Bangalore to Kannur - Road info needed

[sijuko]

Hi,
Even am planning to take this route over next week,will update about the progress.

[Jaggu]

Ok guys the makutta road is officially closed for other traffic, news in kannur local paper.

[kannan666]

Originally Posted by Jaggu

Ok guys the makutta road is officially closed for other traffic, news in kannur local paper.

'Other traffic' meaning ?? Was planning to take this route on 1st May...

[Jaggu]

Only construction work related vehicles, am there tomorrow evening but via Sbathery. Will update from Kannur.

[kannan666]

Thanks Jaggu, eagerly awaiting your update to make a decision.

[Jaggu]

Started at 930 from silk board and took the nice road, traffic was horrible and me with equally horrible driving, reached sultan battery at 225. After lunch started at 255pm from Sbattery and heavy rain and wind also started in 10 mts. Drove in the rain and took the Right turn to kottiyoor temple and started the decent. 100 mts into this, a whole branch has fallen blocking the road!

Couple of merry guys in an innova was behind me and they braved the rain and wind to move the branch and we just about squeezed through. Drove till Panamaram and behold another one, road is blocked towards iritty. Followed a local bus and he is taking some hill with single lane road, and 1 km into it i see bus ripping through a river!!

Was not sure swift can manage it, so pulled to the side, second bus (following me) didnt have space so backed up a lil and let him pass. Don't know what possessed me, that I decided to cross tailing the bus when it's clearing the water in front. I have to thank my stars, he was taking it at considerable speed and I followed like Moses's followers. Half way through I saw the water wave at my bonnet level! Yes have seen it in national geographic, prayed and just kept on. 10 secs and am out of this mess, PHEW!!!

Drove for 2 minutes with LEFT leg on brakes, obviously no brakes and slowly the bite is back and I reach a Junction where I could take the iritty road. Drove for another km with things like air filter, headlight/fog light flooding etc, and I see another vehicle in front stop. This time a whole mango tree uprooted. Parked the car and put my wind cheater and walked towards the spot. Locals boys are cutting the tree and after 15 mts managed to open half a lane. Kids are collecting money for the job from passing vehicles, didn't think twice, I gave them 100 bucks and moved. Another km or so, a concrete electric post has crashed bringing the cables down, cops are there and they have just started to let traffic go. 500 mts another Junction people are walking back from movies, nope that's the next tree and bus passengers getting down and walking.

Checked with them, they confirm tree is huge and it will take couple of hours atleast. Time is 5 pm, am wondering if I should head back??? Saw a local bus taking a very difficult turn to a side road, a climb rather, and behold am tailling him. Power cables are carefully moved up for bus to pass, Once it clears I tip toe on the tracks. We are driving inside rubber estates, bus stopping once in a while to ask directions with locals. A 90 deg right turn bus has overshot and since am behind/tailing, the conductor guy gestures at me to take the turn so that bus can reverse and follow me. I cant reverse since there is an alto behind me.

I have no clue where I am, I take lead and 700 mts tarrmac ends and mud road starts, I stop to ask a farmer walking for direction and see the alto pass me. Next cross road, Alto slows down and asks for direction, it's KL 13 registration, so once he takes the lleft turn I ask the same people for Kannur and they tell me to follow the alto.

We cross katcha road which becomes slush, passing middle of paddy fields and hit another cross road. Alto guy is confused am equally lost and i am looking at him. He decides for right turn and I follow, then we drive through narrow 1 lane tarmac, which becomes 2 lane and after 10 kms we enter a main road. Take left turn and road seems familiar, it's the road conncting kuthuparambu with iritty. We zip and in front of a masjid he slams brakes for the bump, I was about to over take and slams brakes, tire houling and I slid past him at the bump. I decide to lead and he decides to back off.

640 pm at koothuparambu I take right toward Kannur and arrive at around 725 pm.

Right now lying on the bed typing this post on the phone and wondering, what's with me and my Kannur trips!

ps: headlight/fogs all well, cold air intake seems fine, the rubber beading on bonnet tip seems to have done it's job.
ps 2: makutta is still closed, I will not dare that route for next one week after todays rains. Further update after Reading tomorrows papers.

My mom who is very adventurous and travelled all around India & world has sweared that she will now on take a train to Kannur after the trip and now convincing bro to do return trip via Calicut tomorrow LOL am back day after the same route hopefully without any of these adventures please!

