A 'hike for everyone': The 300km route shining a spotlight on Sri Lanka's tea history

The recently opened Pekoe Trail, which runs for more than 300km through tea plantations, villages and forests, tells the story of Sri Lanka's complex and chequered tea history.

The sun is bright and harsh on my face when I stop to admire the view – okay, to catch my breath – at the top of the steep path. How is it that just 20 minutes ago, the skies were grey and moody with the threat of an imminent downpour? In Sri Lanka's central highlands, the weather may be capricious but what remains unchanged is the sprawling expanse of tea estates in every direction. 

This region is where the bulk of soothing Ceylon tea comes from. And the recently opened Pekoe Trail, Sri Lanka's first long-distance hiking trail that runs for more than 300km through tea plantations, villages and forests, tells the story of Sri Lanka's complex and chequered tea history. This hiking trail, divided into 22 stages, begins in Sri Lanka's second largest city of Kandy, close to the area where Scotsman James Taylor first planted tea in the country in the mid-1800s. After a long and circuitous route, it finally ends in the hill town of Nuwara Eliya, whose cool climes and misty slopes are said to have reminded the British colonisers of Blighty (Britain). 

The trail has existed in patches since those initial days of tea cultivation in Sri Lanka, beginning as basic mud tracks that were used to transport the leaves to factories and then onward to domestic markets and Colombo port for export. For Pekoe Trail founder and sustainable tourism consultant Miguel Cunat, creating this multi-stage, multi-day hike was a labour of love, involving nearly 10 years of research and exploration.

"My initial objective was to promote Sri Lanka as a world-class hiking destination," says the Spaniard and long-time Sri Lanka resident, who was keen to put the small island back on the tourism map after a disastrous spell with Covid and the subsequent economic crisis. His efforts came to fruition with the official opening of the Pekoe Trail in late 2023, with initial funding from the European Union and USAID.

"The trails are fairly easy, at low elevation and open all through the year. In that sense, this hike is for everyone," he explains. That means everyone, including novice hikers such as myself, have the option to stay in a hotel near the trail and go out on exploratory day hikes within a single stage. I also come to understand later from my trail guides that most visitors choose to do this instead of attempting the trail in its entirety.

And although tea is the common thread stitching this story together, each stage has its own unique elements – a colonial-era cricket club here, a seasonal waterfall there, statues of brightly coloured village deities, Anglican churches with brilliant stained-glass windows, distant views of a sharp peak or clusters of wildflowers blooming in the midst of a barren stretch. Cathy Cruse, a 62-year-old Australian hiker who recently set a record by completing the entire trail in seven days, agrees, saying, "You've got the tea plantations and then you're going into thick jungle and then pine forests, and then at one stage I thought I was walking through Australia, with all the tall eucalyptus trees."

Cunat's objective was also to bring tourist attention and money into the hinterlands and hill towns located away from the popular coastal destinations of Sri Lanka's south or the Buddhist Cultural Triangle of Anuradhapura, Sigiriya and Dambulla. Cruse, who is married to a Sri Lankan, says that she has visited Kandy and Nuwara Eliya several times but never had a chance – or indeed, a reason – to explore the more interior parts of the tea country.

As Cunat walked along the various trails, he also began to see a larger picture emerging from the network of villages and communities along the way. "Along with nature, there is so much history and living heritage, with local fairs and festivals, and opportunities to see how [rural Sri Lankans] live and work," he says. And it is this aspect I most enjoy about my hikes – I am never too far from civilisation, be it a local temple or a tea factory, and I get to have regular interactions with friendly plantation workers and curious children everywhere. It is perhaps why Cruse stresses how safe the trail is for solo or women hikers. "When I pick a trail, I'm looking for somewhere safe that a woman can tackle on her own and not feel intimidated. Not once did I ever feel nervous of my surroundings or my guides on the Pekoe Trail," she says.

The history of tea in Sri Lanka is inextricably linked with the Indian-Tamil plantation workers brought by the British. Their descendants – mostly women – still form the backbone of the lowest levels of tea production. Dressed in frayed button-down shirts and thick long skirts to protect from leeches, they spend their lives picking the finest leaves from the bushes. I see them walking up and down the tea estates, their hands nimble with years of practice, their necks bent with the load of the bamboo baskets tied to their heads, into which they carefully toss the leaves.

The women beam in delight when I speak to them in Tamil. "Tell me about India," third-generation tea picker Sathyavathy demands, when I stop to chat with her group during their mid-morning tea break in the Bogawantalawa area, known as the "Golden Valley" due to its fine quality of tea. "Is it beautiful?" Like many of her peers, she has distant family back in the small towns of Tamil Nadu in South India but has never visited the country.

My initial hikes take me through stages seven and eight near Hatton in the heart of the tea country, dotted with old factories that still process tea using dated technology, and boutique hotels repurposed from massive bungalows once meant for estate managers. My guide here is Dharsharuban Rathnasingham, a young man whose grandparents and mother used to work in these very tea plantations. 

More like this:

•  The rise of the slow swimming holiday

•  A hike through history on Britain's oldest road

•  Sri Lanka's most beautiful train journey

Ruban – as he likes being called – is passionate about sharing the stories of his people, Indian Tamils who populate the villages and towns around the various stages of the Pekoe Trail. As we walk, he stops to point out the elements distinctive to tea plantation life, like the "line rooms", cramped barrack-style quarters where large families lived together (and still do, in some places); and the statues of fierce Tamil protector deities placed at major crossroads or beneath trees, often depicted riding a horse or wielding a scythe.

From Hatton, I take the famed Colombo to Badulla train to Ella, from where I attempt to tackle stages 15 and 16 over the next several days, taking in the viewpoint known as Ella Rock and the picturesque nine-arch railway bridge. Here, the tea goes in and out of view, with some stretches taking me over active railway tracks and others on paths shaded by tall eucalyptus and pine trees. The Pekoe Trail may be long and even tough in parts, but it is never boring or monotonous.

As Cruse says, "There were just so many 'wow' moments during the hike, where you come around a corner, and the whole valley would just be laid out below and I would have to stop and just stare."

--

If you liked this story, sign up for The Essential List newsletter – a handpicked selection of features, videos and can't-miss news, delivered to your inbox twice a week. 

For more Travel stories from the BBC, follow us on Facebook, X and Instagram.