The art of travelling between Bangalore - Mangalore/Udupi

[sushrutha]

Originally Posted by manojgautham

Thanks for your advice, I plan to leave around 3am, Is the traffic bad at that time? I am used to driving at night however I was concerned about the road condition.

You shouldn't have any issues when you start at that time, but you may face some traffic of busses, (busses starting at night from MLR, UDUPI, KUNDPR,Etc)

Originally Posted by marlinspike

From Dharmasthala which is the easiest route to reach Kalasa/Horanadu.

2 Possible routes
1. Dharmasthala-Ujire-Guruvayankere-Naravi-Bajagoli-Kudremukha-Kalasa/Hornadu
2. Dharmasthala-Ujire-Kottigehara-Javali-Kalasa/Hornadu
I would suggest the first route

[lohithrao]

Sushrutha its better he takes NH48 and later NH17, the route 1 will take longer...

IF he starts by 3Am he should be in Hassan by 6-6:30 ..so this time onwards it would easy to go through Shiradi..

So he should be easily in Mangalore by 9 - 9:30

My thoughts

[pshyamsundar]

Help reqd:

I have to visit three temples, sringeri, hornadu & udupi. I have two days friday and sat. My accommodation is fixed at chikmagalur, since i could not get accommodation at udupi.

What is the best route plan? My place of origin is "Bangalore"

Should I do Blore - Chikmagalur - Sringeri - Chikmagalur on friday &

Do Chikmagalur - hornadu - udupi - Chiknagalur on Sat

Or should it be vice versa.

Many thanks in advance.

[prabhusati]

I had been to Mangalore last week end. On the return journey, KSRTC Volvo came via Shiradi Ghats. Patch work has been done and the bus reached Bangalore (Goragunte Palya) at 5.00 am. Was at home by 5.40am. So, people wanting to travel to Mangalore, Shiradi is the shortest route with decent road conditions.

[addyhemmige]

Originally Posted by pshyamsundar

Help reqd:

I have to visit three temples, sringeri, hornadu & udupi. I have two days friday and sat. My accommodation is fixed at chikmagalur, since i could not get accommodation at udupi.

What is the best route plan? My place of origin is "Bangalore"

Should I do Blore - Chikmagalur - Sringeri - Chikmagalur on friday &

Do Chikmagalur - hornadu - udupi - Chiknagalur on Sat

Or should it be vice versa.

Many thanks in advance.

The itinerary you have planned is very complicated. If you could have taken accomodation at Udupi/Manipal, it would have been easier.

Day1:
Chikmagalur to Sringeri is nearly 90kms (via Aldur, Balehonnur). If you can leave Bangalore early in the morning (say 5 am), and reach Chikmagalur by at least 10 (including breakfast time), you can reach Sringeri by 12.30 pm. You can finish the darshan, have lunch at the temple and leave for Hornadu the same day (unless you have special pooja plans). Hornadu is around 60 kms from Sringeri and should take you max 2.5 hrs (single road). I'm not sure about the temple timings in Hornadu, but if you reach Hornadu by 5, it is about 2 to 2.5 hr drive to Chikmagalur.

You can take Chikmagalur-Aldur-Balehonnur-Jayapura-Sringeri-Hornadu-Kalasa-Balur-Kottigehara-Mudigere-Chikmagalur (Both roads have adequate signposts)
OR
Chikmagalur-Kottigehara-Kalasa-Hornadu-Sringeri-Jayapura-Balehonnur-Aldur-Chikmagalur

Day2: Leave Chikmagalur leisurely (by 9-9.30 am) reach Udupi by 1-1.30, visit temple, have lunch and start back to Bangalore.

There are 2 routes: Ckm-Kottigehara-Kalasa-Kudremukh-Karkala-Manipal-Udupi. Roads are good upto Balur after kottigehara. After Balur till Kalasa, the road is very rough. After kalasa, good roads till Manipal.
Ckm-Balehonnur-Sringeri-Agumbe-Hebri-Manipal-Udupi. This route has good roads all the way till Manipal.

btw, where are you planning to stay in Chikmagalur?

