Hello Guys, It's been two weeks since Neelakuriji Bloomed on top of Kallippara Hills in Idukki District. Neelakuriji will only bloom once, every twelve years. I have been living in the Idukki district for almost 11 years now and this was my first time seeing Neelakuriji. There were times when Neelakuriji bloomed in between the 11 years but it was not like this, So it didn't force me to visit those places at those times.
I must say, going there was totally worth it. I really enjoyed visiting Kallippara Hills. Even if there were no Neelakuruji I will have no regrets about going there. The place has stunning views from everywhere. There is no pass, no restriction or anyone to control you. It's totally free and also you will have full freedom on top of the mountain. Just keep in mind these flowers will only bloom in 12 years so don't destroy them.
While everyone else was running around the Neelakuriji blooms like bees, I was taking selfies in front of the beautiful landscapes. I must say this mountain has some pretty incredible views.
This is the Neelakuriji plant. The flowers have this blue and pink tint to them. Neela in the word Neelakuriji means Blue and Kuriji just stands for flower. These plants bloom as a group and that gives the entire mountain a blue colour while viewing it from a distance.
I picked one flower on the way back and today I checked whether if, there were any seeds inside them. So, it has small seeds inside them. I think these seeds will later turn into a plant and after 12 years they will bloom again. There were so many seeds inside just one of these small portions I think this flower will multiply the next time it blooms.
There were also plants that were about to bloom in a week of time. So don't worry you can still go to this place this week or next week and still see the Neelakuriji blooms.
I went to Kallippara with my friends and they took the images of me standing next to Neelakuriji.
Kallippara Location Info
Kallippara is located 6 kilometres from Santhanpara. Google map is messed up so bad. It will show different locations if you use the Kallippara tag. It's so bad that people get lost due to Google maps these days.
Adimali > Ponmudi > Rajakad > Rajakumari > Poopara > Santhanpara > Kallippara
OR
Adimali > Munnar > Gap road > Poopara > Santhanpara > Kallippara
Google Maps GPS Location: 9.905639,77.223116
There will be people from all parts of India and the streets will be crowded with people and traffic. There will be a huge line of thousands of people walking to this location. We reached this location before 10:00 AM and still, there was a huge crowd. We didn't get a place to park our vehicles so, we had to park them 1.5 KM away from the main location. It will be impossible to get a parking spot close to Kallippara, So you will have to park your vehicles 2-3 KM away from the main location.
From Kallippara to Neelakuriji Bloomed location is about 3 KM in distance. So, the distance you will need to walk on foot is around 5 KM. 2 KM on a plane road and 3 KM on a mountain hill road which is super slippery. Bring at least 1-2 Liters of water. You will surely need it.
The best time to visit this place is on working days (Monday to Friday). On non-working and public holidays this place will be crowded with people.
I went to this place on last Sunday and I was not able to believe the number of people that were coming to see the Neelakuriji Blooms. The mountain was full of people and we were not able take any images due to people coming inside the frame.
As you can see I had to spend a lot of time removing people from the background inside Photoshop. The best time to visit this place is on working days.
All the images used inside this blog are taken by myself except for the images that I'm in, those images are taken by my friends. I used my Canon G7X Mii, GoPro Hero 9 and Redmi K20 Pro for taking these images. I used Photoshop for editing those images and I used the Sky Replacement feature for fixing the exposed sky.