Gokarana - Honnavara Beach trek

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 Mudhasar and finally prepared the route map.  Send the invitations to the Bangalore ascenders group. Huuuhhhh.. The registrations are flooded like Tsunami. Finally confirmed 23 participants and booked the to and fro bus journey tickets.
Started our trek from Gokarna beach and ended at Haldipur 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 had celebrated the bithday 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, The birth day baby Aswini is a great singer. All the team felt her like the "Nightingale of  BASC". Here is her sweet voice, which was recorded in the bus itself. Mixed with the memories of the trek.

Day1 :
Reached Gokarna by 7:30 AM and walked towards the Gokarna beach. This beach forms the coast of the town while the other four beaches lie to the south of Gokarna. 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 choosed as the sweep leaders and me as the Navigator. Filled the water bottles at the temple after crossing Gokarna beach. 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 - 11:00 AM 
Followed the trail and reached Half moon Beach - 12:00 PM

Paradise Beach - 01:00 PM


The sun was on high and make us low . All the team had lunch in a resort at the paradise beach. On request, we had a French song from a visitor and then 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 takes you to the Tadadi fishing port. Finally all the team reached tadadi port by 3PM, waited for the boat to cross the Aghanashini river. After crossing the river, we started trek to 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 get back to the Barka beach and moved towards the Sangham beach. Its already late and few people missed the sun set. Sun set on the hill before getting down into the Sangham beach

Spend 1 hour at the Sangham beach and started trek to the camping spot. It was a night trek under the full moon(Almost). Everyone tired but the weather makes us to cover a distance of 7kms after sun set. Finally reached Ramanjaneya temple at Hollanagadde, which is on a small hill. This is a ideal place for camping as the temple authorities are co-operative. Had fresh water bath, finished the dinner with Rasam rise, Bise beli 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 done some light painting experiments 
Day 2:
Get up..... get up.... Ram kumar 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

Vanamali beach - 9:40
From here most of the beaches are looks like private beaches and beautiful

Kumta headbunder beach - 10 :15 AM
 
Back waters @Kumta This 50 Mt's width back waters makes us to walk additional 5 km

On the way we noticed so many star fishes, Looks like sub marines. Here is survival tactics of a star fish

Dhareswar beach - 1:15 PM 
covered Ramagandi beach and finally reached Haldipur beach by 4:30PM. Played beach kabadi, It was full of masti and jhoosh... The kabadi series was draw by 1-1 score.

Enjoyed in the sea waters for 1 hour and took a fresh water bath near by villagers home. Thanks a lot for the villagers for their coordination. Then we had a beautiful sun set 
The team who covered the entire stretch of 47 kms. 
Honnavara - 8PM
At the end of the day everyone are hungry. Reached Honnavara, the team divided into veg and non veg. Actually, I planned this trek for having sea food. Our non veg team 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 us the sweet memories. The return journey was by the VRL full sleeper. so, had a nice sleep and dreaming about the next trek. Here is the complete set of photos of the trek - Picassa photostream.
A sincere thanks to Rajesh, Abhi, Srikanth for helping me in organising the trek and a big thanks to everyone for making this event successful.

Image Courtesy: Rafi, Ravi, Ram, Rajani and Deepak

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-Alchohal )
• Kindly follow no trace policy and saves mother earth.