Backpack Trip to Yana Caves and Camping at Gokarna

Gokarna main beach

Preface

Unlike a conventional blog post, this post is way too different. This is more of a pictorial blog. I will be taking you through my travel journey with the pictures I have captured on my trip. You will not find some metaphysical shit like "the place I left my heart" and "I lost my soul over there, blah blah". The trip had zero luxury as we planned it to be as cheap as possible by staying in tents, planning our traveling at night, no hotel reservations and choosing walks, lifts and public transport as a means of traveling from one destination to another.

Money less traveled!

With Good Friday holiday, it was a long weekend coming up. Long weekends are the best time for getaways as you don’t have to apply/request for leaves. With time running fast and the weekend coming closer, I was under the tremendous pressure of selecting a place, preparing the itinerary, booking tickets and so on. Keeping the only criteria in my mind, to keep it as cheap as possible. There's no place for luxury in our trip as we were restricted by a budget
One of my office colleagues, Namratha Rao, suggested me to go Gokarna. I quickly booked train tickets for me and my three other like-minded friends. But to our dismay, return tickets were not available.  So, we decided to rely on Tatkal for return tickets. While researching about Gokarna, I came to know about the mysterious rocks at Yana Jungle. For Yana, one has to get down at Kumta, one stop ahead from Gokarna. But the tickets were booked and it was now not possible to extend my journey to Kumta. So, we decided to act like we had missed the station & rather get off the train at Kumta.

Day 1

Finally, the day arrived and I see two of my friends ditching me at the last moment. Now it was just me and my friend Indresh Pal. I cancelled the two tickets and checked on indiarailinfo regarding the train (Matsyagandha Express) in which we were about to travel. I read in the tips section that the train did not have a pantry car and it was advised to carry our own food, rather than rely on railway platform food. I quickly ran to my neighbour and asked her to cook me some delicious food which I can that I could carry on my journey. Like a mother she quickly cooked some potatoes and puris, which I readily packed.

Boiled Potato sabji and Fenugreek leaves Puri

We boarded the train and expected some beautiful co-passenger to sit beside us. Just like the memes of expectation vs Reality, one old man, her daughter-in-law and her small kid sat next to us. The kid just indulged in three things eat, sleep and repeat. The temperature was high and to cool us down here came a cucumber seller, perfect thing to have in summer!

Hydrating Cucumber

It was evening and we left our seat and went towards the door enjoying the scenic beauty the journey and the nature had to offer.

Loved the cloud formation and the stream flowing by

The curve that exhibited the full view of the train - Front

The curve that exhibited the full view of the train - Back

The adjacent bridge and the lovely evening

Soon the darkness grew, paralysing our scenic view from the train. We saw a vendor selling a sweet made out of mango. He told us that it is called Aam Papdi, made up of ripe mangoes and sugar. We purchased a lump of 10 rupees and it was an amazing dessert.

Aam Papdi

Due to some technical error our train halted for an hour at a station. We got down, clicked some photos and did some monkey business there, entertaining the fellow passengers.

That's me

That's my friend Indresh Pal

As soon as the whistle of the train blew, we got inside, had food and went off to sleep.

Day 2

As planned, we slept till Gokarna and acted like we had missed the station. We alighted at Kumta and ran towards exit before the TTE catches us. We were welcomed by a super delicious dosa at 4 am outside Kumta railway station.

Delicious Dosa at Kumta

The first bus was scheduled to leave at 7 am, so we asked a taxi guy who agreed to leave us at Yana Naka for 160 rupees. We agreed and hopped into the shared taxi. The guy dropped us at Yana Naka and it was complete dark. We saw a forest guard office and a closed gate leading to Yana caves. Unhappy to be woken up at 4.30 am, he said something in Kannada and went back to sleep. We didn't understand and we opened the gate and started walking in complete darkness. To be honest, we both were equally scared to be walking in complete darkness, luckily, we had a torch handy and the full-moon's light that guided us with the path.

Walking in complete darkness at Yana Jungle

Slowly killing the darkness, the dawn broke in. We could hear the chirping of various birds. We sat down midway on the road and sung few songs of which my friend remembered the chords of.

