Sri Lanka day 28 – Arugam Bay to Tissamaharama

What a mare of a journey! The most direct route from Arugam Bay to Tissa would be down the coast south but for the fact that the road stops at Yala East Natonal Park. The whole Yala National Park complex which includes the Yala Strict Nature Reserve and Yala National Park incorporates a chunk of the south east coastline and preventing travel by public transport. The only way to reach Tissa and the south coast from Arugum Bay is to go west to Monaragala and pick up a connecting buses going south to Tissa. If your timing is right it’s possible to get a direct bus otherwise the journey involves a further change at Butala and/or Kataragama. All is running smoothly until we reach Monaragala where we get conflicting information on how to get Tissa and instead of changing at Badula as intended, end up in Welawaye much further west. Something definitely got lost in translation because we thought the conductor had told us the bus was going direct to Kataragama. People at Wellawaya are very sympathetic and helpful and one old boy in particular ensures that we get on a bus that will take us almost all the way to Tissa and ensures that the conductor knows where we want to get off. He even rings ahead to our guest house to let them know when and where the bus will be dropping us. Apparently he used to work there as a jeep driver. All he would like in return is two English pound coins. We finally arrive just outside Tissa after a hair-raising drive hurtling along narrow roads at breakneck speed. A journey which should have been around four hours has taken seven-and-a-half despite the efforts of the maniac bus driver. As we clamber into a tuk tuk for the last 8 kilometres a jeep from the guest house arrives to pick us up. At least one bit of the journey was perfectly coordinated thanks to our friend in Wellawaya.