Murudeshwar, Gokarna and the Magical Jogfalls"

Murudeshwar, Gokarna and the Magical Jogfalls

(15^th to 17^th Aug. 2014)

I had no clue of four days continuous holidays falling from 15^th to 18^th August, till 3 weeks before, when Chandni, one of our friends texted, saying,” Hey, if you are planning some outing during independence day weekend, let me know. I'll join you too.” Talking of holidays! And the adrenaline rush starts in me. I quickly checked the calendar, and there it was '15^th Independence day holiday, 18^th Parsi new year holiday, and sandwiched in between which were 16^th & 17^th, Saturday-Sunday, my favourite days'. Soon my mind started wandering and just a flip of my eyes, I visualised Jog falls, which I guess was due to the ongoing Monsoon magic. I asked Deepali, and she was more than delighted and said excitedly,” We will go to the temple also!” That meant her yes. ;-) We told Chandni too, but she seemed reluctant due to long distance travel to an unknown place blindly with no assured safety measures. Hmm. So, only two of us were there, just waiting for the holidays. We tried to book tatkal train tickets, which unfortunately we couldn't get. Even for the bus tickets we had to struggle for long, and finally got tickets for VRL travel to Bhatkal, a small taluka of Uttar Kannad district, which we used as our base.

We boarded the 2:30 pm Bus from Dadar, which took another 3 hours to pick up all its passengers from different locations, thus leaving the Navi Mumbai suburbs by 5 or 5:30 pm. The journey through NH-17, was quite struggle-some, as the bus wobbled like anything and also being on lower berth of sleeper, we couldn't have a good view of outside as the window panes were very narrowly placed upwards.

:-)

We reached Bhatkal at 7:45 am, and searched for an accommodation, which we found in a nearby lodge, which was centrally located. We booked a room, got fresh, had breakfast from a nearby restaurant which served only south Indian food and set out for the exploration.

"The reason I prefer the window seat and avoid talking while travelling; for then I get a view without, which instills a special & indescribable feeling within ."" Nawi

Day-1; Murudeshwar Temple and Bhatkal Lighthouse

(15^th August)

A very happy Independence Day guys! Independence day it was, and independent we were! :-)

We boarded a shared Tempo to Murudeshwar, which is 12 kms north of Bhatkal, and travelled amidst of local travellers, who knew no Hindi and English but only Kannad. So driving through lush green surroundings of coconut and other trees including the shrubs & bushes, along the wide expanse of wheat fields, we reached Murudeshwar after half an hour. And there it was; the magnificent temple, where the second tallest statue of Lord Shiva in the world stood, fully guarding the whole area and adding to the already beautiful coastal town. In front of the statue, the 120 ft tall, 20 storeys Gopuram is another wonder. The whole area is surrounded by beautiful and clean sea water of Arabian Sea. The Temple is an architectural Marvel with its own unique aura and attraction, which attracts tourists round the year. To have a full and better view of the statue and its surrounding beauty, there is a lift facility in the Gopuram to go up to 18^th storey, which charges Rs. 10/- per person. Though it has to be a quick view, as it’s not an open terrace view, but through the small window panes, and with the huge crowd struggling for their turn we get just an instant glimpse of the beauty and 2-3 clicks of the camera to wonder and cherish it fully later on. Hmm

"Tiny us in front of the magnificence;In center is the 120 ft tall Gopuram."

After that we took a walk through the outer part of Shiva statue. By then we were so tired, as the sun shone quite bright and hard above us. So we went to nearby Beach view restaurant and decided to have lunch and have a quiet and peaceful view of the sea. And thank God, there we got North Indian food also. Lol

"Lord Shiva, Marvelously blessing His devotees."

After having a satisfactory meal and view, we took the return tempo to Bhatkal. We rested for a while, got fresh and then set out for Bhatkal Lighthouse, which was 3 kms from the circle. The lighthouse is on a hilltop, from where we can have a good view of the Bhatkal town, which is encircled beautifully by deep and clean Arabian Sea. The beaches looked marvellous from the top, which attracted and touched Deepali's heart's core, and she kept shouting,”Mujhe jana hai wahan, I want to go there.”  We enquired for the way to go, from some guys, but they said that it's not safe to go down there, as the sand is quite slimy and unstable and waves so forceful, which might drag one into the sea in just one gulp.

"Free spirits in a free world on a free day"

Then we went to the top of the lighthouse, for which they charge Rs. 10/- per person as entry fee. And Wow! From top the entire view looked even more beautiful and soul touching. Deepali got more senti and longed strongly to go to the beach. We asked the lighthouse guy if we could just go down from the slope, walking through the sideways and not going into the water, for which he grinned a 'Yes'.  And as per his instructions, we descended down the other side of the cliff and got down quite low, but then suddenly the way ended and there was no trace of looking for an alternative way.  So with half satisfactory hearts, we ascended back to the top of the hill and sat there for a while, sighing and enjoying the view, and then left. In front of the base of the hill at the coast was the fishing centre, where people in huge numbers were busy in their own fishing businesses; ferrying loads and loads of fishes in their boats and pouring them on large sheets spread on the ground. Oh Ghosh! I've never seen so many fishes altogether caught in the net in my life! Wonder! But as we couldn't witness the view for long, we got out quickly from there.

