Quote:
Originally Posted by Bigzero Hi spiritofdriving, I hope you have done your trip by now; will be great if you can share your experiences as well; what route you eventually took, how did you find it, etc... |
Hello Bigzero,
Was busy catching up with work and friends after the two week holiday and it slipped off my mind. Apologies for that.
So I had the NH4 to Bangalore and then to Calicut route in my mind until a couple of days before my trip.
But before I started, I remembered that I had a a cousin who's in Lorry business and they do numerous Calicut Mumbai trips. Called him up and he found out from someone who went through the route a week ago that the Mangalore route has been patched and sorted all the way to Calicut - so while going, I took that route.
Pune to Calicut:
Pune - Dharwad (NH4). We missed the right turn from the actual place to connect to NH17 and only realised it after going ahead of it by about 11kms. we then proceeded to Dharwad and then on the SH to Yellapur - Gokarna and from there to Kollur - Mookambika on NH17. We stayed at Mookambika overnight.
So we started from Pune at about 05:20 AM, reached Dharwad by 13:30 and in Mookambika by 18:30 PM. about 730 or so Kms.
After darshan at night, slept early and started to Calicut by about 09:30AM - visited Bekal Fort and reached Calicut at 19:30. Dropped my friend at Pantheerankavu, and I returned to my place at Thamarassery - Odo was reading 1140 for the whole trip.
Needless to say, we took numerous breaks and major stoppings at Goa for lunch, at the forest in between NH4 and NH17 for some clicks, Murudeshwar temple, Mookambika, Kundapura, Thelicherry and Bekal Fort. Most of the driving was done by me.
Road Status:
Until Dharwad and the SH road that connects to NH17 through the forest is AWESOME. NH17 from Gokarna to Kundapura is also okay. There are no pot holes but since its patched up, road is very uneven and there is no divider here. so it is difficult to drive when compared to NH4 but not too bad I would say. Definitely doable.
After Kundapura, there is small patch, about 10kms where there are potholes and after that the four laning work is happening. So need to be very careful here because we get off the narrow old road to the new wider four lane road at multiple places. Road is fine.
After Mangalore too road is fine but traffic is bad and driving manners, the WORST Ive seen
. Especially after entering Kerala, driving gets to the worst and road is two lane. Ive seen people being adamant in not giving way etc. This patch was a very stressful drive also because of KSRTC's and Private buses who think they own both sides of the road and do not give way at all. Many a times I had to go off the tarmac to save my life and prevent scratches/dents on my car to give way to an oncoming Private/KSRTC bus on the wrong side.
So yes stressful and a bit dangerous too. I would avoid this road if I can.
Calicut to Pune:
We selected the Bangalore route to return because I was in Bangalore for 6 years and has numerous friends there to meet etc.
So started from Calicut at about 10:30 AM and reached Bangalore Hosur Road by 18:30. Again took a number of tender coconut eating, forest clicking and Coffee day breaks.
Idea was to reach Bangalore soon and sleep early and start to Pune by about 05:00 AM the next morning.
BUT... after having dinner with friends and meeting others, I only returned home by 02:00 AM the next day. so starting by 05:00AM is definitely not happening. I said, forget 05:00 AM since we had a day's buffer to reach Pune. so we were in no real hurry.
Woke up at 10:00 - got ready quickly, packed and went to car by 10:45 only to know my rear left tyre is punctured :(.
Then changed the tyre, went to a puncture shop, fixed the puncture and started from Bangalore only by 12:00! We had to cover 900 kms at that point!
Took about another hour and half to cross Bangalore city. Once we hit NH4, it was cool, barely any traffic and FANTASTIC road. We could constantly do 120kmph. After that, we just took 3 one hour breaks and decided to not to another stop over and reach Pune the same day. We reached Pune by 01:30 AM the next day. 13hours for 900 kms. I had done about 1430 kms I guess when I reached home. But this includes some 20-30 kms trips that I did in Bangalore.
Road Status:
FANTASTIC all the way from Calicut to Bangalore to Pune. Even the road through the forest is very good. Thamarassery Churam is almost fully done and there is only a small patch, altogether 1 km, that is uneven (no potholes at all).
So this route is the easiest to drive. stress free as most of it is with divider and the beauty of NH4 is that they have divider and have planted shrubs on the divider. so no blinding lights from oncoming traffic.
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An issue that we had was the number of Toll stations on NH4. Tolls were VERY expensive too ranging from 15 to 115 at numerous places. so we need to be strategic about entering the toll station.
Point to Note at Toll Stations:
It is wise to get into the lane with max number of Buses /Lorries. Although their Queue seems longer, number of vehicles will be less and the queue clears up faster because they are almost always ready with the exact change etc.
Lanes with max small cars etc will take a lot of time as they are mostly unaware of the toll booth and will take a hell lot of time to search for coins/change etc thereby losing time. This is an issue only because of the number of toll stations. so the time we lose add up. In a bad lane, we could lose upto 20-30 mins.
Fuel Efficiency:
My Fiesta 1.6 gave me 15pl on highway with AC on all the time.
any questions?