Sothavilai Beach

சொத்தவிளை கடற்கரை

Four kilometres of open sand and serious surf

Move across the photo, or drag it on a phone, to look around.

You arrive

The lane ends and the land simply stops being land. You walk up over soft sand, the kind that fills your shoes after three steps, and the shoreline opens out to left and right further than you can comfortably judge. There are few buildings to measure it against. The sound reaches you first as a low, even roar, and then you crest the rise and see the long white lines of surf arriving one after another.

Sothavilai Beach · Photo: Kondephy · CC BY-SA 4.0

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Over the dunes

The sand here belongs to a system of coastal dunes that runs along this stretch of shore from Manakudi. Walk slowly, because the ground gives way under each step and the slope is steeper than it looks. Coarse plants hold on where they can. From the top you can read the whole beach at once: dry pale sand, a darker wet band, and then the moving edge of the water.

Sothavilai Beach · Photo: Aamir Khan · CC BY-SA 4.0

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Along the waterline

Turn and walk with the sea on one side. The firm wet sand is easy underfoot, and the wash runs up around your ankles and pulls back hard. Stay at that depth and no further. Wikipedia warns that the waves here are dangerous, unsuitable for children and risky for adults, whatever the surface looks like on a calm day. The pleasure of this beach is its length, so keep walking and let the distance do its work.

Being here

You see

A long empty curve of sand with surf lines stacked to the horizon.

You hear

A constant low roar from the breaking waves.

You smell

Salt and drying seaweed on the wind.

You feel

Soft sand dragging at your feet, then the hard pull of the backwash.

Look around

The story

Sothavilai stretches for more than four kilometres, which Wikipedia notes makes it one of the longest beaches in Tamil Nadu. The sand behind it is part of the coastal dune belt that runs from Manakudi, a feature of this corner of the district. The calm of the place today hides a hard memory. Sothavilai was among the most seriously affected parts of Kanniyakumari district during the Indian Ocean tsunami of 2004, and the villages along this shore have lived with that knowledge ever since. Visit it as a working, inhabited coast as well as a stretch of scenery.

Sources: Wikipedia: Sothavilai Beach · Wikipedia: Kanyakumari district · Trawell: places to visit

Close by

Forest

Manakudy Estuary

Where the Pazhayar river meets mangroves, birds and the sea

Temple

Swamithope Pathi

The first home of the Ayyavazhi faith

Temple

Thanumalayan Temple, Suchindram

One deity, three gods, and an eleven-storey tower

Hills

Marunthuvazh Malai

The last hill of the Western Ghats, above three seas

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Sanguthurai BeachVerified photograph to be added

Continue the journey