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-   -   Bangalore - Wayanad: Route & Accommodation (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/route-travel-queries/102166-bangalore-wayanad-route-accommodation-16.html)

Guys need some serious suggestions, will be leaving Bangalore in about 7 hours for wayanad, vythiri. My dad wants to avoid Bangalore mysore road due to tippu protests and whatnot, can anybody confirm? We're almost set on taking the kanakpura route but still not sure.

Guys, any help at all?

As per a post by bhpian SunnyBoi in the Bangalore-Mysore-Ooty thread, there are some celebrations planned in Mysore which can potentially lead to some protests. So maybe advisable to avoid Mysore and go via kanakpura-kollegal-chamrajnagar-gundlepet-bathery. It will anyway be slightly faster and road conditions are also mostly good.

Mate, Go via Kanakapura, Kollegal, Chamarajanagar, Gundlupet, Sulthan Bathery to Wayanad. You can break for lunch at Hotel Nijaguna Residency in Chamarajanagar.
This place is on the road leading to Coimbatore.

Fellow BHPians:

I'll be traveling to Thirunelly on the 27th starting around 5-6am. What would be the best route you reckon- was thinking of taking standard Blore-Mysore-Hunsur-Kutta route.

My earlier trips were to the standard Kalpetta/Sulthan Bathery part of Wayanad and hence have never tried this route.

I hope the agitations are subsided now. Anything else I should be aware of?

The Mysore-Handpost-Bavali-Kattikulam-Thirunelly route should be of approximately similar distance and the road condition is great. In fact, the forest route via Antharasanthe-Bavali in my opinion is in far better condition than Nagarhole-Kutta.

Thanks! This is the regular Kabini route, if I've got it right? So this is better in terms of road conditions, but do you reckon the wildlife sighting will be better than the nagarhole route?

In my experience wild life sighting probability is much better on the Hunsur-Nagarahole-Kutta route, but the road condition isn't all that great. The Kabini route passes through the southern periphery of the sanctuary and the forest stretch is only about 10-15 kms (compared to about 40-45 kms on the route via Nagarahole).

I have come across elephants and deer on the Kabini route as well, but not every time. The site where I've seen them most is on the side of a small stream/river that you cross just after a forest check post about 5-6 kms after you enter the forest when going from Mysore towards Bavali. The bridge comes right after you pass the checkpost barrier - look out to the bank of the stream towards your left side, you should generally see a few animals there.

Note that roads on both these routes that pass through the Nagarahole sanctuary are much narrower than the forest roads on the Gundlupet-Bathery route. So you generally wouldn't want a tusker to be standing on the road or close to it when you're passing by - the space available to pass them would be quite small, and you might end up waiting for quite a while before they move away.

Yes, it is the regular Kabini route. If you can time your arrival at the national park entrance early (before 6:30 AM), then you can take the Karnataka Forest Department's safari. I took this sometime back and was rewarded with a tiger sighting, among others. They take you deep into the forest on SML buses.

The safari starts and ends at the Forest Department office that comes on the left soon after you cross the arch across the road announcing "Rajiv Gandhi National Park". Parking space is available.

Folks, I am planning another trip to Wayanad (in quick succession, just 3 months apart), but will be taking a Zoomcar scorpio. I believe that I'd have to stop to pay entry-tax, just after crossing into Kerala. Usually there is a huge queue of trucks, tempos waiting to pay commercial tax. Is the entry-tax paid at the same place ? Is there a special counter for 4-wheelers or does one have to queue up behind the truckers ?

Commercial taxes and RTO are different departments; the former deals with sales tax/VAT and the latter with entry tax. Trucks and cabs that frequently cross interstate borders have their entry taxes paid upfront for a year at least. RTO checkposts aren't usually very crowded.

Typically inter-state borders have checkposts operated by commercial tax, RTO, excise and sometimes forest departments. The last two flag down vehicles for checking; there is no obligation to stop if you aren't (or unless you have stuff to declare to these officials - booze, for example).

Some borders have single-window clearance system (Attibele?) but Bavali/Muthanga etc. don't.

Are RTO checkposts usually clearly marked ? Will they flag down yellow-board vehicles (that way I won't miss) ?

I was having a discussion with someone who is in to self drive business over last weekend. As per him KL RTO tax payment is now made online. You need to pay the amount for duration of your trip and carry the document with you.

Any chance you could find out the URL / procedure ? I search around, and found this URL https://smartweb.keralamvd.gov.in/km.../epayretry.php for making various online payments to MVD, but it did not have an option for the entry tax. Here's the Kerala MVD page for e-payments http://keralamvd.gov.in/index.php/e-payment

Any idea what is this type of tax called ?

Sorry, I am not able to find the site. Even in the link mentioned by you, I guess there is no mention about the same.

I guess you can check with Zoom car customer care, they would be aware of the same.