On Tanning Solutions

Someone tells me that the Brits swarm in hordes to Goa for the winter, slather themselves with suntan lotion and roast. So, besides the blue waters of the Arabian Sea, there is a sea of pink sunburned blubber on the sands. Be that as it may, we figured setting aside the sun burn part they're all onto a good thing. Which is why exiting Coffee Valley found us pointing our way westwards.



Now it's all right to say we're going to the coast from Sakleshpura. As the crow flies or as NH 48 goes (since we're not going to fly like crows), the distance is mere 120 kms to Mangalore. However, since that excellent piece of rallying ground, Shiradi Ghat is closed, we chose it's upcoming (some would say overtaken) competitor, Charmadi Ghats. And since we'd used that road on our way to Magundi earlier in the year, we figured the journey would be a breeze. We figured wrong. It was a bone jarring, potentially axle breaking, dusty 20 kms just getting to the Ghats. Somehow, in the 5 months that had elapsed since our last crossing, this stretch of tar had converted to something that resembled the mountains of Ladakh with all the dust of Thar. There was an excellent view of the sun setting just below the forest guest house at Charmadi. Eventually, we pulled up in Mangalore, instead of the original destination, Udupi and bedded down for the night.

We were up with the lark the next day and a friend of ours pointed us to a beach near Mangalore. Penambur I think. Unfortunately, the signposts were not encouraging - we didn't see one at all - so we went to the next beach, Kapu. We were the first ones there, at about 7.30 in the morning. There were others who were there as well, but they were there to commune with nature, and I guess they did that everyday. The beach is excellent with the lighthouse in prison garb with a red top. There was a nice feel to the whole place with the spray in the soft morning light. The beach is not very wide, but it is long and the light house end is where it ends. There are remnants of a an ancient structure, but I couldn't find a way of getting on it. TBH, enjoyed this better, what with me thinking of capturing all this on camera. As soon as we hit the highway from Kapu, a wonderful mist surrounded us. All the time I stayed on the coast, I've never seen mist. Ever. This was a nice grey morning, with minimal traffic and coconut palms sticking out and the vapour rising from the creeks we crossed adding to the views.


We stopped for an authentic Udupi breakfast. On my last visit to Amgol, we'd briefly stopped at Malpe and I wasn't particularly keen on going back. However, since we didn't have a particular destination in mind, we went back there anyway. Instead of stopping at the beach, though, we stopped a bit further up, near a temple. We walked past a school and soon were on the beach. Malpe has it's charm, though my money would be still on Kapu. For a start, there is the jetty further up the beach, plus the beach proper had a line of last night's dinner bobbing about in the waves. And from the looks of it, it looked like the entire village had a gala time the night before. You've to admit that that kind of puts a dampener on Baywatch-esque ideas of a beach.

When we started back, we decided to take back roads of coastal Udupi. Like an earlier trip, it was fun just going through a place and enjoying the sights. However, the boffos at the NHAI have decided that to appreciate the beauty around, you need to be reminded of the hell below your wheels. The road is good in patches heading out of Udupi and there are patches where they exist merely in a hypothetical way. Though having been battle hardened by the Charmadi Ghats, which is not even hypothetical - being more in the realm of mystical, we weathered it. It definitely put a dampner on things though. Next port of call was the ever charming Maravanthe, lunch at Murudeshwar (thought I wonder just why I go there) and on to Baiyandooru. This beach is absolutely blissful and because it's at an inaccessible place - well it's not really, but then who makes the effort when Goa is just a little while away. Maybe that's it's charm. No people, a temple whose provenance or denomination I didn't bother to check perched at one end and a creek at the other. The drive from here onto Goa gets progressively worse till after you cross Karwar. At the Goa Karnataka border we ran into familiar territory. Payment for no service rendered. For whatever reason, we were asked to register our name at the border crossing and leave something for "tea & water".

Goa in Christmas is wonderfully decked up and we had booked a place at Morgem. However due to all our stops and the state of the roads we were only able to get there by night. Morgem in the morning looked absolutely wonderful. It doesn't have the hordes that plague Goa's other beaches. It might also be that we plonked ourselves at a time in the morning when Goa is still dreaming about last night.

Next port of call was Vengurla. However, the map and it's actual corporeal existence diverged. Which is me putting my showing off my English skills to say that the map showed the road passing through this beach and the it actually being 22 kms away. Since we were a little pressed for time, we chose to go to Malwan. There is a short ride to Sindhudurg fort from Malwan jetty and people who'd help you snorkel as well. Neither of the choices appealed and we left for Ganapatipule. There is a temple to Lord Ganesh here. While TBH went into the temple, I took a short walk beyond it. MTDC has beach huts and tents. If you go beyond the small crowds on the beach nearer to the temple, this is an amazing beach. Towards it's northern end there is a creek that meets the sea and the view is absolutely amazing.

