A WRITER’S RETREAT

I first met Malik Fernando in Yala around three years ago, where I told him about my leopard sighting from my morning in the park: within moments of entering the reserve, a thrilling silhouette of the big cat perched on a rock pressed against a milky violet dawn sky. Stretching its form, without a whisper of fat, it gave a lazy yawn before darting off into the shrub. On my way back to camp, an elephant crossed our path with her calf, pausing briefly to size up my jeep with her dark, liquid eye as she juddered her head and marched on.

Fernando listened to me intently, filling me in on the lush, peculiar geography of Yala that made it supportive leopard turf. In beige shorts and a linen shirt, he could pass for another hip, sharp, eco-aware wildlife enthusiast at Resplendent Ceylon’s magnificent Wild Coast Tented Lodge. Fernando, for the record, is the founder of Resplendent