Day 13
Today we start our journey back to Colombo, with an overnight stop at Anuradhapura. Instead of taking the shorter Jaffna-Kandy highway we take the coastal route via Navathkuli - Karativu - Mannar Highway for a stop at Talaimannar, which is believed to be the place where Lord Rama landed in Lanka. Total distance to cover is 288 kms and estimated travel time 5.30 hours. We start early at 8.00 am after breakfast at Fox Resorts. It was fascinating to see photo shoot of several bridal couples in the beautiful lawns. Apparently it is common for such photo shoot in Fox resorts.
We are now travelling towards Talaimannar which is located on the northwestern coast of Mannar Island and about 18 miles from Dhanushkodi. The place once served as the gateway for travel and transport of goods between India and Sri Lanka.
The roads wind through small villages. Traffic is light but we are careful not to exceed the speed limit. The road signs are excellent throughout Sri Lanka and the traffic police is very alert, as we see many motorcycle cop checkpoints on the way. Interestingly we noticed cars coming from opposite direction flashing headlights to alert police checkpoints. Nice camaraderie on the highway!!
We arrive at Talaimannar at about 11 pm and drove through the narrow road to Adam’s Point (Ram Setu) and walked the rest of the distance to the beach. It is very hot any humid and we took the customary photo at the point closest to India, similar to our visit to Dhanushkodi during our tour of India in 2022 when we had set foot on the other side!
Back on the road the drive to Anuradhapura is another 3 hours and ETA is 2.00 pm. Difficult choice to have lunch on the way or at Aarachi Heritage where we have booked to stay. We ordered food at the resort and it turned out to be a good decision as it started raining as soon as we checked in.
After lunch and some rest, we did a city tour and saw the oldest still-living, documented, planted tree in the world that is believed to have originally been a branch of the sacred fig tree under which Lord Buddha attained enlightenment.
After city tour, we returned to resort.
End of day thirteen.
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