SSoon we saw the forest guard and with him there was another guy who fortunately knew Hindi. He told us that the guard asked us not to go inside due to leopard attacks during night and wait for the bus. We apologised to the guard and laughed about the miscommunication. The other guy was kind and offered us a lift on his bike till Yana caves. We had a good chat enroute and we paid him 50 rupees as a token of thanks.

After relieving ourselves at Yana, there was a free lavatory, we started our trek to Yana Caves. Walking through the Dense forest of Yana, midway streams where we took bath and finally we reached the magnificent rocks of Yana.

The stream where we brushed our teeth

Trail through the dense forest of Yana

 

Walking through the dense forest of Yana with sky long trees

The place where we took bath

First sight of the magnificent Yana caves rock

Macro-shot o the rocks

The temple at the Yana caves

We were posing as of if we have climbed Mt Everest!

Macro-shot of the Algae on the rocks

Magnificent rocks of Yana

We bid adieu to the Yana caves and walked back to Yana village. It was 10 am and we missed the bus by 30 minutes which would drop us to Kumta. The next bus was scheduled at 1.30 pm. Instead of wasting 3 and a half hours waiting for the bus, we started walking asking for lifts on the way. Soon we reached a farm, where we robbed some cashew apples and one jackfruit. The dog that guarded the farm started barking and we quickly hid the cashew apples and jackfruit inside the bag and started walking. We heard a bus roaring towards us and we asked for lift. The bus driver did not understand Hindi but was smart enough to understand that we wanted to go Kumta. We told him that we wanted to go Gokarna and he said that he will drop us to a point where we will get bus to Gokarna. The moment we entered the bus we were startled to see bus full of seminude guys welcoming us with claps. They were amused to see us with tent, trekking bags and guitar!

Me and Indresh with semi nude Guys inside bus

The bus halted mid highway and the driver asked us to get down, where we would get the bus to Gokarna. We gave him 100 rupees as a goodwill gesture for giving us lift. We saw a small shop where we had some local soft drinks and waited for the bus to arrive.

No Thumbs Up, only Hands Up!

Waiting for the bus

Within 15 minutes the bus arrived!

NWKRTC bus to Gokarna

Salt pans at Gokarna

We got down at Gokarna bus stand and started walking towards the beach and we see ourselves surrounded by hippies, shops selling Indian artworks and lots of temples. We see a board on one temple saying free meal. As we were running on low budget we decided to have our lunch at the temple.

Streets of Gokarna full of temples

A huge Rath of Shiva

Our free meal for the Day

After a fulfilling lunch of tasty Sambar and Rice, we headed to the beach which was at a stone throw distance. We saw the blue water and went bonkers removed our clothes and started jumping like monkeys and ran towards the beach to dive in to the sea!

First view of the Gokarna Main Beach

Entering the sea

Trying some photography skills

Being a sand man while playing Frisbee and diving on the dry sand

Handstand and showing off some skills

How to get saltwater filled in your nostrils

Spending enough time playing Frisbee and bathing in water we started our trek to Kudle Beach. Enroute we filled our water bottles at a fresh water spring at Ramateertha temple, where fresh water keeps continuously flowing throughout the year. We climbed the cliff and had more enchanting views of the Arabian Sea. Thanks to Google maps and GPS we found Labyrinth (None of the local people knew what a labyrinth was). The Labyrinth was the kingdom of the Asura king Ravana, a character from Indian Mythology Ramayana, believed to have visited Gokarna. It is believed that Ravana had dominion on Labyrinth. We got some dates and wild berries to eat and also got stung by weaver ants when we were enjoying the wild berries.

Start of our hike to Kudle Beach and me enjoying the view of the beach

The blue water looks so inviting!

Above Raamteertha Temple and the last view of the beach

Fresh dates from the palm. Ripe and semi-ripe ones

With the help of Google Maps, we hunt down the Labyriinth

 

And the Cliff

This is what I was clicking above

Carissa spinarum, the conkerberry or bush plum

Nest of Weaver Ants

Lucky to found one ripe berry

We are great fans of Bear Grylls and his survival show Man Vs Wild. And we decide to make a video of the Indian version of Bear Grylls. Please excuse my awfully bad mimicry of Bear Grylls.

