fishing village, and the people gaped at us as if we had landed into their village straight from mars. I saw kids playing marbles on the street which is something very rare nowadays in this cricket crazy nation.

As we walked along  the road, we came near a small mount. We had to cross this mount to reach the next beach. The view from the mount was breathtaking and there was an abandoned building on top .Finally we could few pics as it was not raining.

                                                              View from Top (photo by - madhu)

                                                              Tree of Thorns ( photo by hemanth)

                                                                 Abandoned building (photo by - madhu)

Vivek and Vinu had already got down from the mount and had walked a long distance. Seeing this we (Golti and I)   started walking down and others followed us. Walking on the road which separates the sea and the green field for sometime took us back to sand. We reached the place where the Aghanashini River meets the sea (the delta). We also met few fishermen here, helped them push their boats to  the sea from the bank, for which they gratefully offered us a ride on their boats and helped us cross the river (or else we had walk extra miles to the bridge to cross the river). The boat ride was exciting  as it was raining heavily and also scary.

                                                                           Nature Engineering

                                                                                   Ailesa

After jumping off the boat and thanking them, we were all set to walk on another  very loooooooooooooooooooong  beach.  On the way saw few fishermen catching crabs and interacted with them for some time  before walking again. This was a tiring walk for everyone as they had to halt at regular intervals  gasping for their breaths, except for Vivek and Me(my 80% gave me an extra energy to walk without pitstops J)  . There was no drizzle or rain for most part of this walk but we hardly clicked photos as we were exhausted. During the last part of the walk Sailor and I had a small race to see who would reach Dhareshwar beach by walking backwards and without looking back. Needless to say I won the raceJ.  The long beach stretch ended here so does the Day 1 trek. There was a small yet beautiful place to sit near the Dareshwar beach and slowly every one reached the place.

Busy in their work

                                                                                                     

                                                                  Which one do you choose?? :)

                                                                      Final steps of day One

After discussing for while about where to go from there (Honnavar or Gokarna) we decided to go to Honnavar. We walked towards the main road from there and caught a bus to Honnavar. We booked rooms in Kamath Yatrinivas of Honnavar and after a sumptuous dinner it was time for much deserved sleep. Good night J

 Day 2

After a good night’s sleep we were up by 8.30am and were ready by 9.30. The day started with super heavy idli’s (more like a kotte kadubu) and onion uttappa in Kamath.  We decided to go to Apsarakonda falls and Murdeshwara after booking our return tickets to B’lore. Sailor, Santosh and I booked the 9.30pm Volvo bus to Bangalore.

Second day was more like a country side walk or sightseeing than a trek. We took Auto from Honnavar to Apsarakonda falls, all seven of us sat in one auto!!!!(Something which happens only here) and our Journey to Apsarakonda falls which is 5 km from Honnavar started. On the way the auto driver showed us Uttar Kannada’s longest bridge built on river. An Half an hour ride took us near Apsarakonda falls.   The place has a temple of Lord Narasimha and Umamba Ganapathy. Beautiful stream flows in front of this temple and the falls is situated behind this temple. After paying a visit to the temple we headed towards the falls. 

                                                                                 Narsimha and Ganapathy Temple.

                                                                    Stream next to the Temple

Apsara konda , means  pond of an apsare or a ‘nymph’. The water falling from a height of about 10 meters forms a small yet serene waterfall.Though; there was not   even one Apsare, the first look of the falls made me fall in love with it. As I climbed down the steps, I had the clear view of falls and it was truly amazing.  Initially it was crowded and except for Sailor none of us wanted to get into the water. But after seeing the crowd leave and the kids jumping into the water from height we couldn’t resist any further and slowly one by one got into the water. Sailor and Vivek inspired by looking at the kids diving from a height they also performed the same act while I was trying to learn swimming. The bath in the falls rejuvenated us and after spending close to two hours and taking pictures, we left to our next destination, the Apsara konda hillock.

