Entry 8 Gokarna, Sirsi

Gokarna
What a wonderful day, a truly fabulous journey.
The trip from start to finish with the exception of arrival in Gokarna was brilliant. The last part of the day was spent hunting for my second ferry on dirt tracks in the hills as the sun was setting. It was much larger than the dug out I had taken earlier in the day and it had an engine. The sun was setting and the views of the fishermen heading out for the evening catch were tremendous. The last dash to Gokarna was fun until I turned right and joined the roads of religious fervour.If there is one thing this trip has taught me is my abhorrence of religious fervour irrespective of the religion. There is a state the afflicted achieve, a singular state of mind where nothing including the lives of others is important. This is the condition that the drivers of the Hindu wagons achieve and I hate sharing the road with them. Hindu wagons are typically silver Tata copies of Landrovers carrying at least one orange flag and at most a whole temple, effigy the works - I jest not. Sadly I have met these idiots too many times and harbour nothing but disrespect for them, their treatment of other road users and I count myself least in this, is shocking.

I cycled all the way down to the beach car park which was full of these lunatics, turned around and cycled back. I did try the place that is supposed to be best deal in town but it was full, so I declined a very grubby Rs70 place and landed my room across the road from which I left first thing. This place is as ugly as Trimbakeshwar was enlightened and I was very happy to leave. I did first have an excellent muesli breakfast and spent far too much time talking to a fellow cyclist from Portugal, he was a refreshing change to some other Portuguese guys Ive met.




Sirsi: A hard won day

I had probably the best Muesli, curd and honey Ive had in a long time this morning, but I chatted far too long over breakfast with another cyclist from Portugal and it was eleven before I was leaving Gokarna.

Following a different road out I headed for the highway past the salt drying fields, flats whatever they are called. Typing this drivel Im conscious of a certain Irish man reading this who will correct this oversight in my vocabulary, I diverge not unusual, was very quickly on the NH17.

It was a mixture of gentle inclines and very quiet all the way to Mirjan where I had an unusual beetroot curry in my lunchtime thali..

Things changed dramatically on the way out of Mirjan this section of road is a very busy route between the port and a quarry making it very dusty and very noisy and it was with great relief that I finally joined the secondary road to Sirsi.

This was short lived relief as the road is a rat run for the Hidus on some pilgrimage so my route was a complete contrast to the magical day before, the two days a reflection of India's extremes.

This wasnt the real challenge of the day, the real challenge was the climb, it just didnt stop all that varied was the incline of the road.

It was a hard fight and there were a couple of times I wasnt certain if I would make Sirsi as the road signs were tough to work out, despite having learned the pattern for Sirsi, however with great relief I finally entered the town as the sun was setting and slowly found my way to the excellent and cheap Pachavanti Hotel which is just out of town quiet and clean.

I decided to stay the extra day as yesterday was my Larium day/ night and I was already pretty exhausted from the long tough day. The town seemed worth exploring and the hotel was great, exceptional even quiet, clean a good veg. restaurant and shop where I had my first ever .

The road though was wonderful, no vistas as I was really amongst the trees, banana plantations jungle etc.

This is quite a cool town with all the resources and opportunities a traveller needs, there is a good collection of temples and plenty of shops to cater for anything you might need, I much prefer it to Gokarna and the climate is a little cooler too, that and not another white face in the crowed, there is iNet and a place selling ice cold Fosters.