The beginning of the 3rd day of our trip was a bit discouraging for me ((View: Day 2 Report )). The gloomy sky and the dull day light was not what I was expecting. I did not feel like taking out my camera by any means.

We started our journey a bit late after rescheduling our plan. We were planned to go Nainathivu that day, but we changed our plan and went towards Point Pedro instead.

Our first stop for the day was at the “Nilavara – Bottomless Well”. It is a big opening on ground filled with clean water. It is said that the depth of this well is unknown. There had been 2 formal attempts to find out its depth; one by a team from the Jaffna University and the other by a team from an US University, but both teams could not find the bottom of it.

The water of this well is totally different from other water sources in that area. Its water does not have the salty taste (කිවුල් රස). People believe this water comes from an underground river formed by “Sudu Ganga” in Matale. It is also believed that this well, the ‘Ayiyakachchi’ well at Elephant Pass and the ‘Keerimalei’ pond are interconnected and share the same water source.

Nilavara – Bottomless Well

Nilavara – Bottomless Well

According to the folk stories, once the Lord Krishna had visited this place and he hit the ground with his spear. Then this giant hole was created and it filled with water. They also believe that Rama also visited this place on his way to find Seetha.

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Today the water board use this well to supply water to a large population in the area. They pump thousands of gallons of water every day, but the water level does not go down.

Our next stop was at “Selva Sannadi Shrine”. This shrine is devoted to the ‘Lord Muruga’, also known as කතරගම දෙවියන්. The annual “Pada Yatra” to Katharagama starts from this place.

The Shrine

A devotee

Then we visited a beach which had used to be very famous before the war started. It is called the “Valalai Beach”. The KKS harbor is to west of this beach and can be seen from there. There had been a couple of beach resorts at this place in the good old days.

The view towards KKS harbor

Valalai Beach

Valalai Beach

Our next destination was the northernmost point of Sri Lanka, the Point Pedro.

The national flag placed to mark the topmost point of the country

It was one of my dreams to travel to all four corners of Sri Lanka. Yes, I did it…

The light house at Point Pedro is now under the protection of Navy. You may not enter or climb it without prior approval. But these days they will not allow you to climb it even if you have permission since it is risky. The light house is too old and needs a restoration. Restoration work will be started soon and then the travelers will get the chance to go to top.

The light house at Point Pedro

The light house at Point Pedro

From Point Pedro we took a road towards east. After driving through the most remote areas in the Jaffna peninsula we reached an area called “Manalkadu” situated on the eastern slope of the peninsula.
Once we were closing our destination we were amazed by the most unusual sight we were hoping to see in Jaffna. As far as we could see was covered by a thick Cyprus forest…! For a moment we were speechless. Hundreds of acres of sand dunes were covered by Cyprus trees.

These Cyprus trees said to be planted by the English rulers. Now it has grown to be a thick forest.

“No, this is not Nuwara Eliya…”

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Sand dunes and the Cyprus forest…

The Manalkadu sand dunes

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Beyond these sand dunes was one of the most beautiful beaches in Northern Sri Lanka. You may not find many wide sandy beaches in the North. Manalkadu beach is one of those few splendid beaches and for me it was the best in the North.

Manalkadu beach

Manalkadu beach is as beautiful as the beaches you find on the East coast…

Time for a HDR capture….!

And that was the end of day 3.

To be continued………………