Other roads have retained their rustic qualities, dirt tracks still, wending through shady forested areas replete with crystalline birdsong. Auroville lies on the 'Coromandel Coast'. Here the Bay of Bengal hosts regular swimmers, avid surfers, and weekly sunbathers. Coconut palms are separated at Repos, a beach community, from the water's edge by a large expanse of sand, too hot to walk on in the midday sun. Auroville beach access points lie between local fishing villages.
Fishermen rise well before dawn, and can be seen offshore standing on their palm tree canoes.
In the distance against the sunrise they appear to walk on the water. Dawn at the seaside also witnesses the morning ablutions of these fishing communities, which conveniently get washed into the sea. There are a few lakes around Auroville, Kaliveli Tank and the lake at Lake Estate being the main ones. Freshwater bodies within Auroville are found in kolams, and in the small dam in Aurodam. Large craters, kolams fill during the monsoons, and serve as watering holes for animals, bathing and washing places for villagers, and containments to hold water until it can seep back into the aquifer.