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.

Set Out

Set Out is a BBC Travel series that celebrates slow, self-propelled travel and invites readers to get outside and reconnect with the world in a safe and sustainable way.

And although tea is the common thread stitching this story together, each stage has its own unique elements –........

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