Sea trip to Rameshwaram and Danushkodi

We set out in an overnight bus. The bus took us around 12 hours to reach Rameshwaram from Bangalore . Many of us didn’t take nap and we were talking all night and making fun of each other. In between some time we took some nap and only to wake up to a beautiful sunrise over eastern horizon. Right at that moment some of us took our camera out to take the beautiful golden sunrays casting through the window. It took us another 1 hour to reach Rameshwaram. After reaching Rameshwaram we took 3 rickshaw to reach our hotel. The hotel was besides the sea. The sea looked serene blue. After a slow breakfast we decided to walk besides the beach. The sea was clean but the sand was a bit dirty. We took a boat that glided into the sea side view over 5km around. After reaching dock back we walked along the shore to find few fishes and clear waters. We could find few star fish, puffer fish lot many shells and crab exoskeleton. The waves were low. The calm blue sea was silent as though it was too tired of the afternoon hot sun. The waves seem to die down when it touched shore making small ripples. Few of the boats remained cast to the shore. They bumped into each other when the tide seemed to have all the energy to push itself into the shore.

We made a quick visit back to hotel and with hustle bustle and heavy lunch boarded the matador. The matador took us to New Dhanuskodi. It was around 18km journey into New Dhanushkodi. It was a bit bumpy ride and the smell of dry fish which took us a moment to recover. Driver signed into the register book of check post and rode over muddy sea waters into old Dhanushkodi. The sea water was only knee level and spread over kilometers in length. The driver followed his path into the path trails slowly driving ourselves away from the main land into sea land. We could see on the right side the ruins of houses churches, train station… and it was a strange feeling of the place being haunted. There are few new churches built with cross symbol clearly visible. Few of the churches painted newly which stood the time of once happiness now had become speechless to the sorrows and pain it has seen. We could not imagine that we are riding though the dead who were once buried alive. The place remains a strangely silent as the Mother Nature wants to remain silent to what it had done. The powerful cyclone which took the entire city and a moving train buried alive into the sands of Dhanushkodi. There were no warning in the 80s as there were no satellite weather forecasting. What remains is only a true story and no remains of anything.

Few herd of water birds seem to find something to feed from the mud and they flew in flock.

There are no trace of Rama sethu a mythological bridge constructed between Rameshwaram and Lanka to bring back Goddess Seetha. All we could see was the train trails and paths filled with sand with no trace of it. After getting down we walked into edge of Indian peninsular to the east. We only found a big wooden log lying over sea shore while we couldn’t see any trace of vegetation for kilometers.

After walking for few minutes over the shores of sea which appeared in light green blue colour,  we put our steps fast and reached the tip of peninsular. The wind blew past the sands bruising our feet.  Did we see the inland of Sri Lanka?  Well , NO!! We only saw few waves. The driver told that Srilanka is around just 18km from there. There is nothing there except few radio towers. No coast guard or naval guard. We didn’t get any mobile network but we were surprise to receive SMS from Airtel Srilanka for international roaming tariff.

The sun rays casted silver streak on the waves and the contrast shade of people was very beautiful to look at. Some of us were busy trying to capture crabs running between the waves into the shores. We found some empty glass bottles and there were no messages written inside. I thought I would write a letter that I was here at the tip of this peninsular and the sea would take my message far into the sea and oceans into someone. Someone would write back to my email ID or facebook. But I didn’t write any letter into the empty glass bottles. After spending much time we moved into the New Dhanushkodi as the sun was about to set. We passed by few ruins of houses and there were nothing worth taking photos.

Our matador rode past big boulders put on side to prevent land being eroded. I walked away from our group towards the sun. The sun slowly came down as though he wanted to hide himself into the sea casting golden glow. The golden glow was beautiful to look at. We knew that he will come back tomorrow morning again and again. But we are not sure that we will walk next day to see the sun rise.

After the sun set, haze overcasted our view. We returned back to Rameshwaram with all the fun we had. We wanted to have ride over the matador. But it was not suggested.

In the evening after a bit of rest we walking along the silent shore of Rameshwaram. Few people here and there. Some of us had a good paani Puri. We took a seat besides the steps of holy Shrine. Too tired to carry ourselves.

We could hear the waves of the shores faintly. While the sleep took over us into the dreams and into the unconscious.

We wanted to get up early and get few glimpses of sun rise over the Pamban Bridge.  

“Never wait for the right days to travel or wait for the days when your pocket is full. That day will never come. Find the right people to travel today.”  James K. Flanagan.

This thought made me to join this trip. To take a photo of Pamban Bridge from top of the road bridge we all got up early at 4:30AM with half sleepy eyes. We were disappointed to find few auto rickshaw charging exorbitantly to and fro to the Pamban Bridge. We were lucky to find a bus and the conductor was kind enough to stop over the bridge. We were there on the bridge few minutes before the sunrise. Before the sun rise sun rays made a streak of golden glow. On the left side of the bridge was a huge river with few boats lying lazily. We walked over the bridge taking position to shoot the sun rise. It was a spectacular view. Einstein theory that light bends over gravity, while the diffraction casted a few rays through the corner of the earth. The clouds blocked our view of sun rise. The sun rose between the clouds and the golden glow was a spectacular view over Railway Bridge. We took few shots of the sun rise and walked from eastern end of the road bridge to the western end of the bridge. Right at 6AM a train made a slow move over the steel bridge. We could hear the steel sound clut-clut as it echoed until the train passed completely over the bridge. The bridge ran another kilometer to the other end and it would have taken us a long walk. We took a small lift to the other end of the bridge.  We spoke in broken Tamil  saying “Rumbu thanks” (too much thanks like saying thank you very much).We could see the sun rise about 20 degree over the railway bridge.

We were surprised to see few peacock and peahen alongside of the railway track. As we walked over the railway track leading to the steel bridge towards the east on the left side lay a huge sea. There were fisher man casting their net to catch fish. The fishing net left patterns on the sea and fishermen were busy laying the nets and they were too busy to have interest on us. While it was an interesting composition for us to take. We took few photos of the sea and the net. It took us by surprise when a peacock with its colorful feathers flew over our head. We followed the peacock and peahen which vanished inside a bush.

We walked few steps on the railway bridge and Pamban bridge far away.

We crossed the road bridge on entered the end of the road bridge. We could see the fish market below.

We found heaps of big sea shells. They were unclean and picked directly from the sea. We took few shells from the heaps and the fisherman gave us for free and didn’t bother to take any money.  For him the sea shells were nothing. For us it was souvenir of the trip.