Coastal kayaking

I'd bought a SeaEagle SE 330 kayak about 3 years ago, because I had some fledgling interest in water sport at that time. But what I really enjoyed doing was kayaking in some of the rivers of coastal Karnataka.

At first, I was quite apprehensive as to how it would be. I neither had experience doing long stretches, nor had any idea if there were rapids or bridges or such on the way. But there had to be a first time and I 'bit the bullet' so to speak, on the Sita Nadi.

Sita nadi is one of the few rivers in the south where one can find some good rapids. I have whitewater rafted the stretch many times in the past. However, I wanted something simpler and less demanding this time.

When my friend N made travel plans to Brahmavara which is very close to the river, I decided to join him and club it with an exploratory trip. My approach was to find a bridge upstream, where we could start and paddle till the we reached the mouth of the river. Looking up Google Maps we found such a place in Kokkarne and formed our plan.

We reached the starting bridge around 11 in the morning and got into the water. A farmer nearby warned us that there was a small dam in the way, and said 'Neevu HaarBahudu' (literally that you could jump off the top, apparently a height difference of 6 feet). We were looking around for this 'drop', but it turned out that the tides were in our favour and we had actually navigated across at the same level. After a lot of easy paddling, we reached the coastal Mabukola bridge in about 4 hours and got off.


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That was the first trip, and since then I've navigated a few more rivers.

The Sharavathi river is also quite interesting to explore. Since its a dam-controlled river ( the dam is at Gerusoppa) there is not much flow, but the banks are very picturesque. One must watch out as there is some commercial traffic in the form of sailboats. Incidentally, before roads were built, people used to travel upstream from Honnavar on an all-night sailboat journey to reach Gerusoppa. There is a lot of birdwatching possibilities for bird lovers at the mouth of the river where it meets the sea. The bridge which crosses the river at Honnavar is one of the longest in the state, and its a heady feeling to move out from the relatively narrow river to a two kilometre wide stretch at the bridge. There are also some small uninhabited islands ideal for lunch picnic.

Reaching the starting point at Gerusoppa is an hour's ride from Honnavar by road.

My paddling partner V made a video of the kayak trip.



The Zuari river in Goa was the location for the next paddle trip. My partner and I started from Ponda town intent on reaching the sea, but we stopped well short of our goal because of bad headwinds. However, most rivers in Goa are badly polluted since barge traffic carries ore from the river bank to ships in the port. A substantial part of the ore unfortunately ends up in the river, giving it a muddy brown shade. However, as one paddles, one gets a good chance to see the less-touristy side of Goa, as well as the tidal mangroves that line the shores.

The Nethravati river near Mangalore also has some good stretches to paddle. One of the objective hazards is a small dam on the way that one needs to get across.


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One could catch up with other kayakers on the dreamroutes forum.