Orissa gaman

Bird’s eye view  Today we travelled to Gopalpur-on-sea, a mere 70 km from Barkul that we covered in 1.5 hours flat.  Now you might be wondering why we did not travel to Gopalpur yesterday itself. Because we did not want a ten-hour drive from Dublagadi, and a break would give us a breather. Maybe, but then why did we stay at Barkul, so close to Gopalpur? The answer is in the sea itself, or more specifically, the tide.  At this part of the coast, high tide is currently at 10.00 am and 10.00 pm. If we stayed at Bhubaneswar, for example, by the time we arrived here, it would probably be 1.00 pm, and the sea would have started on its low-tide march and sullenly retreated a couple of kilometres. Next morning, we would want to leave before 8.00 am, and we would miss high tide again. Nothing like a sea bath during high tide, right? As it was, we reached Gopalpur beach at 10.50 am, bang on, with the tide in full flow. Perfect!  Here are some details of the journey...

Bird’s eye view   350 km today, that too almost straight as an arrow, parallel to the coastline of Orissa, should not have taken a very long time, but it took us 8 hours, including two hours of a leisurely lunch and coffee. As Billy Goat famously said to Nanny Goat: “If you can’t beat it, eat it.”  So gastronomically, today was a good one, as we shall see. Roads were excellent, as expected, though speed limits kept our average below 60 kmph. OD plate drivers, especially around Bhubaneswar, have a marked tendency of inserting their muzzles in front of my bonnet, like tickle-deprived golden retrievers.  Panna also drove today for an hour, recollecting her skills from her drag-racing days, and I got a well deserved break.  Now for a few details.  Sunrise at Dublagadi (6.00 am)  We had seen a lot of haze last evening and were apprehensive whether Ra would show us his pre-coffee face. But we need not have worried. Ten minutes after we hit the beach,...