A Bit of Beach Road

January 3, 2011

Kundapura to Gokarna by train

It's hardly seven, but I'm awake and have been for a while so I might as well get up what with the loud music being broadcast from the temple nearby and some men down the corridor talking as though they're far apart in a field.

Malpe's docks tempt me back for a second look and the place is busier than yesterday afternoon - a real hive of activity and trade and wheeling and dealing.

Workers are carrying baskets of fish but lots of people seem to be doing not much at all, like me. Maybe they're hoping for some hourly work and a bit of money.

The small road to the beach continues north and along it I pedal to find the big resort that's mentioned in the guide book and I ask inside if they do breakfast as jam on toast would be good and they effectively say no prob. They have fresh pineapple juice, which goes down well, but the toast when it arrives tastes like stale bread and I can only eat one slice.

The beach road winds north and there's water both sides and sure enough after about 5 km the narrow tarmac fades out to a dirt track and I reach a headland and can't go any further.

I look around and it's a super spot, pristine sand that's a fine golden colour and no one on it.

There are simple houses dotted by the road - have been all the way up - just like those on Vypeen Island a week ago and I ride back past a few and ask a young man if he speaks English and if there's a boat and he speaks Hindi to me but mentions 'cycle boat' and a 'gate' and points, so I feel better.

Sure enough, just 100 metres away is a jetty where men are sorting fish and a man fishing with a line says the boat will come over at 10:30 and it'll be three rupees. Nice. there's not long to wait.

It's a small boat and the bike and bags get put on the roof and I sit up there with them and get a young man - it could well be the same one - to take a snap of me standing there.

The sea is clear and palms line the water's edge all around and after a kilometre or so of sailing I'm back riding on the 17, which is okay if you want to get from A to B, but after the delight of the beach road it seems even more monotonous.

What I need is some nourishment as that piece of toast didn't do much good, so it's a matter of keeping an eye out for a juice vendor.

It takes a while, but a village has a place where the proprietor speaks some English and does so quite fast and I end up with fruit salad topped with vanilla ice cream before he brings me a banana juice that he calls a milkshake, but there's no dairy produce involved as far as I can tell. I have another. This will get me a few miles down the road.

A painted sign on the edge of Kundepura says there's a train station 5 km inland and rather than venture into town I make a right and ride there to get told there's a northbound train at 4-ish and as it's barely one o'clock I go back the 5 km to go some shops and find an Internet place and think maybe later I'll buy a juice or two and kill a few hours until the train to Gokama is due.

The resort of Gokama is 130-odd kilometres away and the station master said it'll take two hours to cover that distant, which seems a bit optimistic to me, so we'll see what time the train actually arrives. No doubt it'll be about dark and there are a few miles to ride to the center where there'll be rooms available. Anyway, the 17 and me are more or less history.

I chose watermelon, then grape followed by pineapple. Very nice. On the way back to the station I stop for an ice cream and a bottle of water and decide to buy a couple of dinky packs of chips.

It dawns on me that I've ridden 20 km to and from the train station.

The 6:30 is overflowing and my bag with the panniers in and my bar-bag and saddlebag get squashed inside the open door and I try to find somewhere to put my feet, which isn't easy. Incredible India.

As predicted, it's dark and around 7:00 when the train stops and I load up and pedal off towards Gokama town, which is 10 km they tell me.

Riding in the dark here or anywhere is no fun headlights dazzle - but I make it and find a room soon enough without looking for another even though this one is nothing special and if it's worth staying here a second night I'll find a better place in the morning.

Today's ride: 60 km (37 miles)
Total: 2,715 km (1,686 miles)

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