Anticipation rises as you approach Elephant Pass on your way north to Jaffna. Yet it is an undistinguished place; a narrow strip of flat road passing between shallow sea lagoons and salt-pans.
It is hard to imagine the strategic importance of this place during nearly 30 years of warfare between the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam and the Sri Lankan armed forces. However, as you continue north of the pass the sad story of the war is more deeply etched into the landscape.
For a long stretch, almost all buildings have been largely destroyed and, eerily, around a quarter of the numerous coconut palms and the treasured palmyra palms have been decapitated by the impact of shelling. It becomes clear that every inch of this road into Jaffna had been fought over at different stages during the war.
There is not much to stop for as you take the long journey up the flat and straight road from Vavuniya to Jaffna, and you don't feel much like stopping anyway. The signs of devastation are pretty complete. Heavily armed soldiers and police stare out from their sentry posts dotted all along the road. There are military bases every ten kilometres or so. Roadside eating houses are run by the military.
War refugees — those who were relocated into refugee camps near Vavuniya for up to two years after the war reached its climax in May 2009 — are setting up house in makeshift huts within the vicinity of the main road. There are very few signs of orderly resettlement.
There is a steady stream of visitors from the south travelling to Jaffna and many of them stop near Elephant Pass to look at a war memorial in the shape of a Tigers 'tank' whichevokes an act of heroism from a young Sinhalese soldier when he threw himself in front of the advancing vehicle to try to save his comrades.
An even more sobering monument of war is the enormous, prone water tower of Kilinochchi. Reports vary as to whether this was brought down by the Tigers as they retreated under fierce bombardment from the army or whether it was destroyed by that bombardment. Either way, it serves as a reminder that there is a terrible 'logic' to warfare. Observing