Does anybody know if Charmadi ghat is open? I passed through Shiradi day before yesterday and did not see any diverted buses on this route.

Sorry if I posted this late.

Cheers!!!

[bkishore_77]

Hi ,

I had been to Mangalore on 29th and returned y'day. i.e 3rd May. I started at around 5:15 PM from Concorde motors, Mysore road after filling the coolant and getting a quick general check up done for my Safari.

The unfortunate part was i was fined 300 Rs for exceeding the speed limit of 50 KMPH. I was doin 63 KMPH. These people were standing just 300 mts from before the Kengeri signal. I also observed that the police were not very strict in stopping the vehicles. They just waved nochalantly and if any vehicle stopped then it's good for them. Coz i saw many vehicles speeding well beyond 50 KMPH speed limit which is really absurd for this stretch. The irony was, I was just talking to my wife couple of mins earlier about these interceptors which other BHPians had warned in this forum .

Now to good news. I took the Mysore-road- Nice Rd- Magadi- Kunigal - Shiradi-BC road - M'lore- Suratkal. The Shiradi road has returned to its old glory. . I reached Suratkal at 11:45 PM with 30 mins break at Kamath Upachar. Except for 3-4 Kms of uneven (no pot holes though) stretch near Gundya, the rest of the road is super smooth. The other 1 Km of bad road was after Tavarekere on the way to Magadi where they are already laying a new road. So the whole 377 Kms from home -to-home is good.

One interesting thing I observed is, none of the heavy vehicles lowered their headlight beam even if u switch on to low beam but the smaller vehicles always did. I'm used to night driving for the last decade and half but somhow I felt a very high percentage of vehicles did not dim the light this time.

While returning I took the same route back. There was heavy traffic from Bellur to Kunigal and after that. It was like a big caravan. Overtaking was challenging affair. Still there were some people doing some crazy overtaking maneuver. I'm glad that I took a deviation to Magadi after Kunigal instead of going to Nelamangala. There were hardly any traffic in this stretch.
Thanks to BHPians who shared the details of this route.

Regards

[lohithrao]

Kishore great news, so guess all the repair work on Shiradi is over?

On the traffic have noticed if you are travelling back on sunday that is after a long break then you will have a bad time from hassan onwards. experienced many times...

Originally Posted by bkishore_77

Hi ,

I had been to Mangalore on 29th and returned y'day. i.e 3rd May. I started at around 5:15 PM from Concorde motors, Mysore road after filling the coolant and getting a quick general check up done for my Safari.

The unfortunate part was i was fined 300 Rs for exceeding the speed limit of 50 KMPH. I was doin 63 KMPH. These people were standing just 300 mts from before the Kengeri signal. I also observed that the police were not very strict in stopping the vehicles. They just waved nochalantly and if any vehicle stopped then it's good for them. Coz i saw many vehicles speeding well beyond 50 KMPH speed limit which is really absurd for this stretch. The irony was, I was just talking to my wife couple of mins earlier about these interceptors which other BHPians had warned in this forum .

Now to good news. I took the Mysore-road- Nice Rd- Magadi- Kunigal - Shiradi-BC road - M'lore- Suratkal. The Shiradi road has returned to its old glory. . I reached Suratkal at 11:45 PM with 30 mins break at Kamath Upachar. Except for 3-4 Kms of uneven (no pot holes though) stretch near Gundya, the rest of the road is super smooth. The other 1 Km of bad road was after Tavarekere on the way to Magadi where they are already laying a new road. So the whole 377 Kms from home -to-home is good.

One interesting thing I observed is, none of the heavy vehicles lowered their headlight beam even if u switch on to low beam but the smaller vehicles always did. I'm used to night driving for the last decade and half but somhow I felt a very high percentage of vehicles did not dim the light this time.

