Our trip to Mahabs.

So last Sat we donned our helmets and made the 100km road trip up the coast to Mahabalipuram.

 

It's a world heritage site with one of the oldest temples in the whole of South India as well as being famous for it's stone carvings. I went there with C six years ago but we only had the briefest of stays there overnight last year on the last leg of our two day journey back to AV from Goa. More info here: Mahabs Wiki Page. We left at around 8.30am and arrived about two hours later. After a late breakfast we went for a wander. 

 

We went in one of the many shops selling the most beautiful carvings...

...before heading to the park containing some of the main attractions. Here is me and K by the free standing rock known as Krishna's Butter Ball:

 



 

Then we stopped to take in the view:

 



 

Here's a carving from between the 7th - 9th century:

 

And a temple carved entirely from one rock:

 

Finally ending up at the Pancha Rathas, a  five monolithic pyramidal structures named after the Pandavas (Arjuna, Bhima, Yudhishtra, Nakula and Sahadeva) and Draupadi. Despite their sizes each of these is carved from one single large piece of stone.

 



And for a little perspective of how impressive they are:

 

After a rest at the hotel we headed out to the shore temple - built in 700 - 728 AD. One of the oldest structures in the whole of South India.

 

Mahabs at dusk:

 

The next morning we headed out to Croc Bank just a few km North of Mahabs (Croc Bank)

 

Most of the crocs were just lying about although one gave us a smile!

 

Interesting to see the types of reptiles found in the wild in our area. After the crocs we headed to the snake house and saw a talk and display of the four venomous snakes which was a real education for both me and K. So far I'd just seen two rat snakes which are harmless. K really jumped when the keeper make the cobra strike!

 

After that we went back to Mahabs for some lunch before heading home. About half an hour from home we drove into torrential rains - a little bit of monsoon. Was so nice to get home and dry.

 

There's not really been any rain since even though it is officially monsoon season. C keep tracking it's progress down to us online. Because AV is on a plateau we seem to miss rains that even hit Pondy just 8km away. We all want the rain!

 

 

Anyway, that was our trip. Was so nice to have a night away and I look forward to more in the future.

 

Thanks for reading. Laura.