Later, I spent a weekend driving around with my earlier companions, the Usual, Suspects. The journey brought us to the destination of Bankot, a sleepy village that has a ST bus wide road, an excellent beach and no food and then hunger took us onwards to Anjarla, with a little-wider-than-a-ST-bus road, an excellent beach and fish meals. We camped on the beach star gazing till the cold and the wind pushed us in to the warmth of our modest homestay.

So, yeah, all this rambling is to agree with the Brits. There's a lot more places you can go roast yourself though.

Coffee & Conviviality

I've an excellent idea for the start of a vacation. Take the road. Better yet, take the road late so that you are in the Nelamangala sector by mid-morning. As is its wont, it'll server a peach of a jam. In my opinion, nothing can be guaranteed to help you appreciate the fact that you'll be away from all of this madness more. Be that as it may, I spent an excellent weekend in the hills. With an invitation to come back when coffee flowers, I might add.

Our drive - I was with The Better Half - took us to Coffee Valley, Sakleshpura. The drive after you take a left onto NH 47 is excellent, if a little narrow. To get to Sakleshpura, you drive past the right turn that welcomes you to Hasan and onwards to Belur and Halebidu. The road turned progressively worse as we took the by-pass. It was a portent of things to come, but that is jumping ahead of the story.

Once you get to Sakleshpura, you count down roughly 4 kms to a turn to the right that goes to Davalkere. As soon as you take this right, there is a fork on the road, the left leads to Mudigere and the left to Davalkere. We reached Coffee Valley just after lunch - anything after 1 and before 5 is lunch - and were welcomed by Mr. Manjunath, the squire of all Coffee Valley.

Mr. Manjunath is a host who believes in the old adage that "Atithi Devo Bhava". We're not left alone a minute from the time we got in to the time we left. After a never-before-tasted lime juice (TBH claiming that it had honey - we don't know the secret ingredient though) was followed by excellent lunch of akki roti, a veg palya and chicken. Mrs. Manjunath, for she was the cook, over the next couple of meals, succeeded in demolishing all "diet"ary plans that TBH had. As all my friends know, I don't even attempt going on one when on a trip like this.


There is not much you are legally allowed to do after such a repast - going horizontal is mandatory I believe. I tried fighting it but eventually succumbed to Morpheus. The small rooms that they've built down the hillside from the drying yards is cool even though the sun outside attempted to huff and puff. True to his nature, Mr. Manjunath walked us to our rooms. Along the way, we stopped and gleaned some info about the various crops that he grows on his plantation, his routine and his estate. Considering that the walk is only about 5 mins, you can bet that there was a lot of stopping!


Post this, we were supposed to go some distance from the estate to catch a glimpse of the sunset. We met up with a couple of other folks staying there and we all piled in on the Hosamane Gypsy. Considering that we'd made solid inroads into lunch and the beds really warm and inviting, we were a little late in getting to the location and missed the sunset. This was to be the leitmotif of this journey, but more onthat later. We did manage to get the last farewell that the evening had put up for us however. The moon compensated - a golden disc rising in the east. We lingered as the both celestial bodies put up a show and silently took in the vista spread out before us. This seemed like a good place to camp, but I didn't see any water body around. The moon rendered the torches that we'd got superflous. Snacks and coffee awaited us. Camp-fire followed and we enjoyed excellent food and company around the warmth. Once dinner was done, we had to persuade Mr. Manjunath to rest for he was still hovering about like a mother hen. Our conversation followed around the campfire where everything from malls, childhood stories, Awesomely bad movies and college anecdotes were shared.


The next morning saw some of us (read yours truly) get up early to catch sunrise. A short walk outside the estate led to the discovery that Sakleshpura dogs do not like me. Since I'm such a wussy around them, I decided to curtail the walk to a short perambulation and made tracks back to the estate. I joined Mr. Manjunath on his morning inspection through the estate. Another mouth watering delight followed and we made tracks to Pandavagudda. It's a 20 minute ride from the estate to the base of the hill. A small temple to Ishwaran stands here and after the mandatory Patel shots, we moved towards the hill. It's a pleasant walk up the hill and it gives you a panoramic view of Sakleshpura countryside. We reluctantly moved from there, only the visions of epicurean delight that awaited us at the base driving us down. While we would have liked to stay back and enjoy a siesta, the road beckoned all of us and we very reluctantly took leave. Our next destination was Udupi, but the good people at the PWD and NHAI connived to ensure that we only reached Mangalore. More about that in a bit.

