Jungle Tide Bungalow

In 2004 we bought the land on which Jungle Tide now stands. At the time it was a mix of overgrown tea and jungle, but it had a stream running through it and wonderful views from the top of the land. The house was completed in 2008 with the help of a brilliant local project manager and an architect who trained under the great Geoffrey Bawa. The design was inspired by a 21st century take on a traditional planter’s bungalow. High ceilings, long veranda, lots of glass but all shaded, and both a western and a traditional Sri Lankan kitchen. When the swimming pool was added a couple of years later, and we had employed two wonderful staff, we were ready to open as a guest house. For five years we ran Jungle Tide remotely while we continued working in England. We came to live here in late 2015.

Sally was born in Sri Lanka (when it was Ceylon), the youngest of six children of a British tea planter, and the fourth generation of her family to be associated with the island. Her great grandfather and grandfather are both buried here. The family left in 1971 when she was thirteen. At the time a nationalist government was making life difficult for foreigners and many of the expat community left the island at around the same time. While much of her childhood was spent in Colombo, some of it was on a tea plantation called Meenawatte, on the slopes of Hunasgiriya mountain which you can see from Jungle Tide. Their old planter’s bungalow is now part of a smart new hotel complex. Sally did not return to Sri Lanka until 1998 when her new(ish) husband Jerry bought plane tickets for them both and Sally’s eight-year-old daughter as a fortieth birthday present, saying he was curious to see where she grew up. Jerry fell in love with Sri Lanka and, after a further visit in 2001, we decided we would build our future in the island.