[sandsun7]

Originally Posted by Fauji

This should make Kannur the nearest and most easily accesible beach to people in Bangalore!!! The drive is also very nice and mapilla cuisnie to die for for those who love sea food!!!

Very true , and around 5 lovely unspoiled beaches to choose from !!
Once work on this stretch is completed, the only bad stretch in the entire route from Bangalore to Kannur would be from Hunsur to Perumpadi, totaling around 62 kms. Hope the authorities do something about this division too. Any idea which organization/authority is responsible to undertake the maintenance of that stretch? Coorg district PWD or KRDCL?

[Latheesh]

Originally Posted by sandsun7

Very true , and around 5 lovely unspoiled beaches to choose from !!
Once work on this stretch is completed, the only bad stretch in the entire route from Bangalore to Kannur would be from Hunsur to Perumpadi, totaling around 62 kms. Hope the authorities do something about this division too. Any idea which organization/authority is responsible to undertake the maintenance of that stretch? Coorg district PWD or KRDCL?

+ Muzhappilangad Drive-in beach is the real TBHP beach!

[mempheS.D]

Just got back from my week-long stay at Thalassery. The drive TO Thalassery was indeed exciting. The roads were true bliss UNTIL Kootupuzha bridge. I took the Mysore-Madikeri highway and went all they till Madikeri town and then a left towards Virajpet. The haripin bend roads till the Kootupuzha bridge were perfect locations for some controlled understeers. . But, all good things had to come to and end. The road from Kootupuzha bridge till Thlassery is definitely better but very bumpy. So the news further up on this thread is indeed music to the ears if that happens soon enough.

On the way back, it appears Kootupuzha bridge had to be shut down for some repair work and I had to take a detour via Mananthavady-Bavali. Except for a 15km stretch were the side trails were better than the roads itself, the drive was perfect. But, if I had a Baleno, this is definitely not a route I would take. Would certainly have preferred to go the long way via Bathery.

[sandsun7]

Originally Posted by mempheS.D

Just got back from my week-long stay at Thalassery.

On the way back, it appears Kootupuzha bridge had to be shut down for some repair work and I had to take a detour via Mananthavady-Bavali.

There was no news anywhere about the bridge being shut for traffic!
I presume it was just a single day's work- asphalting the bridge- and alas, you may have chosen the same day!!

Regarding the road from Kootupuzha till Telicherry, The authorities say that the 1st phase of work would be over by march end or 1st week of april.

How good was the 8 km stretch of road from Virajpet town to Perumpadi? My friend who had traveled a few days before reported that it is a back breaker for small cars!

[su48]

Originally Posted by epvineesh

Hi All,

First of all thanks for the update on the Gonikoppal rd,when i rode down in Feb 2011 its was manageable but by seeing the pics its definite no at any cost.

I'm planning to ride down solo on my RE C500 from Bangalore to Thalaserry

So I believe the best route for me is similiar :

From Kalyan nagar towards Mysore Road > Srirangapatna > Round about sharp turn to right > Elivala > Bilikere > Hunsur > Kampala pura > Periya patna > (Mysore - madikeri road) Kushalnagara(follow orange county board) > Siddapura > Ammathi town > Virajpet > Koottupuzha Bridge, Thalassery Coorg Road > Iritty > Kutuparambu > Tellicherry .


Please let me know if this is the best route if anyone has been to Thalaserry recently ....Happy Onam every one

This is the best route to Kannur now. However, the Kootupuzha bridge is in a pretty bad shape; please be extra careful. I scraped my car's underbelly at two places on the bridge. There are a lot of big stones protruding on the bridge.

[mempheS.D]

Originally Posted by sandsun7

There was no news anywhere about the bridge being shut for traffic!
I presume it was just a single day's work- asphalting the bridge- and alas, you may have chosen the same day!!

How good was the 8 km stretch of road from Virajpet town to Perumpadi? My friend who had traveled a few days before reported that it is a back breaker for small cars!

In fact, they did have a small notice in the newspaper on the previous day. An uncle who usually scans newspapers all through the day cautioned me about it, and when I checked, it was true. Although, a friend in that area tells me that although the bridge was announced to be shut for 24 hrs from 10.30pm on 3rd, they did complete the patchwork by 4.30am the next day.

The road from Virajpet to Perumpadi is not quite a back-breaker as the Bavali road. You gotta see it to believe what I'm saying.

