The art of travelling between Bangalore - Mangalore/Udupi

[akroy]

Hi,
I would be travelling to Kundapur via Mangalore (NH48). I have travelled to Mangalore in Jan but the road was good throughout except for a few kms stretch in shiradi ghat. Some queries:

1) Has anyone gone there recently? Any idea how is the ghat road now? good, better, worse? How much time it will take to cross that 10-12km stretch after sakleshpur.
2) Also we plan to return through NH206, pls let me know any good petrol pump on NH17 some where between Udupi and Honnavar? Any Reliance pumps....
3) Planning to have lunch in Mangalore. Any good place to lunch? I heard abt Hotel Taj Mahal from a friend...so far plan is to lunch there, is there any other place u suggest?

Abhi

[shravan316]

Well, about the shiradi ghats, the roads at the moment are in pathetic state. Very high possibilities of blocks on the ghat stretch, coz of trucks turning turtle etc. It can take anywhere between half an hour to 5-6 hours to clear the 10-15 kms of road which are in terrible state. It all depends on whether the ghats are blocked or not.


Alternate route will be going through Mysore. Or through Hassan-Belur-Charmadi ghats.


About the food and fuel, i'm not very sure, someother BHPians will be able to guide you better.

[angelfire]

Originally Posted by akroy

Hi,
I would be travelling to Kundapur via Mangalore (NH48). I have travelled to Mangalore in Jan but the road was good throughout except for a few kms stretch in shiradi ghat. Some queries:

1) Has anyone gone there recently? Any idea how is the ghat road now? good, better, worse? How much time it will take to cross that 10-12km stretch after sakleshpur.
2) Also we plan to return through NH206, pls let me know any good petrol pump on NH17 some where between Udupi and Honnavar? Any Reliance pumps....
3) Planning to have lunch in Mangalore. Any good place to lunch? I heard abt Hotel Taj Mahal from a friend...so far plan is to lunch there, is there any other place u suggest?

Abhi

I just drove from bang few days back...nd trust me....the roads are really bad ..it took us three hours to cover the ghats...i would advise you NOT to travel durin the nights and if possilbe..take the mysore route...but there the roads after madikeri are in a bad shape..but atleast there isnt much congestion...so mangeable....
Food out here in mang...
you enter the city and you`l find a number of places offerin great food...
If youre lookin for great sea food..then there is
The Maharaja,
Abhiman Residency,
The Village,
the above restrants offer great moghlai nd chinese food too

For Veg food there is
Janata delux
Punjabhi Dhaba
Naivedhy

[angelfire]

You`l get a reliance pump few kms before kundapur....Fill up there..

[Jay]

Had been to Kollur via Shimoga... Roads are pretty good in this route, returned via Karkala, Dharmasthala through Sakleshpur ghats.... Roads are pathetic or should i say there was no road at all at certain places and it took us 2 hours to reach Sakleshpur from Dharmasthala where as it took us 6 hours to reach Kollur ( 400+ kms ) through Shimoga from here... went in an innova and at some places in the Sakleshpur ghats the underbody scraped the road/stones...
Suggest you to avoid the Mangalore highway... its in a pathetic Condition.... The Hassan route is in much better condition...

[Samurai]

I think akroy is already on the roads, he may not see these messages.

and it took us 2 hours to reach Sakleshpur from Dharmasthala where as it took us 6 hours to reach Kollur ( 400+ kms ) through Shimoga from here...

Are you sure about these times, because it doesn't match with what I remember.

What is distance between Dharmasthala and Sakleshpura, I think it is around 100 Kms, isn't 2 hour normal even with good conditions considering there is ghat section?

Bangalore to Kollur via Shimoga, that is via very narrow Agumbe ghats, how could you do it in 6 hours?

[superavi]

My cousin and a friend came back from Mangalore last night. The roads from Mangalore to near Sakleshpur is pathetic, and they had them swearing and ranting.

Apparently the rains coupled with heavy vehicle traffic has put paid to what were called roads in that area.

Superavi

[Steeroid]

Originally Posted by Samurai

Bangalore to Kollur via Shimoga, that is via very narrow Agumbe ghats, how could you do it in 6 hours?

