Camping at Gokarna

Gokarna is a beach town that is on the darshan circuit for the devout hindu. However, the town is in my mind just like another religious town in India. I wouldn’t know about this temple but perhaps that might be different (Legend has it that Hanuman dropped a piece of the Sanjivani Parvat that he carried over the skies on his way back from the Himalayas to Lanka). However the true wonder of this town to the travel junkie lies in its beaches. This small town has 5 good beaches to soak in, each of them with a different character of its own!

I spent a day lazying at the beach by sipping some coffee. The most interesting part was pitching a tent and within a few minutes of setting up the tent, a dog peed on my tent and settled into the shade and decided to take a nap.

Within some minutes of this, the hawkers decided to squat here in hope that I would buy some gear. And to top it all and not miss the action, a cow lingering nearby thought to walk by and join this herd. So, with the cow at one corner, a dog at another and hawkers at the fore – this became an interesting flock! There are many characters you can see around – some that caught my eye - a Noah like looking dude with a large stick, a lady heavily dressed in black flowing robes and me living in tent.

I decided to take a long walk in the evening for one last time, somewhere in-between Gokarna and Kudle Beach found these mesmerizing views.

To sum up my experience, Gokarna is a place where everyone does their own thing, where you breathe in the song of the place, where you let go of your city inhibitions, a place where you might just meet a friendly stranger and a place where you can experience everything and nothing!