Bangalore – Coimbatore - Bangalore. The road less traveled. 1. Bangalore to Coimbatore
Route:Bangalore-Hosur-Palacode-Thoppur-Mettur-Bhavani-Coimbatore
Recommendation: Thoppur-Mettur-Bhavani sector is pretty good.
Distance ~320 km
Start: 22nd Dec 1:30 PM Duration: 7.5 hours
Tired with the heavy traffic and construction going on in the NH47 route to Coimbatore via Salem, we decided to take feeder routes and avoid as much of the NH as we could.
Bangalore-Hosur was still NH47. Immediately after the first bridge in Hosur, turned right (there is an IOC petrol bunk at the turning) and took the road through Rayakottai and Palacode. The road used to be good a few months back, but now there are a few rough patches. This route bypassed Krishnagiri and we got back to the NH just after Dharmapuri.
Around 20 kms later, at Thoppur, turned right towards Mettur. There is road work going on and this 20 km on NH47 took us more than an hour!
Road to Mettur was very good. At Mettur turned left towards Bhavani/Erode to avoid going onto the small ghat section that is there. Mettur-Bhavani road was also pretty neat. Again rejoined NH47 at Bhavani and continued straight onto Coimbatore. This was around 90 km and the traffic until Avinashi was pretty heavy with the 4 laning work going on.
2. Coimbatore to Bangalore
Route: Coimbatore – Sathyamangalam – Kollegal – Malavalli – Kanakapura - Bangalore
Recommendation: Not for the faint hearted. At your own risk.
Distance ~320 km
Start: 27th Dec 1:30 PM Duration: 8 hours
Not happy with the onward journey, decided to take a different route back. This was the Coimbatore-Sathyamangalam-Chamarajanagar-Malavalli-Kanakapura-Bangalore. Coimbatore Sathy road was fabulous and so was climb up the ghats. At the top of the ghats (Dhimbam, I think) someone suggested going via Kollegal instead of Chamrajanagar.
There’s a turning 4km from there towards Kollegal, and we just took it for kicks. The road was amazing. Narrow, winding and the dense bushes almost falling onto you. It was a great decision. Until, of course we came to the state border. The police guy stationed demanded a Rs.10 ‘border charge’ and when asked about the roads ahead just said – ‘kachada’ (garbage). And that one word completely describes what roads we faced next. The road was riddled with potholes and it was quite a job to stay in 4th gear and avoid the potholes.
However, the scenic beauty was so good that these potholes somehow seemed trivial. So until Lokanahalli we went along, with all the cattle, goat and sheep that came our way. Not surprisingly, we hardly saw any vehicles on this route. It was our first-hand experience of traveling through rural Karanataka. After Lokanahalli roads got better but were stacked with hay for kilometers. My car carried a good part of this hay to Bangalore. There was also a place where we had to cross a stream on this State Highway!
Kollegal-Malavalli was pretty decent compared to what we had been through and we sped on and joined NH209 at Malavalli. Then came the Malavalli-Kanakapura stretch, which is the worst road I’ve ever seen. My friend however disagrees. He says there was no road and we were all just driving over mounds of earth through layers of dust. Fact is, no matter what the scenic beauty we had seen earlier, nothing is worth driving the Malavalli-Kanakapura sector. I still can’t believe that it’s a NH. Every nut, bolt and bone ached for a road!
Finally, near the Muthathi turning, the road got better and the last 50 odd kilometers to Bangalore were done in a dazed silence in about an hour’s time.
To sum it up, it was a very picturesque drive, but the roads were just not worth it. It is the road less traveled and we just found out why. |