The art of travelling between Bangalore - Mangalore/Udupi

[Fauji]

Originally Posted by rohitm

I am planning a trip to a beach resort Sai Vishram, Byndoor which is about 20 KMS from Kundapura.



OPTION B (469 KMS) : Same as A however reach do NH4 until Chitradurga and then turn towards Shimoga

isnt much between the three routes in terms of distance.

Originally Posted by RaguHolla

How you reach Shimoga is up to you. Colleague who drove last week felt route via Chitradurga is better, fatser. But then again he drove in mid afternoon. If you driving early morning road will be empty.

I agree with Raghu. the best road to reach Shimoga today is via Chitradurga. You will do an extra 30 KMs but worth it.

[brownears]

Thanks a lot for the precise information roamingrao! It helped me a lot on my Bangalore-Mangalore trip last weekend. I have a few points to add.

• Leaving early from Bangalore to avoid city traffic is a good idea, but be prepared for fog (that is if you plan on driving down in the next few weeks) as you can see from the pic below. Avoid overtaking. Using fog lamps and hazard warning lights highly recommended in these conditions. It makes your vehicle visible.
• Like roamingrao pointed out, except for the stretch between Sakleshpur and Gundiya, the rest of the journey is a breeze.
• In the stretch mentioned above the roads are either bad or terrible with short decent stretches in between.
• Plan ahead for this stretch, and deal with it with utmost patience. Heavy vehicles still ply on these roads (read tankers, buses, etc). So make room for them, especially if they are going uphill. Avoid speeding on the good bits. The bad patched come up with absolutely no warning.
• If you are driving on such bad roads for the first time, try to tailgate (with a safe distance in between) another car to get a feel for selecting the 'right' path.
• Repair works are going on, but at a very slow pace.
• We drove in a Tata Indica Vista, and with careful driving, there were just 3 occasions (both ways) on which the rubber flap under the front bumper touched the 'road'.
• The toll collection had not started as of 20.12.2011 on the Nelamangala - Belur Cross toll road.
• The pics don't do any justice to how bad the roads actually were. Some craters were big enough to make SUV drivers sweat.
• Special thanks to my navigator 22 for these pics.

[brownears]

Sorry about that. Here are the pictures once again.

[mohan41]

Originally Posted by brownears

Leaving early from Bangalore to avoid city traffic is a good idea, but be prepared for fog (that is if you plan on driving down in the next few weeks) as you can see from the pic below. Avoid overtaking. Using fog lamps and hazard warning lights highly recommended in these conditions. It makes your vehicle visible.

Must be tough to drive with so much fog as visible in this picture. Upto what time in the morning does fog exist? And is it like this all the way (in the early morning time) or does it reduce after some distance from Bangalore?

[vnambiar]

Originally Posted by Fauji

I agree with Raghu. the best road to reach Shimoga today is via Chitradurga. You will do an extra 30 KMs but worth it.

what are the pitstop options as one between tumkur-chitradurga for breakfast/lunch

[brownears]

We left Bangalore around 5:30 am, and there was mild fog/mist almost all the way to Belur Cross. The picture was taken around 7:40 am somewhere between Belur Cross and Channarayapatna. The fog was heavy in bits and pieces along that stretch. In certain stretches visibility was much better, but you are absolutely right, it was not easy to drive. I had a hard time finding my way past the motorbike you see in the pic. I am honestly not sure at what time the fog might lift completely all through, but by around 8:00 am onwards the visibility was clear. Attaching one more picture for your reference.

Originally Posted by mohan41

Must be tough to drive with so much fog as visible in this picture. Upto what time in the morning does fog exist? And is it like this all the way (in the early morning time) or does it reduce after some distance from Bangalore?

[rohanjf]

I left home at 5 am and reached Nelamangala exit to NH 48 by 6.30 am. From there, reached Sakleshpur at 9 am. There was hardly any fog, so doing 80 to 100 kmph was easy. Saw an accident on Kunigal bypass where a Sumo had rear-ended a truck.

Started from Sakleshpur at 9.45 am after breakfast at Surabhi (but drank my own tea I got from home, as I don't like restaurants looting people over the most essential beverages). Reached Gundya at 11 am. That was quick.

