Gokarna, Karnataka 14 March 08

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5 hour train journey to Gokarna, taxi to Kudle Beach - well, not quite....Dropped off on the headland overlooking the bay, impossible to access this beach except by boat or by foot. Ken went down to suss out the accommodation, returned 20 mins later, red of face and short of breath, with a young strip of a lad in tow to help with the luggage. Smiling broadly, the boy grabbed the holdall, hoisted one suitcase onto his head and indicated for Ken to pile the other suitcase on top - he declined, too shaming to burden the boy with all our worldly belongings....so we stumbled after the lad down a steep gully in a boulder strewn ravine and emerged onto The Beach......it could easily have been used as location for the film of the same name and the population could well have been employed as extras.

A kilometer of perfect white sand enclosed by 2 headlands to form a sheltered bay, fringed with coconut palms and forest, and gliding through the waves, 2 dolphin just 10 foot off the beach. A selection of beach huts selling food of wildly varying quality and edibility, and set back in the forest the shacks that comprise the majority of accommodation for the residents. They look impossibly romantic, mud walls and coconut leaf thatch roofs - amenities are a bit on the primitive side - maybe one bucket shower between several huts, and don't ask about the loos.....the deciding factor was the very real possibility of sharing living space with unreasonably large spiders and any number of small mammals. So we took the soft option; Hotel Gokarna International, a small but perfectly formed 10 room hotel right on the beach, cool airy room, hot shower, balcony overlooking coconut palms festooned with weaver bird nests - perfect. Only one minor complaint - our 1st floor balcony had a balustrade exactly 1 foot high, and no railings.... not good when vertigo is taken into consideration, and mistakes could well be made after a couple of beers...

Had my first experience of monsoon type climate here - first few days were clear and hot, then on 4th day rumbles of thunder and flashes of lightning gave warning of the first rain we've had since England. Early evening, so decided to walk to far end of the beach where we were wont to watch the sunsets. The sea darkened to deepest indigo, dense black clouds boiled across the sky and the first fat warm drops of rain fell, with flickers and streaks of lightning providing a dramatic backdrop. Across my line of vision floated a small intense circle of light - it halted momentarily in front of my eyes, then fizzed off at a tangent down the beach , trailing a whiplash tail of light, like Tinkerbell in a tantrum. With hindsight, realised it was a close encounter with ball lightning - carried on down the beach thinking sobering thoughts......

The next 2 days fell into a pattern of hot mornings, thundery afternoons and massive lightning storms at night - it seems that this pre-monsoon weather has come two months earlier than usual - a minor inconvenience for we beach bums, but catastrophic for farmers in Kerala and Karnataca.

Our days slipped into a kind of soporific routine - wake early about 6.30, swim, hang about for the cafes to open (don't know what they get up to a night, these folks, that they can't get up of a mornin'), have breakfast, swim/walk on beach, 11 am sun too hot, go to hotel room, turn on fan, read rubbish books collected on our travels until 3.30 - 4pm when the sun starts to relent and it's safe to go back in the water. Had the offer of yoga tuition from Susan, seemed like a good idea, most of the beach population are yoga and/or meditation afficionados, so if you can't beat 'em join 'em. Yet somehow never got round to taking up the offer - too lethargic and heat-soaked I guess.

Needing to post a parcel back home, set about going into Gokarna town itself to find a post office - again this was not an easy task. The quickest way is to catch a ride in the local ferry type service, sail round the headland and onto Gokarna beach. Boat due at 8am, arrives after 9, sets off about 10 by which time the sun reflecting off the sea is well on the way to proving unbearable. Landed on Gokarna beach with a minor case of heatstroke and in a very bad temper, in no mood to sightsee around this most holy (to Indians) of towns, so put that off for another day. We realised that we just could not deal with the heat on the coast, lovely as it appeared initially.

Leaving Kudle beach we booked into the sister hotel in Gokarna town intending to explore this place of pilgrimage. There is a tank of water the size of a football pitch where devotees traditionally immerse themselves at dawn before visiting the temples - looking at this water green with slime/algae/Lord knows what else, tried to imagine immersing our bodies in it - supposedly it washes away sins, wouldn't be much use in washing away anything else. Warning notices at the steps of the tank advise that people drown in the tank every year, cos its deeper than it looks. I wouldn't put a toe in.

In our travels we've noticed that the holier the site, the dirtier the town itself - like the saddhus, who neglect the physical in pursuit of the spiritual. The temples themselves here have a slightly seedy, unkempt air, and did not encourage us to explore. Away from the beach the daytime temps. seemed even more intense - 10 am and it was back to the not-very-salubrious hotel room and sit it out til dusk when the mozzies came back on shift. Our hotel had a 'family executive bar' attached, so we hied ourselves off there for a beer - strangest bar we've ever been in - lighting at the absolute minimum, as if no one wants to be seen here. The locals, all men, crowd the tiny bar as if it is about to close any second, the bartender measures out metal cups of whisky/brandy of the paintstripper variety and decants into third litre bottles. This is either secreted down the front of trousers for later consumption, or swallowed/inhaled in one gulp, lending an air of desperation to the whole transaction. They don't even look like they are enjoying the effects....very strange as alcohol is not illegal here, but somehow very much frowned upon. Another pub where socialising with the locals is unlikely to occur.

So decided time to move on to gentler climes, so next stop Mangalore and on to the hill stations for a bit of R and R....

So decided to hightail it out of there and head for the hills, which is what we did - next stop Mangalore, then on up into the mountains and the fresh air of Coonoor.

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