Snaps of beaches have been flooding my inbox for the past coupla weeks. First, it was KPz friends, the 'avidspammers' who went to Kundapur and brought back memories of Kapu beach and then it was Maha who spent her New Years eve at Gokarna .... I began to miss KREC .... for the beach. My final year was pretty much spent there and I yearned to get back there :) With Moch having incentives to go to Suratkal, it was easy finding company. And so, the weekend was planned .........
Date - Jan 7,8 2006
Who - Moch and Me
The beach bonanza began on Saturday evening when a bunch of 4 of us (Aks, Shru, Rad and myself) headed off to a much recommended Sultan Battery beach - taking a boat across the Gurupur river to reach the beach and it turned out to be just a few kms away from Taneerbaavi beach which we anyway wanted to visit ......
As far as Sultan Battery is concerned, this is what i gather --
Sultan Battery
Situated in Boloor 6 Km. away from Mangalore, the structure is built in Black Stones by Tippu Sulthan to prevent warships to enter Gurpur river. Now the remaining part of the fort is called as Tippu's Well. Sultan Battery is today a deserted spot but its construction is bafflingly exquisite.
(Source - http://www.rrindia.com/karnataka/mangalore-guide.html)
I am indeed baffled as to how what i saw could prevent warships gettin anywhere!!!
Moving on .... the beach was exquisite to say the least and an hour there made me feel that my trip was worth it .... but then, this was just the beginning .......
Post dinner, a troupe of 6 marched along the west coast from Suratkal beach with the Kapu lighthouse acting as a beacon in front and the KREC lighthouse indicating how much we had travelled .... The night walk lasted almost a couple of hours - with the roaring moon-lit waves competing with the barking dogs for our attention ;-). Just past midnight, we reached our destination - Sasihitlu, an estuary where the Nandini river joins the Arabian Sea and here, we called it a day.
The next morning, we woke up to a great sunrise .... the picture speaks for itself :)
Pic - Hasan, Varsha, Moch, Anshu and ShrutiIt was one of those rare occasions where I experienced a sunrise on the west coast!! And who would wake up in time to see the sunrise unless u sleep on the beach!!! :)
The rest of the day was on St. Maryz island ......
St. Mary's Island, as a google search would tell you, is around 2 kms off the coast of Malpe beach near Udupi. Legend has it that Vasco da Gama landed in 1498 on one of these islands which he called “El Padron de Santa Maria”. It is from this that these islands got their present name.
The boat ride to the island lasts around half an hour and is hardly anything to write home about. But, once you reach the island, the blue sea and the blue sky enthralls you like never before. It is close to paradize .... you can stare all you want in amazement at how beautiful this locale is and you wouldn't get tired. The water is refreshing and parts of the beach are best for swimming ... a far cry from the mangalore coast where every beach is dubbed dangerous for swimming. Wallowing in the water for a couple of hours in the blue waters isnt something that you would forget soon :)
One unique aspect of this island is that, here one can find a unique formation of volcanic/basalt rocks which have crystallized into columns and split into vertical hexagonal blocks. This is something of a rarity and is most certainly interesting.
The trip back was made memorable by a couple of damsels who took it upon themselves to keep the crowd entertained by swingng to popular Hindi numbers and a joshed up crowd egging them on; much to the embarassment of Shruti who was within arms reach of, but reluctant to join, the dancers!!
