Beach Trip - Kaup

Kaup (pronounced KAPU) is a small village located about 20 Kms from Udupi on the National highway 17 towards Mangalore. On 15 th March, a Sunday, my colleagues at the Department of Pharmacology, KMC, Manipal, invited me to come along on a beach trip to Kaup. To be honest, even though I have spent two years now in Manipal, I hadn't visited the place, though I had been to the Malpe Beach.

So at around 4 P.M. Swathi and I set out on our Honda Activa for the beach. Near the Sharada Kalyana Mantapa, we joined my colleagues, who were on a Maruti Omni. We asked them to lead the way as I had never been to the place. The drive was pleasant and we reached the beach at about 4 30.

The beach at Kaup is cleaner than the one at Malpe. Probably because there are fewer visitors and tourists. The water appeared to be cleaner and was more appealing than at Malpe. The Kaup beach also houses a Light house, entry to which is permitted between 9 am and 6 pm. The climb up the light house is quite exhausting if like me you are not fit enough. Swathi was completely exhausted half way through, but somehow made it to the top.

The view from the top of the Light house is worth the climb. On one side the vast blue-green sea and on the other side the western ghats and greenery. One of the lighthouse personnel pointed out that we can also see our University town - Manipal from atop the lighthouse.

Unfortunately we were not allowed to take pictures inside the lighthouse, but, the winding stairs looked nice.

We had a lot of fun at the beach and returned late in the evening. It was quite an exhausting trip.