Bellikkal Hills - Your Stint with Nature

Bellikkal – Your Stint with Nature

Bellikkal is a less crowded and secluded hill station in the Nilgiri mountains of Tamil Nadu. This is located on the south east of the Mudumalai forests, 16 km from Ooty and 249 km South of Bengalaru. Located at a high altitude, it is totally isolated from the outside world and is a great place to get rejuvenated and recharged.  There are several vantage points at Bellikkal that provide many beautiful panoramic views of the surrounding mountain peaks.

One of the main attraction is the Neelakurinji Flowers. The flower has purplish blue color when aged. It looks light blue in the earlier stage of blooming. When in full bloom, they lend a bluish haze to the area. But these bushes blossom in a clustered manner once in twelve years. And we turned out to be lucky this year.

We had planned this trip well ahead and had booked a homestay “Wild Walkers” for a weekend stay in Bellikkal.

Day 1: We started from Bangalore at around 6 in the morning with one stop for breakfast and multiple stops while crossing Bandipur forest. After Masinagudi, we need to keep driving on the Mysore-Ooty Road which has 36 hairpin bend curves. You will need to take a left at 7/36 hair pin bend curve. From here it is around 15 mins of drive till the parking lot of Glyngarth Resort and google location directing us to the homestay also stops at this point. Homestay caretakers had come to pick us up from here. We parked our cars there, picked our bags and started walking to the homestay. And from there it was a pleasant 15 min walk to the property. While walking we realized, how pristine, unpolluted, calm and peaceful this place was. We saw lot of flora and fauna on the way.

Since vehicles are not allowed there, all we could hear was chirping of birds. Then finally suspense was revealed, and we reached our homestay. View from the homestay is just breathtaking. The sight of clouds descending and slowing revealing the hidden mountains is simply mesmerizing. We just stood there for 5 minutes just to enjoy the view and feel the mountains.

At the entry of the resort we saw a worker watering pink color radish removing the mud from them which were just plucked freshly from land. I had never seen pink color radish before. And we saw other workers in the field busy harvesting other vegetables. They grow radish, carrot, Garlic, potato, kidney beans and other vegetables and we too got a chance to harvest along with other workers. We were served yummy homemade food here on both the days with these homegrown vegetables. So, after your stay for two days, you return completely detoxified from mind and even body.

Post relaxing a bit, we started our trek to Bellikkal view point with the help of our guide who is also the caretaker of homestay. It was a half an hour walk. Make sure to take trekking sticks since the walk can be bit tough due to drizzle/rains. But once you reach the view point, you feel the effort taken is worth. The view from this point is just amazing where we get to see panoramic view of Bandipur park, Mudumalai Forest and little bit of Kerala as well from one point. 

It was very windy there hence we quickly clicked some pictures and started our walk back.

Once back to homestay, we were served hot tea with capsicum pakoras which was really refreshing. It started getting little chill in the evening, so this was like icing on the cake. Since this place is very remote from civilization modern amenities are not available like TV, cell phone network and even electricity also goes off at regular intervals. Hence you have all the time for yourself and to spend with your loved ones which you don’t do in your busy life at city. We got a good night’s sleep with sounds of only night insects and it was peaceful.

Day 2: Next day morning, post breakfast we set out to hike Bellikkal estate point. It was around 5 km walk uphill. En route we saw a herd of wild bisons climbing uphill. Hence, we had to take a detour and climb from other side. 

The main attraction was yet to come. The Kurinji flowers. Nilgiri Hills which literally means blue mountains got their name from the purplish-blue flowers of Neelakurinji that blossoms only once in 12 years. We turned out to be lucky.

Mountains with purple cover of Kurinji flowers was just amazing to watch and very picturesque.

Finally we reached the estate point and view from here was just breath taking. Each border of the hill was covered with Kurinji flowers and it was just amazing to sit there at the tip of the hill and watch this.

Climbing downhill was an easy task even though we were not interested in coming back leaving the mountains. En route we saw wild mushrooms, eucalyptus plants and few more medicinal plants. At one point we just took a break, sat on a stone, just experienced the mountains and view around us. This place will just take you by its beauty, calmness and serenity.

Climbing downhill we could get a good view  of our homestay also

Post the trek, staff at homestay had arranged for hot water bath in Eucalyptus oil which was very refreshing. After having a yummy home food, we decided to wind up and started back to Bangalore with wonderful memories of the place. Wild Bison spotted in Bellikkal turned out to be a lucky charm for us. While driving back on Bandipur forest area, we spotted Elephant, deers, lot of peacocks and one wild bison. We had been to Bandipur so many times but had never seen so many animals. So, this trip was indeed very memorable which took us very close to nature and wildlife.

This small hill station is as beautiful as any other hill station and has yet managed to retain its old-world charm. Anyone who has gone to Bellikkal will plan to visit again. I will recommend this for a perfect weekend getaway especially for nature lovers where in you cannot do much of activities, yet you can experience just the mountains that will steal your breath away.