The patchwork is in progress. It is being done in stages. First I saw a small group patching up small potholes. After a while, a bigger group closing the craters.

The patchwork is shoddy at best. The patched up sections are bumpy. I don't think they'll last even a month. Please tell me that it is only temporary until they start laying the road from scratch from next month :-(

I was driving my Palio MJD so carefully that all kinda vehicles were overtaking me. But it paid off for me. I got 22.6 kmpl!

Finally I reached my father's house in Mangalore city at 1 pm.

[Nikhil_blr]

Originally Posted by brownears

• Like roamingrao pointed out, except for the stretch between Sakleshpur and Gundiya, the rest of the journey is a breeze.
• In the stretch mentioned above the roads are either bad or terrible with short decent stretches in between.
• Plan ahead for this stretch, and deal with it with utmost patience. Heavy vehicles still ply on these roads (read tankers, buses, etc). So make room for them, especially if they are going uphill. Avoid speeding on the good bits. The bad patched come up with absolutely no warning.
• If you are driving on such bad roads for the first time, try to tailgate (with a safe distance in between) another car to get a feel for selecting the 'right' path.
• Repair works are going on, but at a very slow pace.
• We drove in a Tata Indica Vista, and with careful driving, there were just 3 occasions (both ways) on which the rubber flap under the front bumper touched the 'road'.
• The toll collection had not started as of 20.12.2011 on the Nelamangala - Belur Cross toll road.
• The pics don't do any justice to how bad the roads actually were. Some craters were big enough to make SUV drivers sweat.

Hi Brownears and RoamingRao,

Thanks to your advice, we reached Mangalore safely - on 23-Dec. We left Bangalore at 10:00 am (started counting from Shell Bannerghatta Road near NICE Road), and reached Melkar (diversion to go to Mangalore Univ) around 5:00 pm.

The hell started after Sakleshpur (exactly 252km from the Shell pump) and lasted till around 278km (around Gundya). The condition was exactly as you had mentioned. However, the really bad part was 10km (took more than an hour), then there was quite good road for another 10km, and then again very bad road for 5 km.

I was on an SX4 and drove very carefully, but still it scraped the bottom at one place. I saw many drivers drive much faster (Esteem, Innova, i10) without too many problems. The worst was not that there was no road, but that the road just broke away to form a mini-cliff (i.e. a drop of around 4-5") which was toughest to navigate.

After that (Gundya onwards), it was a breeze. Very very smooth road - better than a toll road, however it was a 2-lane with people overtaking sometimes on blind curves.

For the return trip, am planning to come back via Charmadi Ghat which is supposed to be in a better condition and is also very scenic.

[vinboy]

I returned from Udupi via Shiradi ghat section yesterday! The good news is that they are repairing the roads. As of yesterday they had patched up parts of the roads near Gundya and some sections in between! I felt they might do the entire ghats in the next couple of weeks.

[vnambiar]

Did 502kms bangalore-byndoor, route
bangalore-tumkur-chitradurga-channagiri-shimoga-sagara road-ripponpet-kollur-byndoor

started at 9am, road till chitradurga awesome (235kms) -4hrs, road till shimoga is smooth, 2 lane (370kms). coffee day and kamat upchar around tumkur. did not see any decent pit stops till chitradurga.


from shimoga 2 options via anandapuram or ripponpet to touch hosanagara. did ripponpet route-4hrs, patchy but jeep took it well. rippopet to kollur ghat road was bad (20kms of ghat).

11 hours

[kala]

Originally Posted by Nikhil_blr

For the return trip, am planning to come back via Charmadi Ghat which is supposed to be in a better condition and is also very scenic.

Are you sure ???

Going by reports seen here, I thought Charmadi was in no better shape ?

[rohitm]

Did Bangalore Byndoor Bangalore round trip starting on 24th Dec 11 and returned on 27th Dec 11.

