Kasargod to Gokarna, dawn to dusk

There's a trip I took a couple of weeks back (8th Jan 2009, Thursday) I'd been planning for over 2 years now. It was planned to be a bike ride initially and so it got postponed through the rains into winter, which turns out to be good biking season. However, I'd company and went by car instead. I totally forgot to blog it due to the fallen habit of procrastination. Now, I'm not sure if I'm interested to write details at this hour; I may paint it out in another weblog later on some day, but here's what it is in short:

• Darshana of six Ganesha temples between dawn to dusk on one single day, one in Kerala, the other five in Karnataka.
• This is known as the Ganesha coast, also known as the Parashurama kshetra.
• Drive to Kasargod in Kerala (We were at Honnavara in Karnataka).
• Night stay at Kasargod.
• Start from Kasargod early morning having darshana at six Ganesha temples, first at Kasargod, sixth at Gokarna (also known as dakshiNa kAshi).
• Six devasthanas are: Madhur Ganapati at Kasargod, Sharavu Ganapati at Mangalore, Aanegudde Ganapati at Kundapura, Hattiangadi Ganapati at Kundapura, Idagunji Ganapati at Honnavara and Gokarna Ganapati.
• The total distance is around 330 kms. To and fro clocked 630 kms on my car though.

We added another kuladevata Moodaganapati darshana to it after dusk. We had the first darshana at 0545 and started driving at 0630. While at Gokarna, we dropped by at Brahmarshi Devarata ashram since the Gokarna temple was closed to open at 1630; we were there with comfortable driving and breaks, at 1530.