Wonderful news, a lie in as we are not being collected until ten o’clock! Needless to say that we were up in good time and took the chance for a final walk along Kochi Beach by the Chinese Fishing Nets before breakfast.

Today is our final drive with Bala who has been with us ever since we arrived in Chennai over a week ago. We are indebted to him in so many ways, he has kept us safe and he has kept us informed, and he has kept us entertained; he also helped us with the tailor in Madurai and gave us any number of unscheduled stops for photographs when there was something interesting to see. He has been a Tourist Driver for over thirty years now and when he started there were just two of them and now there are over a thousand. After he has taken us to Marari today he turns round and drives right back to the east coast at Madurai and starts a twenty one day job the next day. It is easy to overlook the importance of these drivers to the success of a holiday but we have been exceptionally lucky to have had really good ones.

We chose to end our holiday at Marari Beach Resort because we were here four years ago and thoroughly enjoyed it; it is an amazing place to chill out and relax before heading home. Here are just a few pictures to give you a feel for the place…

this was nice to help us find our accommmodation and there was a man outside thirty feet up a palm tree making sure that there was nothing likely to drop off unexpectedly.

This is Palm Grove where there are recliners and hammocks

and the beach dropping in glorious sand down to the Arabian Sea.

Tomorrow we are going to look at some more temples.

9 February 2019