From Colombo to Kandy is 125 kilometres which took 4 hours in heavy traffic. The first 50 kilometres are continuous road side stalls, one part for pineapples another for cashews another for bamboo ornaments and so on.
Rather than the busy city of Kandy (pop 1.5 million) we stayed at Aayu Hanthana Lodge in the rainforest a few kilometres away.
Great start to the Pekoe Trail 22 Stages over 320 kilometres in good weather with guide Ayesh Buddhika explaining the history, plants, birds and animals as walked. Ayesh is the Trail Operations & Product Development officer of The Pekoe Trail Organisation and has led more than 20% of the people who have completed the Trail.
Trail begins at the Ceylon Tea Museum near KandyOur guide Ayesh at the start of the Pekoe TrailDots mark the trail – orange the colour of Pekoe teaCup of Pekoe Tea and Waymark Pam cleaning the trail collecting rubbishColonial BungalowCostus Afer (African spiral ginger), widely used as a traditional medicineWoman walking on the trailMen carrying grass uphill to feed to cowsKithulmulla Village TempleOne of 4,800 landslides from Cyclone Ditwah, November 2025Man picking pepper
We stayed at the Green House Bungalow, a former tea plantation manager’s house and now an organic farm, about 1.5 kilometres from the stage end at Galaha.
Dinner made with vegetables from the gardenSunset at Green House BungalowThe dreadful effects of Sri Lanka’s worst cyclone
This is a challenging day. Ayesh recommended that we do it in reverse as there are 6 landslides to traverse so we took a TukTuk 50 minutes to the stage end point and walked back.
It was a good day’s walking through the original tea plantaions and forests, a blue sky day. This stage was recently opened after the November 2025 cyclone and caution is advised due to landslides and loss of trail markers. Guides are recommended for safety and navigation.
It was the Hindu New Year holiday – People interaction: High
A hand carved Buddhist monastery in this rockWooden footbridge and a thatched-roof gazebo in Loolkandura Estate, the site of the very first tea plantation in Sri LankaSteps through a tea plantation Tea muster shed where tea leaves are collected and weighed after pickingJames Taylor’s Seat Taylor introduced tea to Sri Lanka in 1867. Here he sat contemplating the future of tea while looking out over the valley belowUnpicked tea will grow into huge trees, these are centuries oldA beautiful path on Stage 2Climbing over one of the landslides The blue leech socks weren’t entirely successful!Ayesh helps Pam over another obstacleMassive landslide but the temple was sparedMonkeys are a pest, eating the native birds eggsHindu ceremony for the New YearLine House constructed during the British period to accommodate plantation workersVillagers come to greet us and offer Pongal (red rice cooked in milk)Hindu New Year processionFloor art made to welcome guests, invite good luck and prosperity during Ponghal (Hindu harvest festival celebrated by Tamils)Malay Sri Lankan claypot dinner at Green House Bungalow
After about 4 kilometres the trail disappeared into thick overgrowth – leech heaven for 1.5 kilometres which took an hour. Then it opens onto a road and from then on relatively easy with a continuous descent for the last 5 kilometres. Another blue sky day but hazy.
We stopped at the Glenloch Tea Factory Hotel which is 2 kilometres before the end of stage but we’ll do that tomorrow.
Ground OrchidColorful Hindu Kovil (temple) in the jungleTerraced hillsides covered in tea bushes, with tall eucalyptus trees on Stage 3This plant is still used as a traditional medicineThis was a bitumen road in the colonial era but it’s now 1.5 kilometres of overgrown path. Leech heaven but our leech socks did the job todayThe old Dimbula road – for horses and bullock carts built over 150 years ago by British Engineers continued over the mountain but is now overgrown on the other sideThe only Christian Church we’ve seenLosing 500 meters in 5 kilometres descending through lush tea estatesTo arrive at Glenloch Tea FactoryCommon garden lizard generally brownish-olive but can become vibrant red, orange, or blackThere’s no restaurant at the Glenloch Tea Factory Hotel but they managed to put together a tasty breakfast of steamed vegetable and egg sandwich
Stage 4 Tawalantenne – Pundal Oya
17 January 2026
Part 1: Distance: 11.6 km Time: 5:00 Ascent: 250m Descent: 440m – Wikiloc
Part 2: Distance: 5.1 km Time: 1:30 Ascent: 110m Descent: 360m – Wikiloc
Part of Stage 4 is closed from the Cyclone Ditwah (but a difficult bypass is now possible; thrill seekers only) so we used a TukTuk to go around that section.
We changed guides today as Ayesh had to go to the opening of a school established by The Pekoe Trail Organisation.
A delightful and different walk today through jungle on paths between houses and village communities. Hazy today caused by air pollution from India, carried by the prevailing northeasterly monsoon winds.
Roadside tea houseWalking through the jungle – guide Sumeda looking for a special birdTerraced rice paddy fieldsBefore Cyclone Ditwah there was just a small stream trickling down the mountain The Trail uses a narrow path acrossRamboda RiverResting at Ramboda RiverChillies and coffee drying in the sunWe took a TukTuk around the closed section of Stage 4
Pekoe Villa home stay in Watagoda, welcoming with delicious Sri Lankan food, was good for 2 nights on Stages 4 & 5.
Returned to Pundal Oya to start Stage 5. It was an easier day walking mainly on quiet roads through jungle, rice paddies and tea estates with stops at roadside stalls for coconuts and tea. Taking it slowly with the advantage of a good guide Sumeda to learn of the plants and birds of this area.
Old British Post Box still in use in PundaluoyaA good day for tumeric and rice dryingTraditional ladder used to extract syrup from the flower of the Fishtail Palm – used as a sweetner or fermented into alcohol Sumeda showing two different types of soursopNot much traffic on a Sunday so coffee can be dried on the roadRed-vented bulbulSumeda selfie with us eating coconut at a roadside stallBamboo OrchidAfter about 7 kilometres walking through jungle we came to the rice growing areaPepper, green and black, drying in the sun Three tea pickers A tea picker putting the leaves into a bag on her backChildren returning home from Sunday SchoolCow decorated for Hindu New YearIt’s nice walking through the tea Meddecombra, originally established as a coffee estate in the mid-1800s, in 1880 the estate switched to tea production Another part of Meddecombra EstateJeff resting at Watagoda Railway Station, constructed during the British colonial period, the end of Stage 5
Today was tea day! Wandering “through the most admired Tea Plantation Company in Sri Lanka” in the Dimbula tea planting district, the largest growing tea area in Sri Lanka.
The first half was downhill with even a stretch of level. After Talawakele the path goes up and up but manageable. The Pekoe Trail is new and local people are inquisitive asking our guide “Who are they? Why are they walking through the village? Where are they going? Where do they sleep?” and so on.
Murali, our local guide for the next 2 StagesLake near Watagoda The old waymarks were green but they disappeared in the green fields so they were changed to orangeSoda Bottle Curve gets its name from its shape – the train winds through the tea estatesTea picking on Holyrood Estate
This woman has picked 7.35 kgs of tea leavesColonial-era Talawakele Railway Station The train service is suspended due to track destroyed by Cyclone Ditwah St. Clairs Falls – one of the widest waterfalls in Sri Lanka and is commonly known as the “Little Niagara of Sri Lanka”Village nestled within the lush tea plantationsEmerald-green tea bushes stretch across rolling hillsThere’s no flat land here but they can still find a way to play cricketKotagala has a “Wine Store” that sells beerTake away dinner at Archu-agam Home Stay in Kotagala