While returning I took the same route back. There was heavy traffic from Bellur to Kunigal and after that. It was like a big caravan. Overtaking was challenging affair. Still there were some people doing some crazy overtaking maneuver. I'm glad that I took a deviation to Magadi after Kunigal instead of going to Nelamangala. There were hardly any traffic in this stretch.
Thanks to BHPians who shared the details of this route.

Regards

[bkishore_77]

Originally Posted by lohithrao

Kishore great news, so guess all the repair work on Shiradi is over?

Hi Lohith
Yes. I saw the heavy construction vehicles still parked but there were no activities though. I hope it weathers the rainy season this time.

Originally Posted by lohithrao

On the traffic have noticed if you are travelling back on sunday that is after a long break then you will have a bad time from hassan onwards. experienced many times...

I bet this is the reason. That is a unusually heavy traffic in this stretch. The disappointing fact is the stretch from BC road to M'ore. Though not pot-holed, I expected it to be four laned at least 90% of the stretch from the last time I visited couple of months back. Alas it is only 50% complete and the work is going on in a snail's pace.

There is no proper direction or marking and most of the time even though it is 4 laned, only two lane are operational and they have placed boulders at the end of the non-operational two lane

But Lohith, Anything is better than the 2006-07 nightmare. what Say ?

[pshyamsundar]

addyhemmige - thanks for your detailed itinerary. But I had to skip udupi this time. I went to sringeri and horanadu and returned back to bangalore.

I went to sringeri on friday and horanadu on saturday.

Update on road condition.

Bangalore - Nelamangla (the most horrible part)
all the way good until chikmagalur
chikmagalur- sringeri - very good

chikmagalur - horanadu road is good only until balehonur

Balehonnur - horandau (road is bad and sometimes worse)

Kalasa - kothigehara road is not good (took 2 hrs for 55 kms)

Nobody drives on low beam these days. All the opposite vehicles came in high beam and so was I.

these days people hardly have driving sense. they do not give way to upcoming vehicles on hills. People climbing down come too fast and they do not stay on the left.

If I was not anticipatory I would have been hit by cars at atleast three places. May god bless those great drivers.

[addyhemmige]

Originally Posted by pshyamsundar

addyhemmige - thanks for your detailed itinerary. But I had to skip udupi this time. I went to sringeri and horanadu and returned back to bangalore.

I went to sringeri on friday and horanadu on saturday.

Update on road condition.

Bangalore - Nelamangla (the most horrible part)
all the way good until chikmagalur
chikmagalur- sringeri - very good

chikmagalur - horanadu road is good only until balehonur

Balehonnur - horandau (road is bad and sometimes worse)

Kalasa - kothigehara road is not good (took 2 hrs for 55 kms)

Anytime PSS!!!

Even I had been to Karkala this weekend & i took this route to get there. Hassan-belur-Mudigere-Kottigehara-Kalasa-Kudremukh-Bajagoli-Karkala. It seems roads are decent after getting down from the ghats (kalasa to Karkala was also good). In fact, the road from Kukke Subramanya runs parallel to the coast and the ghats. This road runs all the way to Kollur along this route. Kukke-Gundya-Dharmasthala-Ujire-Belthangadi-karkala-Hebri-Shankarnarayana-Haladi-Vandse-Kollur. It is almost parallel to the ghats & runs just below it. This is well maintained although it is a single road.

I came back via Shiradi & was very relieved to see the completion of repairs, although temporary.

[marlinspike]

Originally Posted by bkishore_77

Hi ,
One interesting thing I observed is, none of the heavy vehicles lowered their headlight beam even if u switch on to low beam but the smaller vehicles always did. I'm used to night driving for the last decade and half but somhow I felt a very high percentage of vehicles did not dim the light this time.