Onward journey: Bangalore-Chitradurga-Shimoga-Sagara-Honnavar-Byndoor. Total distance of about 540 KMS door to door. Driving time of about 7 Hours and 15 mins. Stoppages of about 1 Hours and 45 Mins. Total time 9 hours. Of the 60 Kms stretch between Sagara and Honnavar about 30 odd Kms has broken roads. No bottom scraping even in Honda City rather a rattle inducing road. Else its good to super smooth roads throughout.

On return decided to get adventurous and took the Byndoor - Kundapura - Haladi - Agumbe - Sringeri - Chikmagalur - Bangalore route. Total distance about 480 Kms. Roads between Kundapura to almost Agumbe are bad. Bascially narrow curvy with lots of broken tarmac. For some its nausea inducing or others its plain tiring. Despite the route being nearly 60 Kms shorter took longer time. Some stretches especially around Agumbe and Sringeri are very scenic and beautiful. Driving time of about 8 Hours. Stoppages of about 2 hours. Total time 10 Hours.

[Rajesh K R]

@rohitm : You have mentioned that the road between Chitradurga and Shimoga to be a decent two laned road. How is the road condition? no potholes or craters? This is the NH-13 via Holalkere, Channagiri ?

If i want to drive on this road by my Wagon-R, it may take around 3 hrs from Chitradurga to Shimoga, right? So, BLR to Shimoga via Chitradurga will be around 7 hrs total. (BLR to CDG-4 hrs + CDG to SMG - 3 hrs).

One query pls :

What exactly is the condition of NH-206 from Tumkur to Shimoga as of today? Is is so bad that we need to think of alternatives?? Recent users of the NH 206 pls comment / suggest? I want to do BLR - Thirthahalli on my Wagon-R.

[vnambiar]

Originally Posted by rohitm

Did Bangalore Byndoor Bangalore round trip starting on 24th Dec 11 and returned on 27th Dec 11.

Onward journey: Bangalore-Chitradurga-Shimoga-Sagara-Honnavar-Byndoor. Total distance of about 540 KMS door to door. Driving time of about 7 Hours and 15 mins. Stoppages of about 1 Hours and 45 Mins. Total time 9 hours. Of the 60 Kms stretch between Sagara and Honnavar about 30 odd Kms has broken roads. No bottom scraping even in Honda City rather a rattle inducing road. Else its good to super smooth roads throughout.
.

I did similar route, except turned before sagara into kollur and then byndoor -500kms. time taken was 10.5hrs. you must have been pretty fast to have done 9hrs ~80kms/hr.

[rohitm]

Originally Posted by vnambiar

you must have been pretty fast to have done 9hrs ~80kms/hr.

Home (near Meenakshi temple Bannerghatta Road) --> Chirtradurga is via NICE Rd, Nelamangala Toll Road and NH4 a total of 218 KMS of super fast roads.

Chitradurga --> Sagara again fairly fast state highway. 178 KMS of good road except for inevitable slowing down in Shimoga town.

Note: some of the text below is courtesy my friends post on another site. This friend was driving a car which was part of the convey in which i also travelled.

Sagara to Honavar --> of the 90 Kms, the first 30 Kms to Jog is fine. from Jog to Honavar of the 60-odd KMS, the first 20-25 kms (Gersoppa Ghat) is in bad condition. The surface is not smooth and there are few stretches with pot-holes. My friends Honda city was able to do this comfortably by maintaining 30-40 kms/hour and sometimes slowing down to a crawl to negotiate pot holes. My Laura was able to manage this section even better. Advantage, very less traffic so you can easily move onto the oncoming lane for avoiding bad roads. Once the ghat section is cleared, it's a smooth ride until Honnavar (state highway 2-lane with no median)

Honavar --> Byndoor : This is a national highway in excellent condition (2 lane , no medians). However, one BIG annoyance (for the first 15-20 kms on this stretch from Honavar) is the road works. Strangely there are patches where they've dug up (presumably for repairs, but didn't see any work going on). This forces you to crawl down. So you pick speed and then realize that you need to slow down to a crawl. However, within no time this stretch is crossed and the road gets fantastic again.

So you see ~80 Kms/hour is easily maintainable. I think with some more planning (sandwiches in car ) the total time can further be slashed by about 1 hours.