Visitors to Sri Lanka tend to stay in the south of the island, or explore the tea plantations and ancient Buddhist sites in its central highlands.

Few venture to the north of the country, where civil war raged for 26 years until the insurgent Tamil Tigers were finally defeated in 2009. Yet this region is now safe, said Harriet Compston in The Sunday Times – and it is “calmer and less frenetic” than the south, with far fewer “glossy villas, shabby-chic restaurants or beach-hunting tourists”.

On a recent 11-night trip with andBeyond, I made a circuit with a driver-guide, starting midway up the west coast in the Sri Lankan capital, Colombo, and heading first for Jaffna, at the island’s northern tip. Halfway through the seven-hour drive to Jaffna, we stopped at Wilpattu National Park, wher

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