[masterChief007]

Prologue:
-------------------

Last time I went to mulki to the wonderful surf-club in mulki Mantra Surf Club, I got their merch t-shirt, It had a caption "life is better when you surf", wearing the same one day in my office lift, I was asked the question "net-surfing?" ponting to my t-shirt, to which I answered "No, the real one ".

That was 4 years back, so I had some leaves already sanctioned for some other trip that I was supposed to make to Mata Vaishno Devi, but I guess
the goddess disapproved my presence there and sowed the idea of surfing in my head instead. So quick cancellation of my flight and train tickets I reconfirmed with the Mantra surf club (located around 20 kms north of Mangalore) regarding availability of rooms and sessions for surfing. Upon confirmation plan was quickly finalized for 9th Departure from bangalore,
10th to 12th classes (3 days) and 13th return.

As usual the previous night consisted of filling up of tank and tyre, oil level check, packing my bags and prepping my cold coffee for the road and morning.

9th Dec:
---------

I had set my alarm for 5.30 am, so woke up had some cold coffee with some fruits and boiled egg and started my car at 6:10 am. "Born to be wild" at high volume ensured the remnants of the sleepiness to go away.
Drive on the NH75 has always been a pleasure, butter smooth roads till hassan. I generally avoid taking a break before 200 kms during my onward journeys as I have my coffee and light breakfast at home itself, and while I am fresh prefer to bite a large chunk of the kms to cover in first sitting. So just to take a snap of the smooth NH75 for the writeup, stopped for a second after ~100km, took a not so great pic of the road and started again.




Just before Hassan, there are a lot of diversions, but since the drive till here was smooth I won't complain. After Hassan the scenic road to Belur and beyond starts, so it was a pleasure driving these roads with greenery all around.



My first stop was to be Fresh Beans Cafe near Banakal which was clocked at ~260km at 11:00 am. Went in with a full bladder and 3/4 tank, decided on emptying the former and not fill up the latter. Went in and ordered bread-omlette, masala fries and coffee and tea. Just to confirm he heard it right, the waiter asked me "coffee is cancelled then"? I had to explain that he heard it right first time "Coffee and Tea, both". With a smile he went to the kitchen. I have FOMO regarding food, so can't miss out the tea with the fries ever . The restroom was quite clean and excellent.








After this food stop, the twisties started and the Yoko's didn't disappoint. I remember driving on these ghats with the puny MRFs and there was a marked difference in the drive experience.
As I couldn't return to tbhp and bangalore empty handed without taking some ghat pics I had to stop just after my food point to click a few of them.













Charmady ghats is in a good condition, so one can take this route (NH73) to Mangalore after Hassan instead of the NH75 (Shirady ghat) one.

Finally reached my destination Mantra Surf Club at Mulki. This place as usual had a wonderful vibe to it. Clocked 379Km at 2:40 pm at the destination.








Waited for my room to be available, took shower and a little horizontal time was again up for kayaking at 4.30pm. The kayaking is done on the beautiful river sambhavi (sort of backwater) around a mangrove forest island connected by a bridge.
So the kayaks are taken under the bridge and some people waved at me when I was passing by, I posed like I won a boat race and heard loud laughter from above. Anyways the river was
filled with jellyfish and jumping fishes. Saw a variety of birds while kayaking, with the peaceful sound of the paddle hitting the water, it was a relaxing end to the day.

10th-12th Dec:
-------------------------

The days start early in the surf club if you are taking their surfing course, as the team leaves for surfing by 7.30 am and the session is for around 3 hrs. Breakfast is light consisting of fruits and tea/coffee. This was not alien to me as my early morning runs of 10 km consist of water as the only breakfast item, so this didn't feel out of place . For the duration of 3 hrs maximum time is spent in fighting the sea to reach a position from where you can start surfing, or at least pretend to do so.
Fighting the waves is both fun and exhausting as your board if not carefully positioned against the wave can strike you, throw you around or pull you back to the shore again which resets all your progress.

As I already knew the basics of surfing, I knew what to expect, which is tumbling in the sea for 10 times before a decent attempt to surf can be made. For absolute beginners theory and demo of surfing basics were taken, which consisted of quite a few number of semi-burpee (around 20-30) like actions, to attain the correct form while surfing. With absence of any muscle memory, 1st day was not good and had wash out rashes from the sand on the shore when one gets thrown off the board by the waves. Subsequent days were much better as at the third day, I was able to catch 3 waves and surf them on my own without any guidance.

