[Bigzero]

Originally Posted by spiritofdriving

Hello BigZero,
Hope am not bugging you by now - whenever you get time, please update the exact route you took, timings, break locations and an update on general condition of the road.

Since am planning for Jan end Pune to Calicut trip - I am VERY eagerly waiting for this.

Terribly sorry I couldn't come back earlier on this! I did make it to Mysore, and froom then on to Kerala next day, and since then I have been on the road, visitiing relatives - leaving me no time to give an update on this!!


OK, here is the udpate:


I left Pune at around 4.20 am and reached Hiriyur at around 2.45 pm, after a 45 min breakfast break ( at Sai International before Kolhapur ) and a 1 hour lunch break (at Genesis resort on Davanagere BP ).



From Hiriyur, I took a right turn under the flyover through Hiriyur town - from then on, the roads are undivided two-lane, and the surface quality was much better than I thought. There were some iffy sections, but very few and far between, and never too bad. The bad stretch at Chikkanayakanahalli has been patched up.



Signages are ok, and you get distances and directions to Srirangapatana/Mysore immediately after Hiriyur, and you can pretty much reach Srirangapatana without having to ask for directions. We passed through Huliyar, Chikkanayakanahalli, Turvekere, Nelligere( here it crosses the Bangalore-Mangalore highway ) , Melkote, Pandavapura ( level cross here ) before you touch the Bangalore-Mysore highway just before Srirangapatana. We could maintain steady speeds of 80 kph and 100 occasionally.


Lovely country roads, quite a nice break from the boring NH4( after 600+kms it does get a bit monotonous :-) ) . I will update a few pics shortly.


Reached Mysore at around 18.15. Overall quite a nice, pleasant drive from Hiriyur, with some small towns in between which you need to negotiate.


This option gets a thumbs up from me!

[Bigzero]

Here are some random pictures of the Hiriyur-Srirangapatana stretch.

[ampere]

Originally Posted by Bigzero

Here are some random pictures of the Hiriyur-Srirangapatana stretch.

I was aware that Pandavpura-Nelligere road is very good.
The unknowns were:
- Nelligere-Chikkanayakanahalli-Huliyar
- Huliyar-Hiriyur.
This update really helps. Thanks.

Few Questions:
- Apart from driving on country roads, did you feel you could save time?
- Where do you cross NH206? I checked in Google. There is no proper town or village.
I see in GM that its called KB cross.

[Bigzero]

Originally Posted by ampere

I was aware that Pandavpura-Nelligere road is very good.
The unknowns were:
- Nelligere-Chikkanayakanahalli-Huliyar
- Huliyar-Hiriyur.
This update really helps. Thanks.

Few Questions:
- Apart from driving on country roads, did you feel you could save time?
- Where do you cross NH206? I checked in Google. There is no proper town or village.
I see in GM that its called KB cross.

- Save time, definitely yes. I reached Mysore in around 3 hours 30 min from Hiriyur. i think I saved at least 60-75 minutes. - especially considering that the Blr-Mysore stretch had heavy traffic when I got on to it. I think overall its 70 km additional run if you go via Bangalore(NICE road ) and Mysore road.

- I forgot the exact name of the place - could be KB cross. the signages are quite clear there , and If I remember correctly there is a pillar or something in the center of the crossing.

[alto99]

I had been on the same in opposite directions (Mysore-Srirangapatana-Hirriyur) last month while returning from Kerala in ~ 4hrs and overall road is good with very few bad patches. But speed breakers are of KA standard - huge - only road where my car scraped on speedbreakers.
Bigzero In frist post you said you reached hiriyur at 2.45 and Mysore at 1815 i.e in 5.3 hrs but in second one you say you took 3h 30m for the same. 2hrs of breaks?

There is a town/village named KB cross. But there is a (good) road to bypass the town. I had missed it and entered the town. From Mysore to Hiriyur, take a right at a junction few hundred meters before NH206 to bypass it.

[Bigzero]

Originally Posted by alto99

Bigzero In frist post you said you reached hiriyur at 2.45 and Mysore at 1815 i.e in 5.3 hrs but in second one you say you took 3h 30m for the same. 2hrs of breaks?

2.45 pm to 6.15 pm is 3 hrs 30 min..

Yes you are right about the humps. Some nasty ones there.

[alto99]

Originally Posted by Bigzero

2.45 pm to 6.15 pm is 3 hrs 30 min..

Yes you are right about the humps. Some nasty ones there.

What was I thinking .

[gypsyFreak]

Originally Posted by Bigzero

This option gets a thumbs up from me!

Good to see that you made it easily to Mysore. I guess this would be the best route to reach Mysore from North Karnataka avoiding Bangalore. It gives you a mix of 4 lane and good country roads.

