Ottinene Beach, Sunset point and kshitija nisarga dhama

If you’ve been blindly cruising along NH 17 (now NH66) between Kundapur and Karwar without stopping over at Ottinene, you’re missing something. I’ve been doing that mistake for quite sometime and got to visit this place only recently. I had Ottinene on my radar since sometime and it materialized recently with the Aria. Though we could go there early morning and not during the evening so we missed catching the sunset it is famous for.

Below: Aria with the backdrop of Ottinene beach

 Above: View of the Kshitija Nisarga Dhama viewpoint from Sea

Ottinene is a scenic place some 40 kms from Kundapur, after Baindoor. Kshitija Nisarga Dhama located off NH has good roads for first half and mud/rocky path for rest of the distance, which is motorable. We drove there early morning to get the below view.  Other than the view there isn’t much at this Nisarga Dhama- couple of buildings were locked and unmanned, so I guess the place is not yet popular with tourists (at least during week days)

Apart from Enjoying the scenic view from here, one can also take the steps to go down all the way till the sea. While returning we visited the sea below, on the banks of which a temple is also located (called Someshwara temple). Couple of rocks and flat sea bed with  a merging river makes this place spectacular and fun.

Below: Someshwara Temple near Ottinene

 

A resort, known as Sai Vishram Beach Resort has also come up in this area, which charges anywhere between 5000 to 10000 per day.

Reaching this place can be tricky-study well in Google maps or take help from locals. There’re hardly any signages by the roadside.

 

Ottinene was time well spent. Going there during sunset is the next target. Add this place to your itinenary when visiting Murudeshwara/Karwar etc from Udupi side. We also found some vultures flying around that day as there was a dead animal around

April 2014 Update: Visited again during sunset time- view details and photo here

Nearby: Murudeshwara * Maravanthe * Kodachadri * Kollur * Udupi * Manipal Endpoint