95% of surf attempts end in falls and wipe-outs so that's normal. I attained a few wash out rashes on knees, elbows and even on the forehead due to my antics. So I decided to forgo soap during my bathing ritual
and just settled for dettol instead (who wants to get to know where all the other rashes are hiding due to the burning soap !!)






After the surf session (which used to be held NITK-Surathkal beach), we used to drive back to the resort and have bath and lunch. Lunch is veg but really awesome, though it is buffet, but I used to keep my hunger demons in check
as others should not starve because of me. Me appreciating veg lunch means it has to be good, as I am a non-veg fanatic. As I travelled there alone it was quite easy to make aquaintances, and I had some nice conversations with other tourists and the instructors, shared some of my own interesting stories and listened to theirs. There were people from all around India and from different backgrounds and age groups.

Evening times were spent kayaking followed by either chatting with other guests, carrom or watching the FIFA World cup QF disasters. I used to head back for sleep by 11 pm. And rinse and repeat.

On 12th me and a few other guests drove to mangalore (around 20-25kms) for dinner at Machali's followed by a visit to PABBA's icecream. I had once drove from bangalore to Machali's had lunch and drove back the same day, so I knew the food will be good. And as usual I pigged out there on fish and prawns and the fish thali, with a lot of over-eating guilt I sacrificed my PABBA's experience by just having a orange candy ice-cream :(





13th October:
-----------------------
On 12th night itself I settled my bills and did my pre-drive check on my car, and went to sleep after packing all of my stuff. Woke up at 5 am on 13th, and after morning duties started the car at around 6 am.



Drive was quite peaceful but too many dogs were on the road in the morning. The drive was excellent, filled up the diesel from Fresh Bean's IOCL bunk and drove to Ibbani Cafe nearby for breakfast at around 9 am.

Diesel refill:


Ibbani Cafe:




Had Neer dose, puliogare, filter coffee AND cold coffee (see what I do ? ). After that I set my map marker to polar bear on the NH75 for pan ice-cream for my next stop, which I finally decided not to stop for, and drove directly to home non-stop.



The return journey was uneventful so nothing much to write about. However since I was driving solo, I was at my karaoke best during the whole drive back which prevented any sort of sleepiness to touch my eyes. Now I have discovered with this trip, moka pot coffee (got introduced to it by fellow bhpian sup?) and my exceptional karaoke voice keep drowsiness away during my drives !! Until next drive ...

BLR-MULKI: 6:10 am - 2:40 pm (20-30 mins break at Fresh Beans Cafe, 5 mins photo stop)
MULKI-BLR: 6:00 am - 2:10 pm (15 mins break at Ibbani Cafe, 1 min photo stop)

[veerubhai]

It is pleasure to read your adventurous and thrilling experience of Surfing ! That too when when you went solo all the way from Bengaluru to Surathkal! You stand as inspiration for mere folks! Would like to see more such beautiful writeups from you.

We majority have become experts in web-surfing and keyboard warriors ;-) giving excuses like friends circle are not interested or dangerous etc. Hopefully "we" to get inspired and do this someday!

[masterChief007]

Originally Posted by veerubhai

We majority have become experts in web-surfing and keyboard warriors ;-) giving excuses like friends circle are not interested or dangerous etc. Hopefully "we" to get inspired and do this someday!

Thanks @veerubhai for your kind words ! A long time back I had realized planning in a group never goes according to plan. So I plan solo nowadays, anyone joins me, they are welcome, if not then that's what I planned for anyways

Surfing is in no way dangerous sport at least for beginners, the surfboard is tied to your feet which anyways will pull you to the shore. Listen to the instructors and you would be safe. Good to know swimming though (however not necessary), if nothing it'll give you confidence.

Similarly you can explore skiing, scuba diving, horse-riding all are safe inspite of the image of being dangerous. Just follow instructors advise, and you will retain your life and limb.

One more tip: Don't wait for friends to join and coincide with your plans, when you travel solo, you can make friends in just a few words. Saying hi to anyone is the first step, and then you have a friend on the spot instead of bringing one along