While returning I took the same route back. There was heavy traffic from Bellur to Kunigal and after that. It was like a big caravan. Overtaking was challenging affair. Still there were some people doing some crazy overtaking maneuver. I'm glad that I took a deviation to Magadi after Kunigal instead of going to Nelamangala. There were hardly any traffic in this stretch.
Thanks to BHPians who shared the details of this route.

Regards

I went to mysore and stayed at Swaastya Ayurvedic retreat. Had to take a left after srirangapatna and 2 Kms of kutcha road. Discovered in the morning that there is a shorter better route through a village as I took turn when I was returning to the highway.

Day two went to Melkote and from there to shravan belakola. Felt the 650 step climb on a bare rock face under blazing sun was not worth it when I saw the statue was not much more than the one I had seen in Dharmastala.

But then the road from Melkote to Shravanbelakola is another story. Thats is a drifters dream come true kind of a road and its absolutly empty between 3-4 PM. Wish I was driving a mazda RX-7 instead of my Fiesta S. ABS does not seem to allow the tail to get out by much and I had my granma in the rear seat and coudn't really test the curves on the stretch but still had a fun ride.

The road from shravan belakola to pandavapura was not bad either but had one too many speed breakers closer to mysore -blr highway.

Check out @ 8:15 PM and 9:50 near rajarajeswari nagar arch and 10:30 at old madras road indiranagar 8- ft road junction.

Two days later Start to Mysore again stay @ swastya get complements for my choice of place to stay. @ 1200 per room not a bad deal. Play in the stream branching of cauvery, right next to the cottage before check out next morning and on to Kushalanagara- madikeri-sampaje- kallugundi - kuke.
Kuke- gundya - hasan-kunigal-neelamangala- outer ring road to Kasturi nagar.

kallugundi - kukke is a single road and low traffic and I was taking steep S bends @ 70, yes the Fiesta S carves corners so well and was planted to the road despite my antics.

Gundya to sakleshpur @ night was best avoided in hindsight, no the road is alright but the trucks are awful. no dipping the beams and @ one point I was staring at like 8 beams coming out of a corner of the road, figured thats three vehicles abreast inching and overtaking slowly. Had to get of the road and wait on the shoulder to let them pass. and I will not take the Hassan-Neelamangla road ever again @ night till they make it fully four lane.

That trucks and LCVS were worse in that stretch, was horrible as they dont dip their beams and you cant see which way the road ahead turns and which truck is parked on the road, they dont care if there is no shoulder to park, just about park in the middle of the road.

Stopped @ cofee day for half an hour to fix my nerves orient my eyes and reached blr like 7:30 in the morning. two days and the trip meter shows 823 Kms.

[lohithrao]

Yea Kishore, dont mind the road now

but whenever i travel on NH48 i feel real bad....it used to be so lush green and now its barren...

Other side once the 4 laning is completed and considering the that shiradi and BC road work is done...in this scenario Mangalore should be doable in 4-5 hours....

Originally Posted by bkishore_77

Hi Lohith
Yes. I saw the heavy construction vehicles still parked but there were no activities though. I hope it weathers the rainy season this time.



I bet this is the reason. That is a unusually heavy traffic in this stretch. The disappointing fact is the stretch from BC road to M'ore. Though not pot-holed, I expected it to be four laned at least 90% of the stretch from the last time I visited couple of months back. Alas it is only 50% complete and the work is going on in a snail's pace.

There is no proper direction or marking and most of the time even though it is 4 laned, only two lane are operational and they have placed boulders at the end of the non-operational two lane

But Lohith, Anything is better than the 2006-07 nightmare. what Say ?

[marlinspike]

Originally Posted by lohithrao

Yea Kishore, dont mind the road now
Other side once the 4 laning is completed and considering the that shiradi and BC road work is done...in this scenario Mangalore should be doable in 4-5 hours....

Can you expand BC road. Cant make out what it means.

[lohithrao]

marlin its "Bantwala Cross Road"

[ash_blore]

after the shiradi ghat section, how is the route to darmasthala-karkala-udupi? Is that stretch allright as well?