“The sea, once it casts its spell, holds one in its net of wonder forever.” :Jacques Cousteau
This was a pretty short trip. I’ll also keep the content as short as the trip. One Friday out of the blue, four free souls: Sidharth, Arpit, Manish & myself decided to embark upon a one-day weekend getaway to Mangalore. Mangalore is at a distance of around 350km from Bangalore (Whitefield) which is approx.. 7 hr drive(without traffic).
We started around 1am. The road till Hassan was excellent and totally straight forward. The traffic were very less in this route, hardly a few buses. Seeing at the long stretched straight roads, scenes from fast and furious were flashing in our mind, but alas! We didn’t have any Nitro Booster and it was a mere 1000cc engine. We reached Hassan(which was the mid-point of our trip) in around 3 hr and took a quick tea-break. The captaincy of the wheel moved from Sidharth to Arpit. As it was a sleepless ride, so the captains were having tough time behind the wheels. But the evergreen songs inside the car let the wheels rolling. We crossed the western ghat by 6am and took another quick tea-break.
We reached Mangalore around 8:30am, had breakfast on the way and directly moved to Tannirbhavi Beach. Before going to the main beach, we went to the end of the road where the backwater joins the Arabian Sea. But it was disappointing. Only piles of garbage were there. On can spot a number of peacocks though, but most of them have been faded.
Then we turned back and went to the beach. We entered the beach just by the side of the park. (There is a parking lot just at the initial stretch of the road. Don’t go there. The best is little further. So keep the wheel rolling until you see a entrance gate and some shops at the right side of you.)
The beach was pretty clean and the white sand on the beach was just adding icing on the cake. There was an on-going pre-wedding phootshoot. We just sat on one of those chairs and soaked the beauty with morning chillness. Horse riding was also available at the beach. We clicked some photos and moved to Panambur beach.
Panambur beach is just 7km away from the earlier one. This was a busier beach, but lot of water sport activities options was there. In INR 700, they were offering a package of Banana Ride, Speed Motor-Boat ride and a 10-mins boat ride in the coastal area. Th beach was little deep and unsafe though for a bath. But as we had decided of going to Udupi, hence we moved ahead.
In 1 hr, we reached Udupi around 12 noon. We first moved to Malpe beach and the Sea-Walk by its side. Here also lots of water activities are available: Para-sailing, Speed-boat etc. There is a St. Mary’s island here which is easily accessible. But considering our limited time, we had to forego that and moved to the best location of the trip: Bengre-Udupi.
Bengre is one of those hidden gems and truly a heaven on earth. One side of the village is Sea and the other side is surrounded by river. Thanks to Manish, we found this heaven on earth. He, being a localite, knew the in-and-out of the place. It is around 10km away from Malpe beach. The serenity and peaceful atmosphere of the village is out-of the world. The area was in the form of a Delta surrounded by rows of Coconut trees.
Finally, we settled at this place and explored the surroundings. Manish just knew the perfect place for the Non-vegetarians and took us there. This place is also famous for taddi(a local form of mild alcohol). We found a spot just by the side of the beach and relished freshly cooked Squid-rings, Prawn-Pakodas and fish-fry with a smooth taste of taddi(some also call Som-rass). Then after a while, we moved to the river mouth, set-up the party there right on the beach inside the water. We just strolled and rolled there till the evening and enjoyed the magnificent view. There was also an Allapuzah style boat which was giving a touch of Kerala to the venue and another boat that was catching fish just beside us. One side where the river was flowing into the sea was bit deep, whereas the other side it was only knee-deep. It was kind of a premium private beach with 360 degree splendid view. Initially, we were the only four at that side of the beach, but then around evening a few other people joined us. We clicked couple of pics and started our return journey.
We started around 4:30pm and reached Bangalore back around 2am. The entire trip was indeed like a roller-coaster ride. To sum up, we covered 930km+ in 25 hr with four pit-stops: Tannirbhavi Beach, Panambur Beach, Malpe Beach and Bengre-Udupi. The route we covered: Bangalore – Mangalore- Udupi – Mangalore – Bangalore. On the same day, the captains of the trip had tamed western ghat twice that too both the times at night. Wasn’t this truly amazing! Hats off to Sidharth and Arpit. Though it was little hectic, but it was worth it. Not a single person had slept in those 25 hrs of journey. The view of the marvelous Bengre-Udupi just washed away our sleep somehow.
Here is a small video capturing the beauty of it… [Source: Vyoma Aerospace]
Tips:
- Plan a two day trip to the place which is perfect. First go to Mangalore. Enjoy the beach and water-sports and in the evening move to Udupi. Enjoy Sun-set there. If possible, do campfire at night by the side of the beach. Next day go to Malpe beach and St. Mary’s island and then return back Bangalore.
- Going to the river-mouth at Bengre is a must.
- Mangaladevi temple, Sultan battery and NITK beaches are other important tourist points of Mangalore.
- Agumbe is near-by only. With one more day, Agumbe can also be covered.
Figures:
- Total Cost per head(inclusive all): 2000 INR (with four persons w/o stay)
- Total KM: 930 km
- Total Time: 25 hr
- Total toll-cost(two way): 500 INR
Do not forget to share it with your wanderlust friends 🙂 Happy travelling 🙂
tektriphy 