There are no pictures of Madurai. After Karaikudi, we drove into Madurai , visited the temple (no mobiles or cameras allowed within) and also rendezvoused with our friends Ashok and Surendra Sharma!
From here we drove to Rameswaram.
Rameswaram is famous for its Ramanathaswamy temple- the temple has long corridors running between huge colonnades and flanked by high platforms on either side. There are more than 1000 pillars in the outer corridor alone.
Again, there is an embargo on photography and I, sadly, do not have pictures.
Another reason to visit Rameswaram has been ‘Dhanushkodi’!
Driving past Pamban bridge, amazingly blue waters filled with fishing boats and Brahmini kites, one reaches Rameswaram. And Dhanushkodi is about 20 km from Rameswaram.
On the map, this is the physical geography of Dhanushkodi. It culminates in the Arichal Munai which is deemed to be the place where the Ram Setu bridge begins.
As the crow flies, Sri Lanka is another 25 -30 km from this point.
Dhanushkodi offers a stunning view of a long corridor extending into the sea. There is an amazingly blue sea on one side with rough waters, high waves and a long pristine beach. The other side, in absolute contrast is calm with grey, shallow waters, sand banks, moored fishing boats. These scenarios culminate at the tip at Arichal Munai!
We were behind schedule for the sunrise, as the area is restricted and access is well after the scheduled sunrise timings. We did catch the sunset.
I’m enclosing a few snaps of the Vivekananda memorial at Kanyakumari which was our next stop.
We visited the monument and got rained in and did precious little else.
For more pictures, please click the link here https://photos.app.goo.gl/c5K5K8Vtn8cP2inM6
Wide Angles 