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Whether you're a beach person or not, Hugh & Colleen Gantzer assure you that the unexplored beaches of Karnataka are simply to die for
Are you a beach person? If you are not, you should be: even if you can't swim. Beaches are the best, ozone-rich, wide-open spaces left in our land. And the widest variety of beaches are on the little-known… and therefore, the least crowded… Arabian Sea shores of Karnataka. We know: We have just visited six of them, and one of us does not swim!
Dev Bagh Beach – If it wasn’t a natural beach, Dev Bagh could have been a designer beach : designed for effortless unwinding. We drove past the high wall of the new naval port being built on the wide sweep of Karwar's Bay. From a jetty, under a bridge spanning a creek, we caught a speed-boat and skimmed across an estuary to a casuarina-whispering island. Technically, Dev Bagh is a promontory, connected to the mainland by a narrow strip of an isthmus but virtually no tourists come across that terrain so, in effect, Dev Bagh is an island cut off from the world. And what a gentle, lonely, island! We lived in a bark-clad, thatched, cottage raised on stilts; lunched in an open sided 'Gol Ghar' beside its twin Conference Hut, also at branch level; strolled on a wide beach where a blue sea stretched to low, blue, hills; and had a barbecue dinner on a starlit strand while the sea shuffled its luminous surf a soft whisper away. It was quite magical.
 Then, one morning, donning swimming gear, we sped to a tiny secluded cove on Lady's Island where even non-swimmers are encouraged to snorkel, wearing life- jackets. Sadly, low tide was setting in and the water had become a bit murky thanks to the earthmovers in the Naval port, but the minuscule beach is very quiet, very private. Had it not been for a visiting American couple we would have had it all to ourselves. We did, however, follow a pod of dolphins gambolling in the water on the way back. These mammals, that had returned to the sea millions of years ago, were clearly enjoying themselves, showing off their incredible torpedo swift skills. We weren't quite up to matching their agility but, in the evening, IT programmers at a residential conference, leapt and writhed at beach volleyball to loud shouts of "I shaaa!" while a honeymooning couple walked on the fringes of the surf, lost in their own world. Dev Bagh can be many things to many people!
Gorkarna Beach – Gokarna, on the other hand is, essentially, a paddlers' beach: wet saris, rolled up trousers, and screams as the surf silvers in. Most of the paddlers, we learnt, had come as pilgrims to the famed temple and had then decided to take a dip in the sea. At least two families from Bengal told us that such an ablution cleansed them of "Impurities": we didn't ask if those pollutants were physical or spiritual; probably a fair amount of both. Pilgrim towns in our land tend to attract stressed out youth from other parts of the world, seeking escape by various means! And in the labyrinthine alleys around the temple, drop-outs from the west subsisted in doss houses and hovels, drifted around in scruffy undress. In beads and beards the alleys also infest the beautiful twin scoops of Om Beach. It's a fairly long, possibly sweaty, trudge from the crest of a scrubby ridge down to the shore. Both Gokarna and Om are interesting strands if you like your beaches a bit down-market and slightly gamy! Incidentally, the coconut vendor we encountered on Gokarna was a scalper used to rooking firangs.
Murudeshwar Beach – We came to the beach of the temple-town of Murudeshwar in the evening when dusk gilded the promontory dominated by its Shiva temple, with a heroic statue of the Mahayogi enthroned on the ridge. The beach leading up to the sacred hillock, thrusting out to the sea, is wide and long, dotted with occasional fishing boats. Viewing the sun sinking into the gilded sea at dusk, from the headland of the promontory, is a favoured activity with visitors. We stayed in the low-rise, lawn-centred, Naveen Beach Resort. It is separated from the beach by a coastal road and so we ambled across to the beach, and walked briskly down it, early one morning. The statue of Lord Shiva was resplendent and women in bright saris stood in their own reflections, as the tide swept in, dabbling for shellfish.
 Fishermen assured us that it's a safe beach and we did see a few brave swimmers but it's not quite the Goan-Calangute scene. Murudeshwar is, essentially, a very laid-back, beach with very few tourists when we visited it and,
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