The road to Madurai

The next morning it was back to work and we were off on a cycle tour of the ancient temples of Mammallapuram. In this town the earliest temples were carved out of solid rock. You could trace the development of rock cutting technique and artistic style over the centuries. Because they took so long to carve, war and politics tended to get in the way and few of them were actually completed. One remaining temple on the sea shore had been one of a series of 7 temples that had stretched in a straight line towards the sea. Unfortunately, 6 temples had become victims of coastal erosion. However, in the prelude to the 2004 tsunami, as the sea retreated, the sixth temple was visible on the sea bed for a short time before the sea returned with devastating effect.

One of the most interesting sights was an almost spherical, enormous rock resting on a relatively steep, smooth slope. It most certainly didn’t look stable. The British had tried to move it with a team of seven elephants to no avail. It has survived storms and earthquakes and people have now built houses on its roll out zone. One day though!

Off on the bus, we passed a salt plain were sea salt was being harvested. Too good a photo opportunity to miss. We marched out along the little mud walls in the blistering heat to where the workers were preparing the salt beds. I took the opportunity to lend a hand but was soon on the receiving end of a row for scraping up too much mud with the salt. Another employment possibility closed forever.

The Gandhi museum in yet another former palace was worth the visit. It told the story of Gandhi’s life intertwined with the story of the Indian struggle for independence. There were also some momentos of the great man’s life - copies of letters that he had written, a pair of sandals, a hank of yarn that he had spun. There was also one of the original, blood stained shawls that he was wearing when he was assassinated.