In Conversation with Richard and Charlie Pembroke from Tekanda Lodge

Richard’s background is hardly more promising. ‘I started off in rugby journalism, and then became a co-founder of two tech businesses over the past 20 years,’ he says, ‘but neither of us have a background in either hospitality or travel.’ They did, however, live in South Africa for 8 years, where one of Richard’s businesses was based, travelling the country and continent before returning home to the UK. And it was after that, Richard says, that the idea of a Sri Lankan project first bit. ‘We first came here at the very start of the millennium but then didn’t really come back for a while. It was only when we returned home from South Africa and began travelling here more often with our 4 kids that the concept of developing this project started to take root. It felt familiar, with all the sea, surf, colour, fizz and cricket (plenty more on which later)’.

If no experience was an issue, then no ambition certainly was not. Both Charlie and Richard had long harboured dreams of another adventure – ‘we both thought, deep down, that the UK wasn’t forever’ – and Sri Lanka began to crystallise as an idea. For those who have been lucky enough to visit, it could have been very different. Chuckling again (they both chuckle a lot and I notice that our Zoom call time is evaporating, which is never a bad sign), Richard says that ‘we nearly left London in 2002 to run a fishing lodge in Chile’ – again, rather a long way from where they’ve ended up.

From a 2016 trip to look at site options, they settled on a disused and dilapidated tea and coconut plantation. Then, they spent 2 years simply thinking about what to do. They were blessed with a remarkable location: the plantation was spread across a pair of hills in a naturally gorgeous and dense jungle. The sea, with some of the south coast’s best surf breaks and fishing spots, is a 10-minute tuk-tuk journey and the local village is a proper Sri Lankan hub of food, drink and good vibes. As they thought, it seems as though Richard and Charlie had slightly different idea of what they wanted Tekanda to be.

‘The architect ended up getting a dual brief,’ laughs Charlie. ‘I wanted a place we could come and spend time with the kids and our family and Richard wanted a more commercial enterprise.’ The architect, who they pursued for a year and persuaded to realise their vision, has somehow achieved both: a place that can be booked exclusively for bigger, multi-generational families (this makes up around a quarter of all turnover), as well as for individuals and couples. Guests are free to explore the estate – there’s still a functioning tea plantation here – and enjoy the peace. ‘A lot of guests talk about the peace that you can tap into here, even though we’re only 10 minutes from the noise and bustle of the coast.’ In fact, a lot of the guests have mentioned that the small, intimate tea tours they’ve had at Tekanda are better than those available at, in Richard and Charlie’s words, ‘proper hotels.’

They’re abidingly self-deprecating and light-hearted as a couple: ‘if you want a template on how not to run a commercial enterprise, this is it.’ I’m not sure I fully believe them but, even if they’re speaking the truth, it certainly means that there’s a feel to Tekanda that you can’t get elsewhere. Every single piece of the lodge was constructed up the hill, carved by hand by local east coast craftsman in a place that initially had no access, no electricity, no water. Everything arrived in raw material form and, such was the task of the project, the team first had to build their own village up the hill in which to live during construction. I’m expecting horror stories from this phase but both Richard and Charlie say it was ‘remarkably straightforward – I wish I had some horror stories but we don’t.’ The only hiccup was that they were 65% of the way through the build when Covid struck, a fact that meant much of the latter part of the build was managed from a boarding house on the other side of the world. ‘It kept me sane,’ Charlie says, ‘when I was trying to manage 60 teenage girls.’ Given the pressures of managing a building site over Whatsapp and Zoom, I think that says quite a lot about the tasks of a housemistress…

If building a lodge up a hill from scratch wasn’t enough, the couple have also simultaneously established the Tekanda Foundation, a ‘village heartbeat project’ that’s run in partnership with a local charity and ‘takes up more time than the hotel – which probably isn’t how things should be!’ But what an enterprise they’ve created. ‘We wanted to feel as though we were seeing the country through another lens,’ says Richard, ‘and be part of the wider community – not just those related to the tourism industry.’ The Foundation’s centre now runs morning sessions of vocational training – mainly to women – and afternoon activities for children. Dance, Tamil, badminton, cricket and more for over 350 children a week (150 adults, too), as well as yet another side project: Richard’s local cricket team. He started the girl’s cricket team at Marlborough College and thought ‘it would be a worthwhile project to do the same here because it’s almost impossible to access cricket as a girl in rural Sri Lanka.’ Now, 1 and a half years later, they have a cricket academy on site, including 3 full-time coaches working with over 120 girls a week. On the day we’re talking, England are playing Sri Lanka in a test match. Not that Richard would take much notice, though, as he’s been out running a match over an hour away, where his team were playing next to members of the victorious Asian Superleague Sri Lankan women’s team.