"Minding their own Fishing business."

Day- 2; The Magical Jog Falls.

(16^th August)

We answered the morning 5:45 am alarm clock like very good and sincere kids. ;-) We were ready to leave by 6:45, and waited for the 7:00 o'clock bus, which we boarded at 7:30 am. And then our journey started, leaving the coastal plains back, to enter the hills on NH-50. The hilly roads and curves at different points reminded me of my own Home State Himachal, making me go nostalgic for a while. As there was no direct bus from Bhatkal to Jog falls, we had to change the bus at Kargal, where the bus dropped us at 10:00 am. As we felt quite hungry by then, we went into a restaurant, which again served only south Indian food. I ordered Kerala parantha, while Deepali denied eating anything, though later on she reluctantly ordered some idli, I guess, for I am very poor in remembering the names of the dishes. :P

We got the bus to the falls at 11:00 am and reached in half an hour. I expected the falls to be in an open and free area, but no! It was properly enclosed with proper entry point and charging entry fee. And the moment the falls got our first attention, we went 'Wow! It was magically enchanting! We walked towards it, looking for a way to go near, but felt quite disappointed when we saw the huge iron barricades installed all over the area, thus prohibiting any human entrance towards the fall. I know all these are for safety purpose, as it’s the tallest plunge waterfall of India, which falls down straight from a height of 830 ft, thus making the fall quite forceful and endangering. We accepted the fact and the humane concern of the Karnataka Tourism and admired the falls from far away, walking the length and breadth along the barricades and viewing the falls from different angles and directions. Meanwhile it started raining, and so nice of the jog falls management to have made rain shelters facing the falls. And we sat for quite long there cherishing the enchanting and soul touching view. For me, by now nature has become my favourite and natural weaver, which weaves around things and places in different shapes and shades so magically that it makes the mortal world just wonder. <3

"Ain't it Magically Enchanting?" 

After a good and satisfying view, we left the falls, and though we had to wait for buses at Jogfall and Kargal for hours, but we didn't feel impatient and tired, as by then we felt so at peace and blessed.

"Nature drunk... ;) "

Day-3: Gokarna, the Beach fun.

(17^th August)

We decided to have a good sleep and rest the previous night, so we didn't put any alarm on. But out of habit or say out of excitement to see more of Karnataka villages, we were up by 6:30 am. We got ready, had our breakfast, and watched some morning music videos on the TV and by 8:30 am we checked out of the hotel. We went to the bus station, from where we boarded the bus to Kumta, which is 52 kms north of Bhatkal. From Kumta, we took another bus for Gokarna. The bus was huge, but only three passengers including me and Deepali were in it, and also I saw the woman conductor for the first time. And wonder what, except for the numbers, she speaks no Hindi or English, and we had to be satisfied with her gestures while she spoke in Kannad. Travelling 12 kms through the interior of the coastal town, leaving NH-17 we reached Gokarna by 11:30 am. Passing through the Temple and streets, we went straight to the beach. The beaches in Karnataka are cleaner than the Beaches of Mumbai, but lesser than Goan beaches. And likewise Goakrna beach is also one of the most popular there, which pulls huge crowd towards it. As we wanted to avoid the crowd, we went looking for an alternative location, which we saw on the other side of where we were then. Deepali got pull of that area to walk directly towards it, until the way broke off when we reached near the backwater which blocked the way towards other side, and to cross it directly would have been an invitation to some tragedy as the flow of the water was quite forceful and strong. Therefore, we had to walk back towards the entrance and take another big round of the area to enter that attractive coast. But it was worth, as the place was cleaner and very few people were there. So putting our bags in a safe place near the rocks, we walked towards the beach and played with the waves. We didn't care for the scorching sun shining brightly above us, and didn't mind the super-sun-tann we were getting and had loads of fun there; playing, jumping, shouting and clicking pictures. The previous two days no-play and fun with water had been compensated by Gokarna beach fun. J

"The Beach Fun!"

While walking towards the beach, a nearby temple on a cliff attracted my attention, where after getting free from the beach we both went. The ascending steps took us to the small temple, where a priest was busy decorating the linga with flowers. And he allowed us to take pictures of it. We paid our obeisance, took parikarma of the small shrine and then sat facing towards the sea, which looked marvellous from up there. We kept sitting for an hour, and then we realised we were hungry and also as we had to catch the bus back to Kumta, from where we had booked Bus tickets for our return journey to Mumbai, with loads of memories stored in our system, we left Gokarna, the last point of our 3 days tour.

"The blessed souls!"

Overall, the Independence Day break has been quite different and Super-duper, and in my own words 'A-Awesome!'

(Keep smiling :-) Nawi )