Weekend Wanderings

Gopal Kulkarni | 06 Jan 2018

Why do we like traveling? After all it entails a lot of planning and rituals that we a very averse to indulge in our day to day existence — waking up while it’s dark, cleaning up before dogs on the street have greeted each other Good Mornings and getting out of the city limits before the Sun had winked. I have done this a few times — at least twice a year and every time I have done this I had this question but never a convincing answer. It is also true that I have always returned with certain gaiety from these travels which I never fully understood why. Of course there were oft repeated terms like exploring cultures, discovering places or that primal desire of scaling distances that would pop up as probable answers but I could never articulate them in detail. In other words if you had asked me if I did enjoy my last travel/trip, then my answer would be a definite yes. However, if you had asked me what did you enjoy about it then I couldn’t have come up with a proper answer.

Now, this changed after my short and quickly (un)planned trip over the Dasara weekend. It all dawned while one of my friends was going bonkers, trying to maneuver our car through a living hell created by a series of broken down vehicles returning from their outings into the city, and another one sleeping on the backseat, exhausted after watching all the things from his stomach come out to see the daylight via the same route that they had taken on their way in. I had a moment of clarity about what drove us to travel and there I could see three good reasons — memories, experience, exploring. Let me elaborate.

It was three of us, let’s say G, R and H, who had decided that we will not idle away the Dasara weekend, being couch potatoes and binging on some seemingly endless (and pointless) TV drama. So, we got on the phone the week before and began discussing about going to Chikkamagaluru on our bikes and explore the places around there. But, soon it was apparent that three days could be an overkill for this sojourn. It could be done any regular weekend, it was thought. While Coorg was also being considered, out of nowhere came the suggestion that we go to Murudeshwara and then decide from there. It was also agreed that we’d drive up there instead of riding, to the collective sigh of relief from our bums. The driving route was finalized and the hotel stay at Murudeshwara was booked. The prospect of a long drive and beach lured me in, R was happy that we could stay busy for three days and H was ready to overcome his fear of long drives at the prospect of Scuba diving in there. We had no clues if it was still a thing there though.

It was supposed to be an early morning start on Friday the 19th. And I needed a strong dose of filter Coffee to kick me out of my slumber before I could hit the road. R’s mother generously and lovingly obliged and we were on the road before sunrise. With R at the steering, H had neatly snuck into the backseat to complete his sleep. And I, sitting on the front passenger seat, was trying to keep my body under control. You see, the festival special meals that my masterchef Cook had prepared the day before hadn’t found my tummy entirely friendly. With the sleep deprivation during the intervening night, the matters had only escalated and by morning there was an ongoing war inside me, making me cringe and fret. I soldiered on, however, giving R company and finding things on the road to discuss and make fun of. Soon, we were approaching Tumakuru and I suggested that we take a break to let me negotiate peace with my enemy in the tummy and provide it an honorable exit. R obliged and we stopped at the Kamat Yatri Nivas next to the highway.

I found R and H lurking around a cheap gifts shop when I emerged out of the peace summit. I joined them while H was buying something. Soon, we moved to the car and decided to get going. R took the steering again and I entrenched myself on the passenger seat. He hollered out to H to get in and we heard the backdoor close. We rolled on, joined the highway. A Duster whooshed its way past us from the left side. R and I began to discuss about its driver and we couldn’t agree if it was a he or a she. So, R decided to solve the mystery and was about to indulge in some pedal-to-metal stuff. Right at that moment my phone rang displaying a number that I couldn’t recognize. As I answered the call, with a puzzling face, I heard a seemingly recognizable voice from the other end and it said, ‘you guys left me behind!…’. Startled, I turned around to take a look at the backseat and to my utter disbelief found H missing! I cut the call, showed the empty backseat to R and burst out into a loud a laughter with him. We didn’t stop laughing all the way back to the Kamat Yatri Nivas where we found H waiting. Poor soul did not have his phone with him and had only ₹10 on him. Luckily, he could recall my phone number and called me with the borrowed phone from the gifts shop owner! As we rolled on once more, this time with me and R both checking at the back seat before moving, I couldn’t help but think aloud what would’ve happened if I was in H’s situation. As it happens, the only phone number I remember is my home landline number!

I switched over to the steering wheel at the next pitstop after a couple of hours. The rest of the drive was uneventful except for us almost missing the turn towards Shirsi. We stopped once for some coconut water and then once more, in the midst of the forest between Shirsi and Kumtha, to devour the extremely tasty Uppittu that R’s parents had packed us for the road. It was supposed to be our breakfast but we had turned into a lunch or brunch if you will. A little rain kept us company outside the car on the way as did the hauntingly melodious Kaushiki Chakraborthy inside of it. Meanwhile, H had kept himself busy and audible(for our benefit) by calling up folks in Murudeshwara to find out about scuba dives. It seemed he was successful to get hold of an instructor’s phone number though it was unreachable. We all assumed (rightly, as it turned out later) that the fellow must be at deep sea.

We reached Murudeshwara around 4, checked into the hotel and washed up. We ventured out to seek the blessings from the deity at the temple and turned back after encountering the humongous queue there. We thought of watching the sunset from the beach but were turned off looking at the large, boisterous crowd there. By the team we could reach a secluded area on the beach, the Sun would well have sunk in, it was thought. We went to back to the hotel room and tried watching the Sunset from the balcony and found a tree that was obstructing the view. Right then, H had a brainwave and suggested we go to the Hotel terrace for the unobstructed terrace. The view from there was majestic with the a seeming large Red ball disappearing into the womb of the ocean. R had a chance to give his a Camera a decent workout and he’s usually not the one to miss it.

