Sat 13 February

Still in Kanyakumari. Breakfast in the bazaar at a cheap and cheerful place recommended by our Rough Guide.


We think we might try to gain access to the Kanya Hindu temple but give up - too many beggars and  too many pilgrims queue barging.

We notice another HUGE queue for the ferry and thank our lucky stars we did that yesterday.

Decide to walk over to the massive Catholic Church and are slightly disappointed by its promise of external beauty and less than inspirational interior.

Never mind, I am sure it looks lovely full of beautiful sari clad ladies at prayer.

The memory of the tsunami is never too far away. We make our way back through the fishermen's housing nearby and  down to the actual seaside.

Lots of colourful boats - and some bear the names of various funding agencies such as TEAR Fund.

Also one seems to be a donation from a Tsunami fund. Can you make out the weather beaten lettering on this one?

We make our way to the stone jetty and cannot resist a walk across the huge armour rocks to the very end. We sit for quite a while staring out at the bay of Bengal and watching the fishermen. The backdrop is of the rocky outcrops we visited yesterday.

This trip seems to be about extremities! Going to the end of things and places!

Lucy and Poppy look lovely in their bright skirts against a muted background.

We are drawn to the church swathed in scaffolding which we saw yesterday and wander through more fishermen's housing to reach that - a brand new church being built! Quite exciting! 

There cannot be many countries in the world where anyone is building churches any more. Certainly not in the West. Pity!

It's quite reminiscent for me of the renovation work I was involved in at St. Anne's Church in HK all those years ago.

We quite rapidly run out of steam and things to see. It's time to go home.

Lunch at The Seaview Hotel restaurant - blissful air-conditioning as the day is so much hotter than yesterday!  Then make our way to the bone shaker bus. Train service on Saturday is not good!

The ride is surprisingly smooth and cool. And I get a lot of pictures of the Cardamom Hills, something I missed on the way down, sitting on the wrong side of the train!

These are the tail end of the Western Ghat mountain range which runs down the extreme East side of Kerala and forms a natural border with Tamil Nadu.

We are on a road which girdles the Southern extremity of the hills and where the ancient bare stones seem to tumble down to nothing into the coastal plain. 

The pics are all taken from a moving bus so they are mostly hit and miss.

Pleasing views of plantations of banana, coconut and the odd lotus pond and watercourse in the foreground.

Before we know it we are approaching Trivandrum. It has been a three hour journey but full of distractions and sights to see.  We are quite proud to have done the local thing!

Babu comes to collect us and we are home in comfort in no time!  A good sense of achievement and a great two days!

We know we have Sunday free to relax and regroup before the rush of next week. 

To my surprise, Valsa, my tailor lady awaits me as I come in the door. She has stitched all the churidars and the sari blouses and they are perfect. 

I am particularly pleased as I need the burgundy sari blouse for tomorrow morning! But that is another story!