Kaup(Kapu) Beach, Udupi

Sometimes short unplanned sightseeing expeditions turn out to be an unique experience, I guess many of you would have experienced it some point of time or other. The same happened when I utilized two hour buffer time of my personal visit trip to Udupi and decided see the famous Kaup(Kapu) beach. The beach is one of picturesque beaches in South Canara and well known for strategically located lighthouse on a rock boulder. The beach recently shot into limelight as it was the shooting location for recent Kannada movie Pancharangi. 

Getting to the beach.
I opted for local bus service from Udupi’s private bus-stand which dropped me a kilometre distance from the beach. The last mile was covered on foot and while walking I had a brief chat with a local fisherman Sajeev Philip. He was also going to the beach for a booze party with his colleagues to celebrate day’s revenue of 30K INR with net profit of 25K INR ! After getting to know about my background he was very curious to know why I opted to visit Kaup beach. Somehow the lighthouse factor didn’t sound very convincing to him !
Getting atop the Lighthouse

After getting to the beach I immediately switched to photo shooting mode. Unlike surrounding areas the place was brimming with people of different age groups in a group of families, friends and students (mostly from Manipal University). Observing people’s movement I realized that one can actually get atop the famous lighthouse. Without any hassles I took the plunge by paying Rs.10 as entry fee and Rs.20 as camera fee. The perspective from the top was completely different and the same beach  looked completely different.

The scenes of a stream joining the sea around the lighthouse was treat for eyes and my camera too. At a far distance one could see recently inaugurated Nagarjuna power plant near Padubidri. The fishermen village on opposite side of the beach was looking calm with series of parked boats for next day’s catch. Seeing me on business with an SLR a guy got into conversation with me by asking various configurations about camera. I had a brief chat with him and got to know to that he’s native of Kaup but born and brought up in Dombivili(Mumbai).

The in-charge of the lighthouse who was monitoring people at the top showed us working of the lighthouse and explained us how it used to work in mechanical mode before 1995. Since then it’s been working in electrical mode with a visibility 26 kms and assisting various ships navigating in proximity to coastal area.

Before it turned dark I started my return journey to Udupi through hybrid model i.e. beach to NH-17 by an auto and NH-17 to Udupi by a local express bus.