Kurusadai islands,Rameswaram,Tamil Nadu,India

The same question arose for the millionth time - "So,where do we go this weekend??",when somebody suddenly said" Rameswaram" and this was followed by a chorus of Chalo then s .

Rameswaram is a town in Southern part of Tamil Nadu;at the tip of the Indian peninsula and is seperated from Sri Lanka by the Gulf of Mannar.Ok...So we all knew that Rameswaram is a holy town which has a lot to offer for pilgrims and tourists alike and of course there is Dhanus kodi and the Pamban bridge...but then what else??? We wanted something that was zara hatke (off beat)..

We had the rest of the week to plan and on enquiry we were told about the Kurusadai island group approximately half an hours travel from Rameswaram.A walking encyclopedia of a mother (mine) also told us that this archipelago is protected by the Tamil Nadu Fisheries department and that we needed prior permission to visit the place(which we managed).

We started on a saturday morning from Tharangambadi/Tranquebar (which is again a must visit!!!!) which is located in the Nagapattinam district of Tamil Nadu;and is 12 km from Karaikal.Even after the week of planning we were quite clueless about which mode of transport we were taking and how long it d take to reach there.But anyway we took the TN govt bus service and we Reached!!! Almost dead,after 12hours and 4 change of buses.

The route we took was....

Tranqebar to Karaikal

Karaikal to Mailaduthurai

M to Pudukkottai

P to Ramad/Ramanathapuram

All of the above in Tamil Nadu and close to the east coast.

We stayed in Ramnad for the night.

The people at Fisheries dept had instructed us that Kurusadai is best in the early morning at low tide and we were asked to reprt at the fIsheries office in Mandapam (halfway between Ramnad and Rameswaram).We took a while locating the office as the localites dint seem to know about its existence.

We were like the only people who wanted to see Kurusadai and were put on a boat with a guide and 2 helpers.The boat ride took about 15 min during which we saw thw Pamban bridge (where tourists flock) . Nearing the island i realized it was nothing like i ve ever seen before.Clear blue water and white sand is not something we see in India very often.This was breathtakingly beautiful as was confirmed later on..after spending 3 hours on the small island.

Now about Kurusadai....

This is protected by the TN Fisheries as its home to a rich a diverse marine fauna.The island was littered with dolphin bones,corals,shells of sea cucumbers,,,We had to walk across the island to see the coral reefs and this HAS TO BE SEEN IN LOW TIDE..its beautiful.

The guide accompanying us took us on a walk through the reefs into the sea and this was the BEST PART!!!