Ussangoda: Where Meteors and Myths Collide.

Inguru Plaintea
Aug 24, 2017 · 5 min read

Just about half an hour away from Tangalle, Ussangoda is one of the lesser-known National Parks which peppers Sri Lanka. In terms of popularity, it’s dwarfed by Sinharaja, Udawalawe and Yala — all three which sits in an arc around it. What sets Ussangoda apart though, is its soil. The earth is a deep and dusky red; and is said to contain a heavy concentration of iron and other mineral compounds.

The Hambanthota Road leads you inland after passing Tangalle. Follow it for about 26kms before taking a turn-off to your right. Don’t worry about getting lost: there are signboards, and residents are more than happy to point you the right way. There are also threewheelers which can drop off at the entrance of the park (about 3.5kms off the main road, where the bus stop is) for Rs. 200 to Rs. 250.

Just like many places out of Colombo, the entrance to the park is an incomplete affair: there’s a parking space enough for maybe 10 four-wheeled vehicles, if they park with discipline. On to your left are some makeshift stalls with persistent women calling out to you, almost demanding that you try out their wadey, rotti and aromatic belimal tea sweetened with chunks of jaggery. Be nice to them and you can leave your backpacks, helmets, and whatever other luggage you’re carrying in one of their stalls. If you’re even nicer, they will let you change into clean, dry clothes after your little dip in the sea (but we really cannot guarantee this).

All these are surrounded by shrubbery — the scrub forest that’s a familiar sight in most of our dry zones. What isn’t as familiar is the sight that greets you as you step over the rather large, smooth rocks marking the entryway: the shrubbery encircles a seemingly infinite martian space. The piebald earth is granite smooth and the colour of rust: the smoothness is broken only by the minute plants clinging tightly to it, some of them in bloom with specks of yellow or purple flowers.

It was cloudy when we went there: the wind was sharp, with even sharper smatterings of rain switching on and off. The latter eventually settled into a steadfast downpour: not heavy enough to drench you immediately, but most definitely not a drizzle either. The breeze was enough to send chills right through your bones despite the blazing sun just earlier in the day. Stand anywhere in the middle of the vast plains and get buffeted around. Walk left of the entrance towards the cliffs hanging over the sea, and still get buffeted around. There’s no winning, really, unless you’re really steady on your feet and are weighed down with something.

You leave the plains and follow a foresty path to the cliffs, and once again, the tall shrubs die out just as suddenly as they started and you’re on a plateau once more; but this time, with mindblowing views straight out of The Coral Island or a similar classic. Wild palms, rock formations, and a multilayered and textured variety of soil greets you as the edge of the cliff juts out before ending abruptly with the sea below. Stand at the nothernmost tip for the best view on both sides: a bay with prancing families and a man-made harbour of sorts further away to your left, and a stretch of golden sand below you onto your right.

I can only imagine how stunning sunrises and sunsets would be here, especially given the colour of soil. You climb down the cliffs and make your way to the sea; needless to say this is at your own risk, it is slippery, rocky, and peppered with cacti and nasty little plants just waiting to puncture you. It’s not difficult to believe in magic and myths as you stand at the edge — folklore has it that Ravana landed his chariot here, hence the unique vegetation and landscape. Another equally popular yet unsubstantiated story is that a meteorite landed here about 2000 years ago, which is why the soil is so ferric.

Getting There

Head over to Fort early in the morning (REALLY early in the morning… before dawn) and go to the SLTB bus stand. This is the stand near the bo-gaha handiya. You can get a bus directly to Hambantota from there. We were told that the first bus leaves at 4:00 am, but it was closer to 5:00 when the Hambantota bus eventually arrived and probably around 5:30 when it trundled out.

Tell the conductor you’re heading to Ussangoda, but keep an eye on road signs and Google Maps — when travelling from Colombo, the turn-off is just before the Nonagama Junction. You will disembark at a junction a few metres away from the turnoff to the Park, so just get a tuktuk from there. It’s about 3kms in from the main road, just in case you feel like taking a sweltering walk down south.

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Inguru Plaintea

Written by

Small budgets, big adventures — travel stories from Sri Lanka. inguruplaintea@gmail.com for information, features and collaborations.

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