The long winding road, with a beach at the end.

The day after our last post, the three of us embarked on an epic journey Aurangabad to Goa. Waking up at 4.30am, we got to the train station at Aurangabad at 5.30am before getting a local train to Manmad Junction at 6. From here we were to get a train to Goa, leaving at 10.30am and arriving 9 hours later at 7.30pm. At least that was the plan. 
During a conversation with some Indian travellers that evening, we learnt that there was not 1 more hour to go as we had thought, but 12. The train was due to arrive at 6am the next morning.

The sunset from the train.

Our 12 hour journey had become a 24 hour one. Sleeping on the train was an interesting experience to say the least. The seats folded up to form three-tier bunks, of which we each managed to get one, with a family of four sharing two next to us. Our stop must have passed us sometime during our broken night, and we got off the train at 6am at Magao. Our new plan was simple: Find some accomodation. Sleep.
However, leaving the station, something caught my eye. The train which we were planning on getting in a day or two, that would take us on to Gokarna, left this station at 2pm. So, after a short discussion we decided to go find a beach, stay there for 8 hours, then come back and get the connection to Gokarna.

Our first taste of heavy rain at the station in Magao.

We arrived in Gokarna in the dark, and quickly made our way to the beach we had planned to stay on, named Kudlee. Since then we have done very little, relaxing on the beach, taking walks over hills to more beaches and exploring the small town of Gokarna. Unfortunately, the beautiful sunny weather and clear skies we were expecting  was nowhere to be seen, and instead we have been targeted by high winds and monsoon rains, interspersed by periods of calm sunshine. It's made the walks more interesting, and the chai more appetising, so I'm not complaining, but overall its been very quiet and very restful, which we needed after the effort it took to get here.

The beach we've been staying on for the last week.

We leave tomorrow for Hampi, where we will stay for a few days before heading back to Goa, hopefully for more than 8 hours this time.
That's all for today, we'll post again when there is more to say.
John


As always, please leave us a comment, and there are more pictures in the slideshow to the right.

Locals bringing in the morning fish.