Hot on the trail

An extraordinary new walking trail is the best way to experience Sri Lanka's dramatic tea country, reveals Rosie Paterson. Just watch out for the leopards

- Rosie Paterson

IN recent years, few countries have been dealt quite as bad a hand as Sri Lanka. There's been civil war and natural disasters, terrorist attacks and political crises. It all feels doubly unfair because the south Asian island is so beloved. No one dithers over it; in fact, no one speaks badly of it at all. Thankfully, Sri Lanka now seems to have entered a much-deserved period of stability and, in January, it set a new tourist record.

After the 2019 Easter bombing atrocity—in which three churches and three hotels were targeted in the capital, Colombo—Miguel Cunat, a partner at Sustainable Sri Lanka, found himself in conversation with 'a gentleman who was working with the EU' and on the hunt for a standout project to fund, one that would require the involvement of local communities and help strengthen and revitalise the country's tourism industry. It may not surprise you that Mr Cunat had exactly the project to hand—a 300km (186-mile) walking trail that, viewed as a whole, looks like a fishhook snagged on the country's mountainous interior.

About 15 years ago, the sustainability pioneer and long-time Sri Lankan resident decided to strike out in search of a mysterious trail in Haputale, detailed on a survey map. To cut a long story short, he found it and walked it, arranging to stay on the tea-growing estates through which he passed. In the ensuing six or seven years, he returned again and again, sometimes with friends and family, and simply kept walking, connecting up long-forgotten strands of track and road. The EU and USAID (recently defunded by Donald Trump) covered three years of development and so the 22-stage Pekoe Trail was born.