Mannar Island

Mannar Island lies at the western end of a long causeway from the mainland town of Mannar — a flat, windswept strip of land between the Gulf of Mannar and Palk Bay. The causeway crosses the shallow sea over a series of small islets, and the forty-five minute drive across it in the late afternoon, with the water on both sides catching the last of the light, is one of the more atmospheric road journeys in the North.

The island's most immediate visual feature is the baobab trees. There are several dozen of them, scattered among the dry scrub and palmyra — giant-trunked, bottle-shaped, and entirely out of place in the landscape of coastal Sri Lanka. They are thought to have been introduced by Arab traders who used Mannar as a staging post on the monsoon trade route beginning at least a thousand years ago.

The wild donkeys of Mannar are a practical legacy of the same trading period. Their descendants roam freely on the island today, particularly around the town and the causeway entrance.

At the eastern end of the island, the ruined Adam's Bridge — known in Hindu tradition as Rama's Bridge — extends into the sea as a chain of submerged limestone shoals. Birdwatching in the Mannar area is exceptional from November to April, when flamingos, spoonbills, pelicans, and several species of wader appear in significant numbers.