I regularly travel in this route and have seen that the number of speed breakers have increased over the past few weeks. Only positive point is that they are well marked now compared to earlier days.

NH206 crosses this road at a village called Kibbanhalli and hence called KB cross.

If you are travelling early mornings or late evenings, this road is still devoid of traffic. The only problem point is the railway crossing at Pandavapura. Whenever there is train to Bangalore/Mysore we get stuck for 20-30 mins

[Bigzero]

Did the return trip today - taking a break at Hubli right now, before resuming the journey to Pune tomorrow.

I retraced the same route, and had no trouble finding the way back except for a fork a couple of km before Nelligere- picked the road to the right that showed directions to Bellary & Bidar.

Also: forgot to mention earlier: there is a short stretch somewhere (forgot exactly where ), with a few potholes. not much to worry though. And boy, some of those speedbreakers are tough.

passed Mysore at around 9.45 and touched NH4 by around 1.10.

Oh and by the way, chose the Nadugani Ghat to climb up from Kerala, and what a pleasant drive it was, early in the morning.

[spiritofdriving]

Originally Posted by Bigzero

Did the return trip today - taking a break at Hubli right now, before resuming the journey to Pune tomorrow.
I retraced the same route, and had no trouble finding the way back except for a fork a couple of km before Nelligere- picked the road to the right that showed directions to Bellary & Bidar.
Also: forgot to mention earlier: there is a short stretch somewhere (forgot exactly where ), with a few potholes. not much to worry though. And boy, some of those speedbreakers are tough.
passed Mysore at around 9.45 and touched NH4 by around 1.10.
Oh and by the way, chose the Nadugani Ghat to climb up from Kerala, and what a pleasant drive it was, early in the morning.

Thank You BigZero for sharing the details.
I have also chosen this same path now with your positive feedback.

I also received a VERY BAD feedback on NH17. When I went to upgrade my headlamps, the shopkeeper who'd traveled to Kasargod via NH17, told me that by the time they reached Kasargod their Dezire's front and rear bumper came out thanks to the potholes.

So my route looks like - Bangalore - Hubli - Hiriyur - Mysore - Sulthan Battery - Kalpetta - Thamarassery.

I am looking for options for a bit of sight seeing in between (any help in this will be appreciated) and also a good place to stay over!

[Bigzero]

Originally Posted by spiritofdriving

Thank You BigZero for sharing the details.
I have also chosen this same path now with your positive feedback.

I also received a VERY BAD feedback on NH17. When I went to upgrade my headlamps, the shopkeeper who'd traveled to Kasargod via NH17, told me that by the time they reached Kasargod their Dezire's front and rear bumper came out thanks to the potholes.

So my route looks like - Bangalore - Hubli - Hiriyur - Mysore - Sulthan Battery - Kalpetta - Thamarassery.

I am looking for options for a bit of sight seeing in between (any help in this will be appreciated) and also a good place to stay over!

You are welcome!

I would advise you to take the Gudalur-Nadugani-Nilambur-Edavanna-Areekode-Edavazhikkadavu-Mavoor-Calicut route . Two reasons:

- road is good all the way, and very less traffic. The distance is more or less the same

- Wayanad ghats is in bad shape. Expect long traffic jams. Also, I guess they are closing the Wayanad ghat after Jan 17 for repairs.

The Nadugani route is a pleasure to drive.

[Bigzero]

Originally Posted by spiritofdriving

Hello BigZero,
Hope am not bugging you by now - whenever you get time, please update the exact route you took, timings, break locations and an update on general condition of the road.

Since am planning for Jan end Pune to Calicut trip - I am VERY eagerly waiting for this.

Also,
Any latest update on the road conditions of NH17? Exactly how long/far is it bad? Is it bad all the way from Goa to Mangalore to Calicut?

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...

[spiritofdriving]

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. .

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?

[ampere]

Originally Posted by spiritofdriving

any questions?

Which is the SH that you refer to from Dharwad to connect to NH17?
Did you not take the Hubli Ankola route?

[spiritofdriving]

Originally Posted by ampere

Which is the SH that you refer to from Dharwad to connect to NH17?
Did you not take the Hubli Ankola route?

From Dharwad we basically looked up on Google Maps on my phone and went by that. so it started off with really narrow road and connected to a smooth surface road at Dastikoppa! I assumed it was an SH. I now see on G maps its numbered 63 and is indeed the Hubli-Ankola road. Is this an NH?

We infact got a bit adventurous and took a further right from Yellapur and went through the forest to join at Kumta. This was a bad idea since that single lane forest road was bad but was beautiful route.