[sarinkumar]

There is a report in today's, 27th April, Bangalore edition Mathrubhumi about the Makuttam road closure and how this is going to affect the students and other people working in and around Kudak. The report also says that, the PWD has no other way but close the road for a faster completion of the project.
Regards,
Sarin

[Jaggu]

todays newspaper is filled with reports of tree uprooting and widespread damages. One ikon is a total loss.

I found out that I had reached sivapuram to get back to koothuparambu, in ydays rain it was lil difficult to keep track of the route.

[kannan666]

Wow Jaggu, you seem to have had quite an (mis) adventure ! Looks like I really need to make a detailed planning of my route since I guess we can expect rains around the first week of May too. Last time round, had taken the Mysore-HD Kote-Mananthavady-Kuttyadi-Nadapuram Road-Thalassery route, will this be the way to go this time round too ?

[Jaggu]

I think you can take sultan battery route, ideally start early from Blr so that you an clear the ghats before late afternoon when the summer rains can start.

Nothing much you can do to help, apart from parking in a safe place and wait. And no need to panic since inside Kerala hardly a km is there without humans in sight

[nithinnarayanan]

Originally Posted by Jaggu

Started at 930 from silk board took the nice road, traffic was horrible and me with equally horrible driving reached sultan battery at 225, after lunch started at 255pm and heavy rain and wind started in 10 mts. Drove in the rain and took the rt turn to kottiyoor temple and started the decent and 100 mts a whole branch has fallen blocking the road!.....

Oh My God, Jaggu You had an adventure trip to kannur.
I think you had gone through chittariparamba, malur, sivapurem area.

You could have called me, would have guided you.

Anyways good you reached home safely.

[kannan666]

Sorry to go OT, but Nithin, do you travel often to Kannur like maybe once every week ? Just saw your tag line which read Indica 94,500kms in just 3 years and hence the question !

[sarinkumar]

Originally Posted by kannan666

Wow Jaggu, you seem to have had quite an (mis) adventure ! Looks like I really need to make a detailed planning of my route since I guess we can expect rains around the first week of May too. Last time round, had taken the Mysore-HD Kote-Mananthavady-Kuttyadi-Nadapuram Road-Thalassery route, will this be the way to go this time round too ?

You can also take alternate route Bangalore -- S. Battery -- Beenachi --- Panamaram --- Kuttiyadi -- Nadapuram -- Thalassery.

The problem with all these roads, as far as i am concerned: They are small. Though you save some distance, but the total time taken will be the same. As I suggested earlier, I always take S. Battery --- Thamarassery -- Koyilandi -- Badagara -- Thalassery route since the Makkutta road is in bad condition. Ofcourse you may need to travel extra 60KM, but for sure the road is in good condition and you can go fast as well. My native place is in Perambra and I always take the Thamarassery route. ie S. Battery -- Thamarassery --- Balussery -- Ulliyeri-- Perambra. To go to Perambra this is the ideal route. around 350KM I cover in 6 hours. I have optimized my driving

Bangalore -- Mysore -- Two hours (70 KM/hr)

Mysore -- S. Battery -- Two hours (60 KM/hr)

S. Battery -- Perambra -- Two hours (50 KM/hr)

What i found is that, in long distance driving we don't need to worry much about saving small distances like 60 or 70 KM. Time to conver the distance is more important. This is my opinion. However, I strongly believe that, to Kannur district the Makkutta road is the best option and hope that the repair works complete faster.

[nithinnarayanan]

Originally Posted by kannan666

Sorry to go OT, but Nithin, do you travel often to Kannur like maybe once every week ? Just saw your tag line which read Indica 94,500kms in just 3 years and hence the question !

Kannan, I travel once or twice a month to Kannur.

About my signature 94.5K in 35 months, I was planning to complete 100K in 36 months but was not there in the country for 3~4 months.

BTW may be going kannur on 30th April.

[Jaggu]

Well guys got back without much fuss, had to goto Kuthuparambu for some personal work and from there i took Iritty, Kottiyoor, Manathavady, Sbattery, Mysore route.

Found out that first detour was taken at Edathotty (where i encountered the flooded road) and i joined back somewhere before Punnad. From Punnad second detour started and i landed at Sivapuram. Could recognize the fallen trees and made a quick note of these two Jn's.

Nithin somehow all the adrenalin rush numbed my logic and i completely forgot that i have your number on my phone! Anyways thanks a ton