I second that observation - the roads are usually pretty bad too. Not to speak of naxalites and some very slow jeeps that tend to slow you down.

[Lukeskywalker]

[CODE]Hi,
I would be travelling to Kundapur via Mangalore (NH48). I have travelled to Mangalore in Jan but the road was good throughout except for a few kms stretch in shiradi ghat.[/CODE]

If you are ctravelling to Kundapur, I suggest you take the longer but much faster route via Honnavar, I just got back from there and the road is amazing till honnavar but for a small stretch near Bhadravati, this might increase the distance but i'm sure your fuel consumption would be almost the same, as you don't have to keep downshifting, but the scenery will make the extra distance worth it.

[Jay]

Originally Posted by Samurai

Are you sure about these times, because it doesn't match with what I remember.

What is distance between Dharmasthala and Sakleshpura, I think it is around 100 Kms, isn't 2 hour normal even with good conditions considering there is ghat section?

Bangalore to Kollur via Shimoga, that is via very narrow Agumbe ghats, how could you do it in 6 hours?

Does'nt match with what you remember ??? did'nt get that point....

Dharmasthala to Sakleshpur is about 80 kms and the road from Dharmasthala to the point where it joins the Mangalore highway upto the start of the Ghats is in a very good condition... 4:45pm we left Dharmasthala and 7pm we reached Sakleshpur... the last 20-30 kms of this stretch took me more than an hour...

About Bangalore to Kollur... 4pm in Peenya, 10pm in Kollur....
yup the ghats were narrow, but then the road from bangalore to Hosanagara ( from where the ghats start ) was not narrow and was in good condition with less traffic... and we had to reach kollur by 10pm and so we did...

This journey was done in an Innova with 5 people including me...

[Samurai]

Originally Posted by Jay

Does'nt match with what you remember ??? did'nt get that point....

Dharmasthala to Sakleshpur is about 80 kms and the road from Dharmasthala to the point where it joins the Mangalore highway upto the start of the Ghats is in a very good condition... 4:45pm we left Dharmasthala and 7pm we reached Sakleshpur... the last 20-30 kms of this stretch took me more than an hour...

80Kms in 2 hours in the ghats is not really bad during monsoon.

Originally Posted by Jay

About Bangalore to Kollur... 4pm in Peenya, 10pm in Kollur....
yup the ghats were narrow, but then the road from bangalore to Hosanagara ( from where the ghats start ) was not narrow and was in good condition with less traffic... and we had to reach kollur by 10pm and so we did...

Ah Peenya! I usually take couple of hours to reach Peenya, that explains a lot. Still I think you made extremely good time.

[Jay]

Originally Posted by Samurai

80Kms in 2 hours in the ghats is not really bad during monsoon.

Ah Peenya! I usually take couple of hours to reach Peenya, that explains a lot. Still I think you made extremely good time.

Actually i would agree with you on this Samurai that 80 kms in 2 hours is pretty good in the ghats..... but like i said only the last 20-30 kms was pathetic, the rest of the road was good... so you can imagine how bad that stretch of the road could be ( took me more than an hour )... and i said 2 hours was a long time as i was comparing it with the time i took to reach Kollur...

well while going to Kollur, i left home at 3:30 and reached Peenya by 4pm... after that there was traffic jam for about 20 mins.... rest of the journey was almost non-stop...

[akroy]

I am back from the trip. Got to read all messages after return as samurai righly pointed out.
Samurai, i am very sorry that i couldnt give u a call as i wrote ur cell number in office put it in my pocket (generally i put it in purse or directly into cell phone) as i was in a hurry. Finally when i realized that i didnt take ur number, i was well past kunigal...
rest information in my travelogue...which is on the way by tonight or tomorrow....

Abhi

[Samurai]

A correction, I think I made the wrong assumption and you didn't correct me.

I think you took the Balebare ghat and not the Agumbe ghat, that explains why you made it that fast. Am I right?

[shravan316]

Ok, update on Bangalore-Mangalore highway. Ghat section=TERRIBLE. I was stuck on the ghats for 6 hours. No movement what so ever. It took me 13 hours from mangalore to bangalore in a Volvo!
The Volvos get through the ghats scraping their underbody at many places.