We ventured out to the beach, after dark and after the crowd had dissipated. To find that there was no beach sand to speak of was kind of disappointing to say the least. After spending sometime there we went to the Temple again and this time Shiva was in a generous mood and granted us his allowed us enter his abode in quick time. Next thing was dinner. We went to a restaurant that was recommended by our Hotel staff because H wanted to taste some fish. He ordered the fish there and was disappointed because it was available but turned out disappointing; I ordered curd rice and was disappointed because it was unavailable and that was disappointing too. Soon, we found that our man from the deep sea had come ashore and we met him after dinner, stuck a deal to get us into the sea. As we retired into the night, the excitement about us going underwater was palpable!

It was another early morning the next day and we cleaned up ourselves in quick time. After a quick breakfast and checking out of room, we were at the beach ready to be taken away to the Netrani island whence we’d be diving into the Sea. The boat ride was an hour long and it was an interesting experience in itself. Finding oneself surrounded by never ending water can be little humbling. It’s the same feeling that one gets when one is in the midst of mountains. At least, I do. But the ride was more than interesting because the company we had. There were about ten people on board who were like us the so called DSDs — discover scuba diving. There were two others who were into a course to get their advance scuba diving (ASD) certification. And then there were the instructors — Rupi, Ram and Rajesh.

It appeared like the instructors and ASDs were a community in their own right. Their enthusiasm to this — sport, skill, tradecraft, adventure activity, call what you will — was revealing. And amongst them Rupi stood out. Her passion for this thing was infectious. The narration of her deep water exploits were mesmerising. The accounts of her encounters with sharks, whales and the innumerable fishes that she could name, were bewitching! And she had done it across the globe — in Europe, in Africa, et al. I had never experienced the acute sense of under achievement, I did at that time, in my life before. Suffice to say it all made us feel like we were about to begin on a very beautiful, adventurous and a passionate journey of love into the ocean and its dwellers.

But before that could begin, we had to wait! There were about ten people before I could get a chance at my love affair. Each person would take about an hour and there were three instructors who would each take one person at a time. So I had to wait a good three to four hours before I could take the holy dip! I idled way these hours by floating on this wonderfully humongous swimming pool that Nature has bestowed upon us — with a life jacket of course! And then the moment arrived.

I was sure that I remembered most of the instructions that were given to us on the boat and I felt confident of handling myself deep down. Soon, I was kitted up and thrown into the water. My instructor tested if I could handle the regulator well and I passed. She asked me if I was ready to go in and I nodded. We began descending and I could see stuff in the water clearly. She would point me to fishes and I would reply with a hand gesture that said it was lovely. But as we descended further down, I began feeling an acute pain in my ears. This was expected as was explained on the boat and there were instructions given to mitigate this. Obviously I was failing. When pain reached unbearable level, she brought me up. There she taught me the steps to mitigate again and having got a go ahead from me took me into the water again. This time my ears were faring a little better. And soon we come to a place where I could see the big rocks on the ocean surface and large contingent of fishes of many varieties. We hung around there for a while, watching fishes, shooting videos and then it was over. Apparently I had spent a good 40 mins in the water but the thing felt like it was over in a jiffy. Overall, I had a mixed feelings about the thing. The ‘Love affair’ I was hoping to begin, I wasn’t sure of it anymore! May be two time’s the charm.

We grabbed a quick bite after reaching the shore and we headed to Udupi. The night drive was uneventful with we trying gain some gyan from podcasts that I was playing from my phone. We found a hotel, White Lotus, after some struggle, to stay the night. The dinner was sumptuous with neither H nor me disappointed with our orders. We fell asleep watching BBC Earth.

Next day morning the plan was simple — clean-up, temple, checkout, home — all to be done ASAP. While at the Temple I met quite a chatty chap, who had broken into the queue right in front of me. Within the next five minutes he gave me his life story without leaving me chance to utter a word. Apparently, he’s a lawyer from Mangaluru living in Delhi and Mumbai, he even got knifed once in Mumbai but he’s never scared and to top it all, he revealed that he’s related to Aishwarya Rai!

We left Udupi after breakfast. I was at the driving wheel because I wanted to drive through what was supposed to be the wonderful Kuduremukha mountain range. And the drive was indeed as wonderful as it promised out to be. The twisty roads, surrounded my mountains, are a driver’s delight. Add to it the almost non-existent traffic, with a car here a bus there. I haven’t had so much fun behind a driving wheel ever before. While I was consumed by the drive, R was busy giving his Camera a serious workout. I’ll let the pictures do the explaining.

Just after we exited the forest we found, we stopped for a tea at a shop run buy a friendly lady. She offered to fry some Mirchi Bhajjis for us with Mirchis of our choosing. It was an offer that we couldn’t refuse and we devoured quite a few those lovely little hot things. Even H who was being cautious about what he ate due to his motion sickness joined in the feast. But it turned out to be fateful for him. He spent much of the remaining drive retching!

The rest of the drive was uneventful, with the expected traffic after entering Bengaluru frustrating R, who had taken over the wheel by then and H sleeping on the backseat exhausted! When R finally dropped me at my place, it was 11.30 in the night and I was exhausted. Happily so!