Last weekend I had a lovely get away from the incessant Goan rains. My husband happened to have some work in Karwar and since it was a weekend I decided to tag along. Can I say one of the best decisions for the entire week? Hehe..
The trip was fun and refreshing as we did see some glorious Sun and breathtaking natural beauty. One of the best scenes though could just be captured by my eyes as my camera went into zombie mode and washed out the entire set of pics I clicked at a mountain cliff, facing the sea... Sob sob :(
Anyways so we started early from Vasco, Goa and headed to Karwar, eating, drinking, music, rains and beautiful nature our way. I think it took us two hours to reach. Btw it was our second long trip in our new car, after the Ahmedabad-Mumbai-Pune-Goa one. Details of that trip shall be posted soon.
So once we reach hubby finished his work while I chit-chatted with a friend. Soon it was evening time and time to hit some of the beautiful beaches that Karwar has to offer. They are clean, blue water indeed, solitary and surrounded by lush mountains.
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| River meeting the sea near Karwar |
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| One of the beaches at Karwar |
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| Waves lashing it out |
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| Tiny island in the corner |
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| Long, solitary beach |
Also, Karwar boasts of lots of tiny islands. So the view from the sea makes a lovely scene with water till your eyes can see and tiny mounds of life and greenery in between.
When it was time for food, we were told that Emerald Bay was one of the well known restaurants here, so we quickly headed there. Now, Emerald Bay is a part of the Sterling group of hotels. I got married in a sterling group resort, the Green Woods Resort in Ahmedabad. And because of the lovely experience there, we had high hopes here as well.
We reach Emerald Bay and it has a nice infrastructure for a small town and remote location, a welcoming and cooperative staff at reception. They easily quenched our curiosity about the places nearby.
Some of the places we discussed about were:
1. Gokarna & Om beach
2. Murudeshwar temple
3. Sirsi
4. Dudhsagar Waterfalls
5. Yana Caves
These all locations are in a distance of 40-150 km from Karwar. A one day trip indeed.
So, coming back to Emerald Bay, we headed to the restaurant and to our dismay they had no chicken to serve. I mean how can you feed a North Indian when there's no chicken? Can anyone relate to this? Hehe... So our dinner destination changed altogether followed by a quick ice cream session. And I tasted gudbud ice cream for the first time. Not that I became the biggest fan but it was a nice change from the Naturals in Goa.
So back to the trip, though we had planned a 3 day stay in Karwar, on day one only we figured out that we could head back as the official work was done. So we decided to cover Gokarna and Om Beach the next day and head back to Goa.
I had heard a lot about Gokarna during my college days in Bangalore. That it's one of the most non-commercialised beach and go there if you need privacy. So, I had a lot of expectations. But, those who know the truth that's not the case, Gokarna is known for it's Shiva temple, where the Shiv Ling is supposed to be shaped lile a cow's ear. Hence, the name Go-Karna. And the roads leading to the temple and the beach are so narrow that if you are driving you will lose all your patience by the time you reach the end of it. The streets are full of shops selling hippie clothes, carvings, metal ware etc. It kind of reminded me of Pushkar in Rajasthan at a very small scale though.
Since, neither of us, is very religious kinds we skipped the temple and headed for the beach and to my dismay beach was full of eating joints, and cluttered with food and leftovers and liquor bottles. So much for a religious place!
We quickly decided this wasn't for us, and headed to Om beach. Wow! This was something. It's a journey uphill and once there you can see a lovely view of the Gokarna beach and places nearby. This is the view my camera failed to capture. The same beach which repelled us, looked so tempting now.
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| Gokarna beach from top |
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| A view of Om Beach |
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| Lovely river on our way to Om Beach |
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| See the way the river turns |
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| This bridge has a beautiful view on either sides |
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| Still looking at Om Beach from the stairs that lead to it |
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| Yet another view |
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| Notice the Om shape? |
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| That's me playing around... |
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| And a closeup |
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| Om Beach |
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| These invite you to play don't they? |
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| The lovely trees at Om beach |
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| And it's going to pour any moment now! |
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| I could settle here... |
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| Cutting through the mountains on our way back to Goa |
So, we reach Om beach and true to it's name, not only does it form the Om shape, it was quiet and serene too. Lovely shade of trees and cool sea breeze. And there was just one shack cum restaurant for you to quench your thirst and hunger. No noise, no dirt nothing. Finally our trip seemed worth the effort. We enjoyed, frolicked, and clicked pics. And then decided to head back. The attached pictures will do the rest of the talking.
And if you want to know what I meant by the refreshed part, then for your info after driving back all the way to Goa from Om beach, we drove another 30 kms to Panaji to watch the Expendables 2! Haha...
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