[Karthik Gullu]

Hello BHPians,

This is my Second Travelogue on Team BHP and first experience to go for a trip with wife in my car. She treated me with a surprise birthday trip, as she wanted to celebrate my first birthday after wedding with a long drive to some destination where both of us have never been.

Finally we ended up choosing Nilambur after loads of research, it is a taluk in Malappuram district of Kerala, South India.

The reasons for opting this place –

• One can find more of localities than the tourists.

• Close to Niligris range of Western Ghats.

• Famous for teak plantation, better known as the Land of Teak Plantations.

I wanted to focus more on the resort we stayed as it was a absolute bliss, best of nature, lush green forest, caressed by fresh bubbling stream right behind the cottage, No stress, No phones, No pollution, full relax at the untouched".

Here we go..

Great Hornbill Resorts is truly one of its kind, situated near the foot hills of Niligris and unpolluted virgin nature around the resort rejuvenates our senses, fragrance of trees and plants, chirping of birds and the best part is the roaring noise of the gushing stream flowing beside the resort(we could hear the water flow from the room).



Route taken to Nilambur

Bangalore – Maddur – Mandya – Ranganathittu - Mysore – Nanjangud – Gundlupet – Gudalur - Edakkara – Chungathara – Chandakunnu - Nilambur


Distance – 295 kms.

We left Bangalore in the morning around 5.30AM in my Swift and on the way near Nice junction kengeri, Mysore road, met few of my colleagues (trip friends I can say !) as they were going to Mallali falls & Bisle in Linea. So totally me, my wife(Shalini),Swetha, Reetu and Rohit Tunga (BHPian) together had breakfast in Bidadi ,20 mins drive from the point we met as this place is known for Tatte idlies. I felt so good meeting them on the way and they welcomed me with a warm birthday wishes, though I called up Swetha in the morning to ask about their departure status and parallely I myself taunted her to wish me. off course she is my close friend, teammate, trip mate and always she will be punctual and timely if it is for a trip. Reetu is college pal cum teammate having fear of ghosts, scared of sleepwalking people or sleep disorder people which was upper hand for us to pull her leg . I know Rohit the day I joined office, trip mate, In-house trip/car advisor and the BHPian to travel Bangalore to Leh by car(Fiat Linea) and Shalini, my wife who made that day prodigious and got a feature of visualizing things realistically whatever I create stories !

After a solid breakfast in Bidadi, we started our journey and we took a pit stop after 55kms for coffee in Maddur Coffee day.

Friends surprisingly ordered cake and it happened second time cutting cake for the day after my wife surprised me. We had few photo sessions, later Swetha and Reetu like a naive girls without my knowledge unlocked car and flicked music pen drive which is greatest asset of my car since Rohit car had only 24 songs (one of which was “Baby doll” repeatedly playing).Both the cars went on back to back till Ranganathittu junction and gave a stop as our route going to change from this point and then we continued our journey in Mysore road and they diverted towards Hunsur.


Cake cutting at Café day


All 5


When we were near Nanjangud, got a call from Swetha asking for particular song location “Begging you” in my pen drive and like a dumb, I answered them thinking they might have a copy of my pen drive, later I realized they have flicked it !

I managed to play songs connecting my phone through out the journey. By the time we reached Chandakunnu near Nilambur, it was evening and we need to take left near signal, go 20 kms interior and one can see dense forest as we go on and on, rubber estates etc. We had to kept on asking localities to find the way to resort since it was very interior and their Malayalam accent of telling place name was difficult to understand and somehow after 20kms from the diversion, finally we ended up in Great Hornbill Resort, mountain and stream were adjacent to us. we were totally excited.

There were plenty of insects outside in the night, the full length, floor to ceiling glass windows and the protective net door outside kind of formed a barrier between us and them. Going to bed in the night and waking up to the sounds of nature in itself was rejuvenation. There was plenty of space to play and explore nature safely. There is a stream which runs within the property which was absolute safe to play.

Food was homely and authentic Kerala style cuisine like Tapioca, Puttu & kadala, Boiled Banana etc. Prepared by the staff in the resort. The service was excellent and the staff was very friendly and always at hand to help you out. We were not pretty comfortable with Kerala style food since we were not used to it, specially boiled banana.

Route to resort
Chandakunnu signal Junction left turn – Nilambur Railway Station (railway crossing) – Pookottumpadam – TK colony – Hornbill Resort


Resort Overview from the balcony




Interior view


Dining

Kerala food

Fire champ

Stream within the property




There are a couple of places of interest, which we visited next day

Connolly Plot- One of the oldest teak plantations. Just looking at the huge trees in this plantation is a humbling experience. This plantation has the biggest teak tree in the world called as Kanimerra teak tree. The plantations is about 30 minutes drive from the resort.




Teak Museum-This is another major attraction in Nilambur, It gives you a glimpse of the teak as a tree and its uses. Some of the exhibits there are amazing!. There is also botanical park behind museum which enlightens forgotten / lesser known plants with their unique medicinal effects. Shalini was very excited and trying to explain me a taxonomy, Botanical names of different plants, Entomology etc since she is a post graduate in Agricultural Science. At the end of trip, I got to know from her the Binomial name of Teak is Tectona grandis (Indian teak),Tectona Hamiltoniana (Myanmar teak),Tectona Philippines(Malaysian Teak).





Adyanpara waterfall- we could not check due to lack of time.

Note: Be sure to make your reservations in advance at resort and the place is remote, need to travel 10kms to Pookottumpadam to buy anything

Stay was quiet, relaxing, birthday was so special and memorable-Just what we needed as a family. I would love to go back again and recommend it to those who look forward to relax and unwind, we returned to Bangalore on the same day.

[S2!!!]

You sure seem to have had a nice getaway. I guess you must be knowing the lyrics of "Baby Doll" by heart now, having heard it on repeat mode.

It is nice to have places like these close to the busy metros, with such serenity and their closeness to nature. Especially considering the fact, that so many hill stations, once known for their tranquillity have now become so commercial and populated.

Oh and wish you a belated happy birthday

[Karthik Gullu]

Originally Posted by S2!!!

You sure seem to have had a nice getaway. I guess you must be knowing the lyrics of "Baby Doll" by heart now, having heard it on repeat mode.

It is nice to have places like these close to the busy metros, with such serenity and their closeness to nature. Especially considering the fact, that so many hill stations, once known for their tranquillity have now become so commercial and populated.

Oh and wish you a belated happy birthday

Yes. As you said,it is always nice to have such untouched places close to busy metros so that we can come out of stress,pollution,office work load etc and can feel the nature at its best.Infact it will be a weekend gateway.

Anyways thanks for the wishes