Hangarakatte Ferry Point
How many of you have sailed across the river by Barge? Barge is a kind of ship which is usually used to transport vehicles along with the passengers across a river crossing usually in the places where road bridge is not present or is under repair or the river is too wide to construct a bridge. Excitement of sailing along with our vehicle on Barge is altogether a different experience. During childhood I have memories of sitting inside a bus crossing the Sharavati river of Honnavara by Barge on my way to Belgaum. Even much famed Sigandhuru of Hosanagara is very well known for the barge facility along with the temple. Until recently we didn’t have the faint idea of the existence of such barge facility very much near to our home.
Hangarakatte is that rare villages in Udupi with a functioning port and a ferry terminal. This unique place is just 7 km from our sweet home, and it made a perfect candidate for this Udupi unexplored series. We planned to visit Hangarkatte right after visiting Kukkude and Honnala.
Diversion to Hangarakatte is often overlooked while travelling via Brahmavara – Kundapura NH 66 highway. As with all highways, this highway too has erased all the individual identities of the small towns and villages it passes through. If you are travelling from Udupi or Brahmavara towards Kundapura right after crossing Mabukala bridge, after 300 m there is diversion to left which takes you to Hangarakatte port. We suggest you to with Google Maps directions as we have given below in the post or take help from locals since this road has many confusing diversions all along. Port is hardly 2 km away from Highway. A large establishment of Tebma shipyard welcomes you to the seashore.
Hagarakatte port is located on the bank of Sita and Suvarna river convergence. Used mainly by fishing boats. Delta Point, where Sita and Suvarna rivers meet the Arabian Sea. Special feature of this port is the ferry service offered here to Kodi Bengre port. This ferry can transport passengers and two-wheelers too. The service starts at 6:45 am and till 6:30 pm multiple trips are made in the frequency of around every 90 mins. This ferry service brings down the distance between Hangarakatte and Kodi Bengre from 24 Km (by road) to 700 m.
When we arrived at the ferry point eve though ferry to transport us was present at the port, there was no one around except a couple in the ship. After inquiring around, we found that the ferry will start in another 15 mins. We parked our scooter inside the ferry and spent time around the place. This place is very calm and serene as not many visitors. Colorful fishing boats densely parked at the port is a delight to watch. Slowely ferry started to get filled up with the local fisher women crossing the river to Bengre for the daily business. Ticket collector also arrived and we boarded the ferry. In no time we along with our scooter we were sailing to the Kodi Bengre: other end of the river.
We enjoyed the ambience full of constant chit chat of the fisher women. It took barely 10 mins to reach the destination. We really wished the journey to last a bit longer.
Reaching Hangarakatte
Live the experience!!
Watch our short video on Hangarakatte and let us know your feedback.