After the trek in scorching heat we reach Kudle beach. Indresh was hungry and he moved to one of the shacks to eat something and in the mean time I pitched the tent and hunted some firewood. We played with Frisbee and clicked few pictures enjoying the sunset and playing guitar.

Pitching tents at Kudle Beach

Relaxing after pitching the tent

Me and Indresh clicking few pictures

Collecting Firewood for bonfire

Practicing some Yoga Asana

Sunset at Kudle Beach

As it started getting dark, we prepared for setting up our bonfire. Indresh had brought fairy lights and I decorated them on the tent and plugged them on our Power-bank. The lights, full-moon light and the tent everything looked magical. Many people were attracted to our tent and the lighting. We were approached by a gang of five men, initially I got scared but later realised that they just wanted to join in. They helped in setting up the fire, offer free food and free drinks. We sung songs on guitar and were joined by two more people one was a German national and other was an English national. They had drinks and played guitar and sung an English song. Later in the night two foreign nationals were performing fire shows and collected money from the viewers.

Our Tent decorated with fairy lights

The friends we made there

Fire is a celebration

The beach was full of people till 4 am. Everyone went to sleep except the dogs post 4 am. So even we decided to doze off! Indresh drank more and the one who was blabbering about waking up the whole night, slept the first.

Day 3

The next morning, we got up, got fresh inside the bushes, went for swimming in the sea, started rolling our tents and packing our bags. My bag was heavy with the Jackfruit, which I had robbed from the farm at Yana. We also shot one video with Jackfruit, where I am abusing (Let me know in comments if you want to see the video, I 'll send you the link of the video). I called up my friend who was about to book our tatkal tickets. Unfortunately, there was some error and our tickets were not booked. Clueless, we headed to Gokarna station to check with the station master.

The Jackfruit and me

Last view of the sea as we leave

Experimenting with our taste buds by trying local made soft drinks

Banana, the source of energy to help us walk from Kudle beach to Bus stand

At Gokarna station

Failed tatkal booking :(

The station master was not so co-operative with us and we also came to know that unreserved coaches of this trains are very crowded and worst. We decided to walk towards the main highway and search for buses. After reaching the highway we came to know that all the buses were running full. We reached out to the locals to find out about the alternate means of transport to reach back Mumbai. A lady selling pots advised us to take a bus to Ankola and from there a bus to Thane. We immediately hoped in a bus heading Ankola. Got down at Ankola and the station master told us that there is a bus for Thane at 3.30pm and we had one hour in our hand. Immediately we went to eat lunch. Back at the bus stand there were old ladies selling some wild berries. It was a boon and I feel blessed to taste those wild berries. Due to the language barrier, I was not able to decipher what those berries were called. The bus for Thane soon arrived and we secured our seat as well. It was Non-AC seater and crowded but the bus was good and we enjoyed our journey. Next morning, we reached Thane, we changed bus from Thane to Borivali and again changed bus from Borivali to Malad (Home). We reach home after traveling in five buses which itself was an adventure, marking our trip to end successfully.

Single seeded, sweet creamy covering

I loved these red ones, sour and slightly sweet with multiple seeds

Lunch at Ankola Bus stand - Veg Thali

Bus ticket from Ankola to Thane

Scenic view from Bus journey

View from my seat

Indresh Pal urinating on Highway

Thane to Borivali and Borivali to Home bus tickets

After reaching home, we uploaded few pictures on Instagram. With the help of hashtags, we found the five guys who had joined us on Kudle beach. We soon created a WhatsApp group and named it "Friends with Destiny". Indresh also hunted down one random guy who had uploaded our tent pictures in his account and we made him friends too. My Dad was happy with my efforts of bringing the Jackfruit all the way from Gokarna to Mumbai. I cooked Jackfruit seeds curry and it was delicious!

Five guys whom we met at Kudle beach are now good friends

The random guy who posted our tent picture

When we commented on his post, that it was our tent

Overview of our Journey back home

Bringing the Jackfruit back was a huge task

Removing the Jackfruit seeds

Jackfruit curry which I cooked

An amazing trip with least possible expenses. This trip gifted us with experiences, lessons and friends. Please feel free to comment your thoughts on our insane journey. Thank you.

PS: Thank you Priyanka Shetty and Lisa Kalloo for proof reading it. Much love :)