Varkala Beach

Varkala is on the Kerala coast north of Thiruvananthapuram, and it is the only place in southern Kerala where cliffs meet the sea. The Varkala Formation — red and ochre laterite, tens of metres high — runs along the shore, and the beach lies at the foot of it.

It is a pilgrimage site before it is a beach. Papanasam, the main stretch, means destroyer of sins, and Hindus come to bathe here and to perform rites for the dead; the Janardanaswamy temple above is around two thousand years old by tradition. The cliff-top strip of cafés and yoga schools that most foreign visitors mean by Varkala grew alongside that, not instead of it, and the two uses share the same sand.

Fresh water seeps out of the cliff face and runs down onto the beach — the mineral springs that gave the place its reputation for healing. The sea is open Arabian Sea with real surf and rip currents; lifeguards patrol in season and the flags matter. Cliff erosion is active and sections of the path have been closed after collapses.

Development is a cliff-top footpath lined with businesses, and steps down to the sand at intervals. There is no road along the cliff and no building on the beach itself. The area is subject to coastal regulation and the strip has been in periodic dispute with it. The north cliff is where the businesses are; the south cliff and Odayam beyond it are where the crowd thins, and Kappil, twenty minutes north, is where a backwater lagoon runs parallel to the sea behind a strip of sand.

People perform funeral rites on this sand a few metres from where others are sunbathing, and the cliff-top strip grew alongside that rather than instead of it. Dress and behave with that in mind at the northern end. The cliff is eroding and sections of the path have been closed after collapses; the barriers are not suggestions.