The art of travelling between Bangalore - Mangalore/Udupi

[rajshenoy]

Originally Posted by Samurai

There is one road people should avoid like plague, trust me, I have driven this route 4 times since last one week. It's pure Hell. It is the stretch between B.C Road - Mangalore - Suratkal, and if you are coming at night, you will be blind like a bat with a damaged radar.

If you are coming in Shiradi, please avoid B.C road to Suratkal stretch at any cost, unless that is your destination. You can take following detours.

I have personally experienced it..total mess

Plz avoid BC Road -Suratkal stretch

I pity the poor souls who live in BCRoad -Mangalore( It was my home once upon a time)

[rajshenoy]

Any new updates on the road conditions ?

Any one tried roads other than the regular shiradi(mentioned above). if yes please recommend which is better


I really want to avoid BC Road-Mangalore-Suratkal stretch and shiradi ghat is nothing great either

so one option is to take NH48 till dharmastal and then turn towards belthangadi and reach udupi

or take diversion in hasan towards belur and then take roads as suggested above

Any one with latest update please post( i took NH48 last on 14th july) I felt the roads were ok except for the traffic between BC Road-mangalore-suratkal..total mess and timewaste

[nma83]

Hi People,

I am looking at a Bengalooru-Surathkal drive this weekend. From the above posts, it looks like going through Mangalore to Surathkal is not a good idea. Can anyone tell me how I can reach Surathkal through the Hassan-Belur route?

Thanks,
NMA

[deadguy25]

Hi team,

I took the Hassan-Sakleshpur-Dharmasthala-Ujjire-Karkala route to Udupi.

The ghat section, which I think is called Charmadi (the one after Sakelshpur) is in pretty bad shape. The authorities are replacing tar roads (which are almost non-existent at certain places) with concrete roads. It was raining kinda bad and traffic was pretty high. It was almost midnight when I reached the ghat section as I left Bangalore around 5pm.

I missed the turning to Dharmasthala, realised it after almost 10 Kms, so took a U-turn and came tearing up the ghat section and then found the deviation to Dharmasthala. Once we get into the Dharmasthala road, it is good but one has to be extremely careful at all the junctions. I took a left at the first junction instead of turning right and went ahead for 10-15 kms, stopped on a bridge which was half constructed. Had I gone a little furhter i would have nose dived 5 feet ! Again took a U-turn (got the car moving with a little difficulty as it started sinking in the sand) and found the correct way. The road is good all the way till Udupi.

Will pen a detailed write-up during the week.

Have a safe trip and thank you all very much,
deadguy25

[sushrutha]

Originally Posted by nma83

Hi People,

I am looking at a Bengalooru-Surathkal drive this weekend. From the above posts, it looks like going through Mangalore to Surathkal is not a good idea. Can anyone tell me how I can reach Surathkal through the Hassan-Belur route?

Thanks,
NMA

The best possible route for you would be
BLR-HASSAN-BELUR-MUDIGERE-KOTTIGEHAR-KALASA-KUDREMUKHA-
BAJAGOLI-KARKALA-MULKI-SURATHKAL

[balechaparka]

Yesterday returned back from Karkala to Bangalore via Shiradi ghat.Started 4Pm and reached 12.30 midnight.Bad news is that only concrete road is there and all tar road damaged fully.What a bad road construction.Government should ban such contractors for minimum 10 years from bidding.
I believe same old Shiradi story going to repeat this year also.

[Lukeskywalker]

Returned last evening from Theerthahalli.
Left for Manipal on 18th morning from bangalore. Took the following route:

Bangalore-Hassan-Belur-Mudigere-Charmady-Ujire-Belthangady-Karkala-Manipal
Total distance approx 440kms

Good roads between Bangalore-Hassan.
Excellent between Hassan-Belur
Good between Belur-Mudigere
Good scenic drive with hardly any traffice between Mudigere-Ujire via the chamady ghats.
Ujire-Karkala is good
Good between Karkala-Manipal.

Travelogues with pics are due.
Cheers.
Hari.

[rajshenoy]

Waiting for detailed travelogues

I felt shiradi(NH48) is much safer compared to charmadi(winding narrow roads?) may be i am wrong

So how do you people rate the charmadi ghat(it terms of curves, avg speed, steep angles etc.) i am sure the road quality is horrible in shiradi. so please explain other aspects

From my exp with shiradi, though the road is bad, the broad road made it much safer to negotiate the turns, also i felt number of curves were less and it was not that steep too

[Lukeskywalker]

So how do you people rate the charmadi ghat(it terms of curves, avg speed, steep angles etc.) i am sure the road quality is horrible in shiradi. so please explain other aspects

Charmadi ghat is narrower no doubt, but the lack of oncoming traffic makes it far more easier to drive through. even at Charmadi, some curves are in bad shape and the gradients are not too steep. In my drive through this stretch I don't remember having to move down to lower gears at all.

[nma83]

Originally Posted by sushrutha

The best possible route for you would be
BLR-HASSAN-BELUR-MUDIGERE-KOTTIGEHAR-KALASA-KUDREMUKHA-
BAJAGOLI-KARKALA-MULKI-SURATHKAL

@sushrutha: Thanks a lot for the information.
I have done Kudremukh via this route before. What are the road conditions from there to Surathkal? How much would be the time taken?

Thanks,
NMA

[condor]

guys, was there an accident on NH-48 after Sakleshpur ? Apparantly this accident is supposed to have affected fuel supplies to Bangalore.

p.s : if we are going to discuss fuel shortages, we have separate threads. Thanks.

[deadguy25]

The Shiradi ghats (I had named it as Charmadi by mistake in my earlier post) are wide enough with concrete stretches in between. Like LUKEYSKYWALKER mentioned, most of the places did not need up-shifting.

Would suggest a word of caution in the ghats, do not over speed as the car may slide a bit due to gravel/pebbles on the road. I did pretty good speed but the car held on to the road like she was in love with the road.

[deadguy25]

Originally Posted by condor

guys, was there an accident on NH-48 after Sakleshpur ? Apparantly this accident is supposed to have affected fuel supplies to Bangalore.

p.s : if we are going to discuss fuel shortages, we have separate threads. Thanks.

I travelled back from Udupi through Dharmasthala, Sakleshpur, and Hassan. I did notice considerable oil spill on the road but not sure if what I saw would have this much of an effect here.

[prabhusati]

I am planning to go to Mangalore in the first week of Aug 08.

If i take the charmadi route, which route (after i get down the charmadi ghat) is the ideal one to reach Mangalore?

[Lukeskywalker]

After Charmadi, you travel following the signboard to Dharmasthala till you reach Ujire. At Ujire continue straight towards Belthangady and onwards towards Mangalore.
I'm not sure about the road condition from Belthangady to Mangalore.