                                                                             Apsara konda Falls

Hillock is situated few meters from the falls.A high hill, a fine view of sea, paddy fields and natural caves (we saw this from far) are the attractions of this place.  The view from here was surreal. We clicked lot of photos here (obviously). It was a bright sunny day, a contrast to our first day.  The Government is developing the place and is even creating a park for public.  This place truly exudes heavenly beauty. After spending sufficient time there we walked towards the paddy fields through which we had to go the main road.

                                                                    View from the view point

                                             

We started walking on the paddy fields; the path took us through small village. The walk was relaxing. Golti, Vivek ,Madhu sir and Myself were walking ahead of  rest of the guys. Vinu Sharma who was in photography mood the whole day, Sailor and Santhosh were trailing behind us. At some point of time we got separated. Golti, Vivek, Madhu sir and I took the bypass to reach the main road. After an hour and half walk we reached main road but those three were not seen!!!  After waiting for half an hour, we could see them walking towards us and learnt that they had taken the village road.

                                                                              Paddy field

Emme          (photo by - vinu)

                                                                         

Our next destination for the day was Murdeshwara temple .Murudeshwara temple is famous for its World’s tallest Shiva statue which is in the temple complex surrounded by Arabian Sea on three sides. The temple itself boasts of a 20 storied-249 feet Rajagopura and  few other concrete structures like  elephants, sun god etc

We took a tempo traveller to Murdeshwara, though the tempo was crowded, Sailor still managed to sleep well (we wondered how he can sleep). We were literally tortured by Santosh (his FYI’s, comments about songs, what not?). We reached Murdeshwara in 45minutes and headed straight to Kamath for lunch. It was around 3 ’0 clock and there was no rice meal available. We ate what was available but sailor went in search of  rice coz of which, after finishing our lunch, we went in search of him!! He wasn’t carrying his cell phone and finding him became almost impossible, we waited for him in Kamath for more than half an hour, after which he showed up. We headed to the famous lord Shiva temple from there. After getting darshana of lord Shiva we headed to the 17^th floor of gopuram. The view from the 17^th floor was amazing, after clicking few pic’s and spendind 10min’s there we headed towards the world’s tallest Shiva statue.

                                                                     Gopura  ( Madhu's photo)

                                                                               View from 17th floor, world's tallest Shiva

After spending ample amount of time there and sipping coffee at a nearby hotel we took a rickshaw towards the main road. It was 6 o clock by then. We reached the main road, while we were waiting for a bus, we befriended a cat. All of a sudden it started raining heavily. Luckily we got the bus to Honnavar soon and by 7. 30 PM we reached honnavara.

                                                                                Time pass

It was raining in Honnavar also; we took a rickshaw to Kamath, packed our bags, had dinner and went to the bus stand. Our bus was at 9.30 pm, as we waited for the bus, we sorted out our financial matter and were all set to return to B’lore. Though we came by KSRTC Volvo, the journey back to Bangalore was horrible. I can even write a post only on this bus journey!!!

Looking back, every moment of which was spent walking in the torrential rains, coupled with panoramic view, breeze ameliorated with the boat ride, visit to falls and divine touch in Murdeshwara etc, we realised that we had successfully completed a challenging monsoon trek, the kind of which will stay fresh in our memories for a very long time for what we experienced. 

                                                                       Yes , it was a super trek :)

Go for monsoon trek Just to see what rain is and what life in the rain is all about or just to walk along the beach and experience the beauty of the sea.

Iternary

Duration – depends on you but ideally 3nights/2days

Night 1 - Over night journey to kumta-377.3km by bus.

Day 1- Reach kumta, kumta to Beach – 7km by bus.

(Trek starts here, trek how much ever you can, we trekked till Dareshwar)

Night 2 - Dareshwar to Honnavar  kms , stay there.

Day  2 – visit Apsarakonda falls, murudeshwara any other places if you can.

Night 3 - over night journey to B’lore from Honnavar.

       A special thanks to Anup  who helped me in writing this.

         Happy journey J please don’t litter the place!!!

The earth does not belong to us, we belong to the earth!!!   

                                                  --Chief Seattle