We were soon out of town, the sea on our left and the road was sprinkled with the odd tiny church and dwelling. We stopped at a vibrant orange temple, where the morning puja was in progress, just three men offering food to a small white statue of an elephant.
Wanting a last glimpse of unpolluted sea we asked him to turn off the road down to the beach where a couple of fishermen were watching the world go by, fish too small to catch at this time of year.
One of the fishermen shyly beckoned us back to his tiny shack to meet his family where we were offered chai. We chatted in sign language, and then he gave us a bottle of holy oil from St Alphonsa who I later discovered is the first Indian saint, buried in Bharananganam church which is over 1000 years old.
The tuk tuk driver stood patiently waiting for us at the end of the lane, our hour well over, and we continued on to see wild backwaters, so still and quiet, with great expanses of open water.
An amazing alternative day trip, and the driver persuaded us to go with him at dusk to a Shiva temple festival with 15 elephants!
