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Adam's Bridge, Mannar, Talaimannar, Thodaweli, Two Days, September, Dry Zone, Sand & Beach, Birds, Wildlife, 2012, Boating, Natural Bath

Author: Sri Abeywickrema (127 Trips)

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This has been a dream of mine for a so long ever since I saw an ad by SL Navy on a newspaper and had been hoping against hope to go there.

Trip reports by Lakdasun subscribers have been greatly helpful especially finding the hotel, Four Tees Inn, which was a wonderful place and met all my expectations.

However, after a lot of effort finally managed to gather two of my best friends Podi and Dimuthu for the 2-day journey on 29 September.

I booked the Train tickets about 4 days before and managed 3 seats for 6.50 am Intercity Train to Medawachchiya. There’s another train leaving at 5.45 am but slower.

Off to a happy and fast start

However, we got delayed more than I could’ve condoned at Veyangoda and some other places due to signals and got to Medawachchiya around 11.50 am (more than an hour delay)

Gosh, this thing is not moving…

One after the other was waiting to be cleared by the ever so slow signal system

So we missed the 11.00 am bus to Mannar and had to wait till 1.30 pm for another bus, the buses were very rare coz it was a Poya day.

Anyway the bus we got into was virtually flying and reached Mannar around 3.00 pm. I then called Jude at Four Tees Inn and got the directions. You can take any bus passing Thoddaveli or Erukkalampiddy (Mannar – Pesalai or Mannar – Talai Mannar are the quickest) and get off at Thoddaveli (Anjan Kattei Junction).

This is a four-street junction the direct road leads to Pesalai and Talai Manar. To your right is the Erukkalampiddy.
We took the right which had been a gravel road but now being carpeted and went about 700m till we meet the Four Tees Inn which is right next to the Thoddaveli Station.

Now the former railway track from Medawachchiya to Talai Mannar is being rebuilt and it might take another year or so. When it does it would be so much easy to travel.

It was almost 4 pm when we reached the hotel and was feeling ravenous. Jude very kindly offered to make lunch and prepared a grand meal in record time with delicious prawns.

Murunga is abundant in Mannar

Thal is what they call “Kapruka” in the North… like Coconut to us

After a long bath (I must say the water was not what I expected. I actually thought it would be salty and feel strange on your skin but for my utmost joy it wasn’t so. I guess they do a very good job of a continuous supply of running water even though the power supply is not consistent. However we always drank bottled water coz you get that funny taste, even the hotel gives you bottled water)

Mango is yet anothe common sight in Mannar

Different kinds… all in the hotel’s garden

As soon as we finished our meal, I decided to go for a walk up to the lagoon coz we had about 1.5-2 hours of daylight remaining and didn’t wanna waste one minute of it.

However, I got how the name of the hotel (Four Tees Inn) came about while chatting with Jude. Mr. Lawrence, the owner, has 4 daughters whose names start with “T”. So he has named the Hotel after those 4 Ts.

Remeber the story of the name???

If you go further down the road where the hotel is, you can go down to the beach and it’d be ideal to watch the sunset, unfortunately we had no time and a way to go there. It’s about 2km to the beach, you had better take a vehicle coz the road is extremely dusty.

So we checked the Thoddaveli station which is now in ruins but will be rebuilt to her former glory very soon.

Old Thoddaveli station in ruins…. but can see the recently dug earth for the new railway line

Ticket counter of the station….

Not a train in sight… but soon will be

Very old and destroyed buildings still are a common sight

Along the road we went up to the main road and next to it the lagoon, a strikingly beautiful place to sit and relax in the evening. Along the way we met a bullock cart which nowadays hard to come by.

The lagoon was looking majestically in the evening sun and we took loads of pics and then headed down the road across the lagoon towards Erukkalmapiddy.

Lagoon….

That’s the causeway which links Erukkalampiddy to mainland Mannar island

Mother and son watching us cautiously

More to go…

About halfway I noticed a few donkeys, typical sight in North western coastal area of SL. I managed a rare pic of a baby donkey drinking milk from his mother.

