Walks in India: Gokarna
This post is part of a series on ‘Walks in India‘.
Place: Gokarna
Highlights: Beachside walk, hills along the sea shore, rocky shoreline
Season: July to March, when it is not hot.
Time of the day: Evening – 3.30pm to 6pm
Distance: Approximately 6kms
Difficulty: Moderate
Map. This is an interactive map of the walk. Zoom in to get a closer look. Click on the blue markers to identify of each location.
View Walks in India – Gokarna in a larger map
Map of place to see and walking in Gokarna
The Walk.
The Walk.
This is a beach hopping walk. You begin at a beach and end at a beach. Do this between July to September if getting wet in the rain is your idea of fun. Else, stick to winter months.
Begin the walk from Gokarna town at the Kotitheertha – a large tank. The next stop is famous Gokarna Mahabaleshwara Temple – one of the holiest places in the south. This is said to be the place where Ganapathi coaxed Ravana to put Atmalinga on the ground. Further ahead is the Gokarna beach, a straight beach almost 7km long.
Take the bridle path that runs south of Gokarna Beach. This takes you through an elevated plain, for almost a kilometer before you hit Kudle Beach. Kudle is a nice long stretch of sand almost half kilometer long. From here, continue walking south through the hills and get down to Om Beach. Om Beach is the most popular of the beaches in Gokarna. If you are doing the walk in winter, you can stop at one of the few restaurants at the beach for breakfast. Continuing further from Om Beach, you walk close to the shore. A 15-minute walk will take you to half moon beach and another few minutes away is Paradise Beach – the 5th and last of the beaches where the 6km long walk ends.
As you can see from the map, there is no motor road to Paradise Beach. You can hire a boat from Paradise Beach to get back to Gokarna or Om Beach, or you can walk back till Om Beach, which is connected by a road.
++More about Gokarna on paintedstork.com