For my part, I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel’s sake. The great affair is to move; to feel the needs and hitches of our life more nearly; to come off this feather-bed of civilisation, and find globe granite underfoot, strewn with cutting flints….
The hardest part of going on a trip is planning, but then again the best trips are those that aren’t planned. I happened to be lucky enough to be part of one such unplanned trip from Bangalore to Pune along the Konkan coast. 1600 k.m. of blissful madness and 5 k.g. of excess weight at the end of 5 days that took me through Karnataka, Goa and Maharashtra. All it needed was a 14 year old zen, a couple of maps and three college students who had absolutely no idea how they were going to go about ensuring they got back to Pune that year!
On the wet ride to Shimoga, through Malnad, Karnataka. Photo: TC
We left Bangalore at about 3 p.m. on a friday after ’scoring’ the necessary provisions and were out of the city and on open road by around 4. Our first scheduled stop was Shimoga. It was a bright sunny day until the god’s decided to wring the skies dry of every drop of water. We had to take a couple of short halts due to horrendous visibility and eventually got to Shimoga by around 9, where we spent the night at Hotel Jewel Rock a mid-segment hotel that was quite comfortable. It worked out to roughly a Rs. 130 per head for the night and the hotel had an attached bar and restaurant which served a palatable meal and some rather quenching alcohol.
- The Author and his fellow travellers in a self-portrait somewhere enroute. Photo: KSN
We woke to another bright sunny day and our aim for the day was to get to a bed somewhere by night time, didn’t matter too much where it was. We set off with a tentative plan to hit good ol’ Goa by nightfall. Our second stop (the first was at a small, quaint, little town called Sagar) was Jog falls, the highest water falls in India where we stopped long enough for a couple of photographs and a bit of a sit down. We then headed onwards to Honavar and the coast! After multiple short stops where ever the view seemed to be the best (which was incredibly hard as every turn seemed to spring fantastic forests, valleys and every other imaginable landform) reached Honavar for lunch. After driving around in circles for a bit and getting some parental advice as to where to eat ; the smaller and dingier the better ; had some of the best sea food I’ve had and I’m not even a seafood person.
- A river in rural Karnataka, about 40 kms from Honnavar, Uttara Kannada District. Photo: KSN
The nicest thing about travelling by car is that one can actually see the change in countryside and its culture. Its a much more intimate experience – as we hit the coast everything about the land around us changed slowly but surely. Apart from the obvious was the mellow shift in dialect from Kannada to Tulu/Konkani at the coast.
Gokarna beach on an afternoon. Photo: KSN
We then headed to Gokarna and arrived there by late afternoon. After driving through roads so small that we were practically driving on the doorsteps of the residents we reached Gokarna beach. The commercialization that comes with fame was evident here more than ever, after paying a quick homage to the Shiva temple there and being dumped by a priest who was quite disgusted by the fact that we weren’t willing to pay for pooja, we headed onwards to the famous Om beach. We had a choice of a 4 k.m. trek or a 6 k.m. drive up a hill and due to time constraints we picked the latter. I didn’t think Om beach was all it purported to be, but could well imagine what it might have been a couple of years prior. After watching a beautiful sunset with a couple of beers we headed towards Goa via Karwar. The drive through Karwar took us through a rather interesting stretch of road that was shouldered by immense rock faces on either side stretching as far as the eye could see. It seemed like a scene straight out of the Lord of the Rings. With barely any fuel left in the tanks (the car’s and ours) we made it to Palolem (South Goa) and a bed. After settling in we then proceeded to unwind with a couple of beers and one of the funniest nights of my life.
…. The whole object of travel is not to set foot on foreign land; it is at last to set foot on one’s own country as a foreign land.
- Gilbert K. Chesterton
Stay tuned for part 2
Authored by TC, who’s an avid traveller, nature enthusiast and has been studying in Pune for the last three years.
4 Comments
30 September, 08 at 10:09 am
TC can write!! i like his attention to detail, waiting for the next one…
30 September, 08 at 11:29 pm
It sounds and looks like a picturesque road trip. Something on my “to do list”, especially after reading your account of it.
31 October, 08 at 12:48 am
i did this trip with my wife in 2001 on a suzuki shogun… bangalore, tumkur, shimoga, karwar, ganpathipule, vashi, Navi Mumbai. (home)
cheers!
2 May, 09 at 4:07 pm
TC, interesting read. I can see where your “writing” genes come from!