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.

What to pack for a long road trips?? Click here

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.

Peacock spotted on the Bandipur Mudumalai stretch

Elephants of Bandipur

Baby Elephant at Bandipur

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.

wild elephant beside the highway at Bandipur National Park

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.

CLICK HERE for OotyRoad Trip Route and Road conditions

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.

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.

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.

view of Mudumalai forest atop of the hill at Vibudhi Malai Murugan Temple

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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