Photo #2

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First day of the New Year and a mini-adventure planned. To get to the closest point between Sri Lanka and India we would have to cross Mannar Island. Our driver was a young Air Conditioning Engineer who was as excited as us. He had never been to the end of Mannar Island before either. At various points on the trip he was waving to his friends on motorbikes and we even passed his father who owned a garage on the way. The road (about 150 km each way) was relatively new except in a few places where the tidal waters obviously swept in. There were several army barracks on the way, signs of the conflict that occurred in the past three decades.

At the end of Mannar Island is an old port where the ferries that used to run between India and Sri Lanka operated from. These areas are all now controlled by the Sri Lankan Navy.

The end of Adam's bridge was not as accessible as we had seen from the Indian end. The point closest to the first of the sand islands that form the bridge were inaccessible due to fencing around the Navy base. However we managed a few photos of both the abandoned pier and the beach close to the start of Adam's bridge.

On the way back we stopped in to Mannar to view an old Banyan tree which was bought from Arabia, by early traders to the area and also an old Dutch Fort that controlled the straights.

The Island and the area around Jaffna feel unworldly being so flat and dry, a very unique part of the planet.

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