Jayaratne adeptly picks out the page-flipping sound of peacocks mating, identifies birdlife—jungle fowl, bee eaters, striped painted storks—and schools us on the area’s quirky geology, including massive boulders with evocative names such as Darth Vader Rock (it looks like it’s wearing a helmet).
To avoid gridlock in the bush, he takes us to a relatively quiet part of the park an hour away from the lodge. Within moments of arriving, I hear a squawk and an angry series of snorts. Jayaratne floors the gas pedal to lurch the car forward through a dense, tangled forest.
As we swerve down the narrow dirt road, a herd of buffalo charges loudly in our direction, angrily frothing up a shallow pond. From their midst, a leopard darts out, leaping into a bristly bush. I see only the flash of her spotted hide, and then it’s nothing but gnarled horns smashing into the greenery. “Holy shit,” we all repeat in whispers like an incantation, hearts racing, not knowing whether to watch or look away. This is an apex predator with plenty to lose. Estimates indicate that there are only 250 leopards in all of Yala, and they’re a main draw for tourists to the entire region. “Please get out, please get out, please get out,” Jayaratne whispers to the cat, until finally she catapults herself out of the bush and onto a tree in a streak of spots. Eventually a lightly injured buffalo calf emerges from within the pack, and we piece together the drama. “They were both lucky to get out alive,” he says.
By the time I plan my next trip to Sri Lanka—and I will definitely return—it’s likely that Fernando will have brought his circuit to five hotels or more. Up next is a property he wants to build on pylons in the shadow of Sigiriya, the famous “lion rock” monument in the central part of the island. That will be followed by a Robinson Crusoe-inspired beach resort in Trincomalee. He estimates that within three years, Resplendent Ceylon will employ 800 Sri Lankans. That’s nowhere near the size of Dilmah’s workforce, but it’s certainly significant.
“We’re flying the flag for Sri Lanka the same way my family has at Dilmah over the years,” Fernando says. In tourism as in tea, it’s all about the positioning, the packaging, and the pricing. “My success is my country,” he says, “and it’s time to stop underselling it.”
This article was provided by Bloomberg News.