19 of us; Ajay, Archana, Arshiya, Chetana, Farzana, Haseena, Kavita, Manjula, Marina, Preeti, Priya, Raj, Rayeesa, Siddesh, Shilpa, Usha, Vidya, Vilma, Yasmeen.
Like our last trip, we met at Uncle's place and our journey started at 6 30 am. The bus was slow... the orange colored bus driven by Kallayya hardly exceeded 60kmph. Just after Yellapur, we stopped at a restaurant; our driver and cleaner wanted to have tea! After a while, we stopped in a wooded spot for breakfast.
I enjoyed the sandwiches by Vidya and idlis cooked in leaves by Shilpa. We continued with the j_o__u___r____n_____e______y_______.
We passed by Ankola, took left towards Mangalore and after some distance took the right turn towards Gokarna. I saw salt pans after a long time. I regret we did not stop by to take a few snaps. May be next time.
It was noon when we set our feet on the sand! Kudle Beach here we come.
We found a shaded rocky spot and some got into the water while some preferred to watch the water. I went exploring and almost got stuck on a steep rock face.
I managed to take a different route and came back to the group. We settled down for lunch under coconut trees in one of the beach resorts... we had lots of items- salad, chapathi, brinjal palya, peas palya, chatinis, sweets, two types of rice one by Haseena and another by Arshiya. I enjoyed the rice dishes more than anything. We packed up and moved back back to the beach.
Majority of the group played in the water while the remaining few tried to keep a irksome bull away... someone was very very ANGRRRRY!
Around 4 we decided to trek the short distance to Om beach. The uphill trek took the breath out of us.
The view from the top was lovely. Kudle Beach on the right, Arabian Sea straight ahead and Om Beach on the left.
Om beach was crowded, looked more like a town square. We hired two power boats and went for a sea ride.
Everybody just enjoyed it... dipping hands in the water. We passed by several other less crowded beaches... two names I can recall- Paradise Beach and Half Moon Beach. The ride was over sooner than we had expected but we did enjoy it. As the day came towards the end, we all settled down on rocks to watch the sunset.
From there we watched the sun just above the horizon and started back towards our bus. As we climbed the hillock we saw the sun go down into the sea. Bye bye Suryadeva.
Our journey back started off... we had Vilam's cake and chips & snacks and then finally soda. The journey dragged... on and on and on. Finally we saw Hubli lights and our driver stopped to fill in diesel. Those 15 minutes of waiting, for some, it was like one hour. We dropped off Marina and then straight to Uncles house at Dharwad. Ajay and I dropped off Shilpa and Farzana and then Chetana at Amminbhavi. On the way I almost ran into a parked tractor trailer. I'm not sure if Ajay noticed that. Ajay went home on his bike. I was back at home, 1 30 AM Reublic Day!
I've planned to visit the place with my niece Durga, Deepak and Gulli. May be during Durga's summer holidays.
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