Masinagudi Jungle Trails : A Road Trip to Nilgiris
Masinagudi Jungle Trails : A Road Trip to Nilgiris - II
All set and packed for a long road trip to Ooty, left Bangalore
late at 8am.
The motive of the road trip was to voyage around less
explored and adventurous places, rather than popular and easily accessible
tourist destinations.
To avoid Mysore traffic, we tried to explore another route
from Mandya through Somnathapura to Nanjangud, but it turned out to be more
tiring and longer route. We reached Bandipur forest check post only by 2pm. Driving
through Bandipur forest is a pleasure, with good road conditions, greenery
around and spotting wildlife was more exciting. In an intention to spot
wildlife, and to maintain silence in the forest, we were driving steadily at
15kmph speed without using horn. We could spot a lot of deer herds, elephants,
black bear, boar, Grey Langur monkeys and peacocks.
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| Peacock spotted on the Bandipur Mudumalai stretch |
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| Elephants of Bandipur |
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| Baby Elephant at Bandipur |
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| Deer herds everywhere in the forest route |
The stunning part was
spotting a wild elephant with huge trunks on the Highway; it was in a playful
mood, throwing mud and grass on its back. Not disturbing much of their private
life, we silently continued our journey.
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| This wild elephant with huge trunks was gazing just beside the highway at Bandipur National Park range. |
At the Karnataka-TN border, after
entering Tamil Nadu there were police checking all the vehicles for the
luggage, mostly for the liquor bottles.
At Theppakadu you have to take the left turn which passes
through the bridge over the Moyar River to reach Masinagudi.
Most of the resorts in Masinagudi offer you American Plan,
which includes all 3 meals i.e. Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner, along with
indoor and outdoor games, and Bonfire after dark. Don’t expect a luxury stay
with TV and Wi-Fi in the jungle. It was slightly raining most part of the day,
and it was fun playing badminton in rain and during late evening with flood
lights.
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| Mist covered Nilgiri Mountains as seen from Masinagudi |
Masinagudi is famous for bird watching, which we did the
next morning. We had a drive in search of birds and at a point we were tempted
to stop our car and walk inside the jungle to capture snaps of birds, at this
point we heard a warning from a passerby not to come out of the car and just
after this we heard an elephant roar, an Elephant roar is probably the most
terrifying sound when you’re in the jungle. We started running towards the car
and ride back towards our resort.
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| Masinagudi |
On our way back we parked near the club Mahindra junction,
and started to trek to the hill of Vibudhi Malai Murugan Temple. We confirmed
from the locals about how safe this place was from animals, and we got a
positive response for a day trek. The trek takes about 15-20 mins to reach the
top of the hill, where the temple is located. There was a priest in the temple
and was maintained well.
The view from the top of the hill was amazing, with one side
the Nilgiri Mountains covered partially with mist and on the other side the
Mudumalai Forest. There is also a Jeep trail if which can take you to the top
of the hill, Jeeps can be hired from the main road junction. I would suggest
going on groups and trek instead of a Jeep ride, if you have that extra
calories to burn down.
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| View of Mudumalai forest atop the hill at Vibudhi Malai Murugan Temple |
The more exciting part of our day was heading towards Ooty via the 36 hairpin bends.
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