Boondein

Road Trip n. A journey in an automobile, usually impromtu or unplanned. Road Trip n. A journey,usually coincides with a long weekend, undertaken because there is an automobile. The first is the dictionary meaning, the second, the meaning according to my roomies and myself. A lot of jaunts have been because there is an automobile and a long weekend. I went on this trip some time ago. 12th August 2005 was the date. And now that summer is nigh, I figured, it is a good time to remember, that there are cooler climes on the other side of the Heat.

August had been kind, and there were 3 long weekends to choose from. We chose the first, on the principle, that when it comes to holidays, tomorrow is not tomorrow. We had planned a long circular trip to the Karwar coast on the West and back. We started on 13th Morning at 6 AM. Our original destination was Gokarna, 250 kms north of Mangalore and 420 kms east of Bangalore. There are two ways of getting there. For those who are interested in the scenic route, the NH 247 to Hassan is the ideal way. Right upto Chickamaglur, the road is drivable, the scenes great, and what's more, if you are the journey-is-the-destination kinda person, you can stop over at Belur and Halebid. Both of these places have temples built in the 12th century AD. The Halebid temple is smaller, and it is dedicated to Lord Shiva. There is an excellent guide there, who for 50 Rs. will give you a rundown on the temple and also impart such nuggets of wisdom as what Love is. For those interested, according to him, it is Look, Observe, Verify and Enjoy. Most of us in the group figured that we can skip from look to enjoy. The temple at Belur is dedicated to Lord . It is also much bigger. It is a collection of temples in a large compound. The central temple is the one dedicated to Lord. It is not as intricately carved as the one at Halebid, but at least it is complete. Legend has it that the Halebid temple was sacked by a Moghul emperor before it could be finished. You will see a lot of unfinished or semi-finished carvings here.

Onwards. When we set out, there was no stated destination nor a stated idea. The whole journey-is-the-destination might not work for people travelling in mixed company. Women like to have a firm answer on where we are going and why are we going and so and so forth. However, we were not thus encumbered. The road between Triptur and the turn off to Chikamagalur is quite bad. Once you cross this however, it is excellent. Both for the driver and others. We passed through some excellent scenery, where the driver wanting to appreciate it closely, got a little too close. I believe there is a dog out there with a bad back to prove it.

Jog Falls, is an excellent place. If you can see anything that is. That is the impression we got when we reached there. Having chosen a period when the monsoon was getting active, we could hardly see anything at the site. There is however, an alternate viewing point, which very convineintly, is also not so crowded. To get there, ignore the signs which prompt you to cross a bridge to view the Falls. Just a little beyond the bridge, is a road that goes up which leads to an alternate site. This is relatively empty and if it is possible, cleaner.

Honnavar was the halt for the night. By the simple process of elimination. That was the nearest town to Gokarna. There are a lot of hotels around, there is a Kamat just across the junction where the NH 247 meets the Bombay Cochin highway. Word of advise, the last stretch from Jog Falls to Honnavar is a NH. Even if it gives a feel and width of a village track. Since we chose a long weekend, we ended up staying at Kumta, 20 kms north of Honnavar. Excellent rooms at 500 + taxes. For four people.

The next day was the coast drive. The ideal way would be to start from Bhatkal and drive up to Goa. Since we all know the ideal way is never the realistic way, we did the contrary thing. Driving down from Gokarna to Mangalore. This stretch boasts of some excellent beaches. These are not crowded, they have reasonably cheap hotels around, and for most part, are good to go to anytime of the year. Gokarna is also a temple town and unless there is another way to the beach, there is an extremely narrow and convoluted entry to the beach. And at first pass, it is not even worth the effort. Move around a bit, and you will be rewarded. For those who are upto it, there is an excellent half day trek along Gokarna, which will cover Uma, Kudle, Om and Paradise beaches. Just take something to eat along with you. There are a couple of huts on Uma and Kudle which will serve you your basic fare.

The next beach driving down is the Murudeshwar beach. This again is a temple beach, but walking along the beach is much more interesting. The Marvunte beach is the best of all. It suddenly comes upon you as you are driving along the not-so-excellent road. And it is each to miss. It is just a spit of land between the highway and the sea. Add an excellent river next to the road, and you have the perfect setting. For those who want to take a break, the Turtle Bay Resort is the only choice, so book in advance. The resort is nice and prices range from 500 to 1200 for double occupancy. It is also on the beach, but a little further along where you would stop.

The last part of the journey is also the most painful. The drive from Mangalore to Bangalore would be heavenly; and would be, considering that the PWD and the truckers are trying to get you there any way. The roads are bad all along the ghat and quite a way beyond. I might've missed out on a couple of beaches, the Malpe beach at Udipi is also considered good, but attempt this drive only if you have more than 3 days. Otherwise all you would have are memories and trouble sitting anywhere for a couple of days.