Gudalur

  • Thought the town itself has nothing much to offer, it is bordered by tea and coffee estates which have pepper vines growing on the shade trees. The pepper vines look like wild growth that has been allowed to take over the mother trees. Cardamom is also grown here. Just 20 km. from the Kerala border, it looks and feels very much like Kerala especially with its large Malayali population. Gudalur has a strategic location on the Ooty- Mysore and Ooty- kozhikode highway, 48 km, from Ooty. Masiniguda and the animal sanctuary of Mudumalai are part of Gudalur Taluk. These two places have been described in detail earlier. Part of Wynaad was included in the Gudalur Taluk in 1877. The Wynaad gold fields was one of the earliest in India, which was mined from 1880 to 1900, but very little gold was recovered

  • At 1180 ft., 4000 ft. below the upper plateau, Gudalur can be uncomfortably warm unless you are lucky enough to stay in a tea estate surrounded by trees. With a fabulous view all round, you can enjoy the cool breezes of the surrounding ghats even on the warmest day. Though malaria was prevalent earlier, with the clearing of the jungles there are no mosquitoes. Doors and windows can be kept freely open. But as this is still fairly wild country, wild elephants, snakes and an occasional panther are common visitors to the plantations

  • Coming down from Ooty, Naduvattam is 13 km. from the top and 5 km. from the base, a total of 48 km. to Gudalur. The road, first made in 1868, used to be very narrow with huge potholes and dropping shoulders not so long ago. Fortunately that is a thing of the past and the roads have improved considerably. The ghat road through the Sispara ghat is 165 km. to Kozhikode via Avalanche. The Needlereock View Point, 10km. from Gudalur on the Ooty main road, has an excellent view of the Mudumalai sanctuary

  • Gudalur means a junction village. Here the Ooty Mysore road meets the Ooty- Kozhikoe road. So do the ghat roads from Nilamur and Sultan’s Battery in Kerala. The economy is chiefly trade and transport in coffee, tea and spices

  • Devarshola, 11 km. from Gudalur on the road to Sultan’s Battery is a bazaar for the whole tea estate population in and around Gudalur. The UPASI research centre is located here

  • Kokal near Mel Gudalur is a Kora village. Since the clay here is very good, they made very good pottery but have since moved to other avocations. Cherankod, 35 km, from Gudalur was a Kota village earlier

  • Nambalkod, 6 km, north of Gudalur has an old fort at 1070 m. It is also known as Kottebetta or Nambalakottah. There is a Beterayaswami temple here as well as temple built in Kerala style. Nellakota, 15 km. from Gudalur, also has a dilapidated old fort and at tank supposedly with buried treasure. Terraces on the hillside, old walls and stone sculptures can be seen. Devala, 16 km. from Gudalur on the Kozhikode road, 7 km. from Nadukani on the Nilambur road was athriving town in 1880 when gold was mined. The story is that when the kurubanad Raja tried to seize the gold with soldiers, the locals hid the gold in the nearby tanks and it is still there as no one has been able to recover the hidden gold. There is a State Horticultural Farm at Devala, started on 10th May 1978 under the Hill Area Development Programme (HADP). At 1100 m., its purpose is to provide good quality tea saplings, shade trees fruit plants, and spices to small farmer in Gudalur. It acts as a model farm

  • Cherambadi is 37 km. from Gudalur. It is a big plantation centre, has some mica mining and a Tantea factory

  • Ochterlony Valley is one of the most picturesque areas with rivers streams, waterfalls and shady paths. It has been named after James Ochterlony, one of the pioneers in tea plantation and the brother of the surveyor of the pioneers in tea plantation and the brother of the surveyor of the Nilgiris district

  • Frog’s Hill as its name suggest is a hill in the shaped of a frog and can be seen from many places on the drive down to Gudalur. It is 12 km. from Ooty on the Ooty- Gudalur road. There is a view point 8 km. from Ooty from where you can sen the Mudumalai sanctuary and Gudalur town