Common as ever

Rare seen, my first glimpse of something like this among donkeys

About halfway down the road, we came across fishermen who were doing shallow water fishing using tiny nets. They can catch small fish like “Para Patau, Morallo, etc”

Morallo fish

Para Patau, 10 of these were just 50/-

I could also take a pic of an octopus which was in gorgeous pink. You wouldn’t believe the price of fish there. One little boy and his brother paid Rs. 50/- for 10 fish (I understand those were medium size Para Patau and in Colombo the cost would be about 500/-).

So we came back to the hotel around 6.45 pm and had yet another wash. However I must say the weather in Mannar (even though many tend to think quite harsh) was a darn sight better than Colombo nowadays

Strikingly beautiful

Colourful

It gets so hot in Colombo even in the night but in Mannar it was nice and balmy.

We had delicious Pittu with cuttle fish, home grown Murunga and Sambola. This was the night SL took on WI in their 2nd super eight match however we turned down Mr. Lawrence offer to watch the match as we had to wake up early morning the following day. (However SL had crushed WI in grand style and eased into semis)

We got up around 5.00 am in the morning and up and running by 5.30 am. We reached the Thoddaveli junction to wait for a Talai Mannar bus.

It took nearly 1 hour before we took on Colombo-Talai Mannar bus, however managed to reach the pier by 7.00 am.

Talai Mannar light house

It says it all – Click Image to Enlarge

Definitely eligible

.

To our dismay, the weather looked a bit rough and the Navy informed us we might not be able to do the trip today. Would you believe the frustration having traveled nearly 10-11 hours from Colombo yet not being able to reach your goal?

Nevertheless, I was ever so hopeful coz the nature has so far never let me down. I do hope it will be the case forever. I was silently asking the nature to allow us go on this journey.

Pier and the craft that we go in

Sky was gloomy

While waiting there another bus load of 18 people joined us.

After about 8.45 am, the navy personnel started moving the boats that carry people and I was overjoyed

We even help them get the boats into the water soon. Then we bought our tickets (600/- per head) and Navy gave some snacks too.

Waiting anxiously

Pic of the ticket – Click Image to Enlarge

Anyway the sea still looked a bit rough and we could feel the boat maneuvering through long waves and we got sea wet a bit too. Due to that my camera was useless as I didn’t wanna take a chance with sea water.

We traveled about 30-40 mins and reached one of the islands of Adam’s Bridge

First sight of the island

This is our boat and the crew

That really was a wonderful experience and we had a great time exploring the tiny islet.

Nice…

Who would’ve thought about flowers?

They were beautiful drawings of sand done by the waves and the winds.

Wind is the artist

Crab artists at work

Please don’t pluck these and try to take home….

Yeah, Sri was there

We saw schools of small fish and nice plants along the sand.

Dimuthu came across a crab which was fairly big and it was playing with us for sometime.

Here comes our friend

Measuring us up

I got hold of the fellow and took some nice pics and finally when I let him go, he wouldn’t go and bury in sand, instead still watching us I guess enjoying our small encounter

Finally got the fellow

Beautiful

Rare pics

Fellow was thrown to the beach by the waves, couldn’t save the fellow though

Leave only foot prints….

After about 45 mins on the island it was time to go back. We reached the pier around 11 am and hurried back to the hotel as I was planning on catching Colombo bound train at Medawachchiya at 3.30 pm.

We went and had a quick wash and lunch, and bid our farewell to Jude. The total bill came to Rs. 4,070/- for the 3 of us with the room and 3 meals apiece which was really cheap.

Me, Jude and Podi….

However when we reached Mannar town it was 2.10 pm and had to give up trying to catch the train, instead we took a bus to Dambulla and reached there about 6.00 pm and had egg hoppers and coffee.

Then took a bus to Colombo and it was 10.30 pm we reached Pettah.

That was a brilliant trip and I guess if given half a chance, nobody should miss the chance to visit there.