A quirky little gem of a temple, in the middle of nowhere

 From Thanjavur, we headed south direction Rameshwaram - a small town on that little strip of land that stretches out towards Sri Lanka. An epic, never-ending journey of almost 270km, going deeper into rural Tamil Nadu, further and further off the beaten track. About half way there, our driver insisted on making a little detour to visit a temple we had never heard about. There might have been a little bit of eye-rolling involved (we'd had an intensive cure of temples over the last couple of days - see here, here, here and here), but this turned out to be one of the highlights of the entire holiday.

In the middle of nowhere, a little road, about 1km long, lined with the most beautiful terracotta horses, their once-vibrant colours washed out by the unforgiving southern Indian weather. The effect was surreal.

 

This man was so proud to give us a tour of the grounds, while pointing out to the various divinities represented. He walked us back to the entrance of the temple and we left, stunned and amazed by this quirky little gem of a place.