[RajeshK]

There was news about the bridge closure in Deepika and Mathrubhumi. Atleast the Mathrubhumi link is here (in Malayalam), (you need to really scan through the paper to get it..!!) -> Details

Any way, its really good to see the bridge is getting repaired. It was really in pathetic shape..!!

Thanks
Rajesh

[sandsun7]

Originally Posted by mempheS.D

In fact, they did have a small notice in the newspaper on the previous day. .

Originally Posted by RajeshK

There was news about the bridge closure in Deepika and Mathrubhumi. Atleast the Mathrubhumi link is here (in Malayalam), (you need to really scan through the paper to get it..!!) -> Details

I somehow missed the news. May be the edition I get here in Bangalore did not carry that item. Anyways hope the tarmac on the bridge is fine now. My friend is going to Kannur tomorrow by bus. Has asked him to be awake and see how the stretch is!

[sandsun7]

The interstate bridge at Koottupuzha will again be closed for traffic on 13th March, from 8AM to 5 PM. This is to facilitate macadam asphalting on the bridge.
For those who can read Malayalam, here is the link to the report in Mathrubhumi
Kannur District News,Iritti Local News,Kerala - Mathrubhumi
whoever is planing to drive down to Kannur on 13th during day time, plan an alternative route!

[RajeshK]

All,

Did any one tried this alternate route -> http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/route-...ml#post2711720

If this is easily driveable, then we can very well avoid most of the bad roads in Hunsur - Gonikkoppal section

Thanks
Rajesh

[sandsun7]

Originally Posted by RajeshK

All,

Did any one tried this alternate route -> http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/route-...ml#post2711720

If this is easily driveable, then we can very well avoid most of the bad roads in Hunsur - Gonikkoppal section

Thanks
Rajesh

As far as I know, the only two reasonably good roads you can take to avoid the bad stretch from Hunsur to Virajpet is
1. Hunsur-Periyapatna-Bylakuppe-Kushalnagar-Madikeri-Virajpet (extra 40kms)
2. Hunsur -Peryapatna-Siddapura-Ammathi-Virajpet (extra 25 odd kms)

Among these, the route 1 is in excellent condition with sparse traffic as reported by mempheS.D.
BTW, some patch work has been done on the Gonikoppal route recently, and the stretch is definitely doable at moderate speeds.

[Latheesh]

I took Blr-Srirangapatna-Hunsur -Priyaapatna-Siddapura-Ammathi-Virajpet-Iritty-Mattanur-Kannur last week and road condition is good. I think this is the best route to Kannur considering Madikeri route take extra KMs

[RajeshK]

Hi Latheesh and Sandsun7,

In the Hunsur - Gonikkoppal section, the roads are getting better once you have reached the forest check post (in the Coorg Border). You can see one road joining from your rightside just before the checkpost. The other end of the road is Periyapatna town, not the one towards Orange county/siddapura.

If you got any chance to test this road, please post the update.

Thanks
Rajesh

[sandsun7]

Originally Posted by RajeshK

Hi Latheesh and Sandsun7,

In the Hunsur - Gonikkoppal section, the roads are getting better once you have reached the forest check post (in the Coorg Border). You can see one road joining from your rightside just before the checkpost. The other end of the road is Periyapatna town, not the one towards Orange county/siddapura.

Thanks
Rajesh

saw the route on google maps and wikimapia. here is the link.
Hunsur, Karnataka to Virajpet-Mysore Road - Google Maps
it is around 7 kms more as per google maps. Will have to find out if someone has traveled this route some time in recent past.
The distance from the point of diversion from Hunsur-Peryapatna road to coorg border is around 21.4 kms on the normal route. This is the stretch which will be byepassed. In the byepass route, atleast 17 kms would be assured, extremely good- till Peryapatna. From there the left deviation - the 11km stretch till coorg border forest checkpost- needs to be seen. Even if the condition of this stretch is atleast on par as the normal route, it would be useful!

[Latheesh]

Originally Posted by RajeshK

Hi Latheesh and Sandsun7,

In the Hunsur - Gonikkoppal section, the roads are getting better once you have reached the forest check post (in the Coorg Border). You can see one road joining from your rightside just before the checkpost. The other end of the road is Periyapatna town, not the one towards Orange county/siddapura.

If you got any chance to test this road, please post the update.

Thanks
Rajesh

1) Periyapatna-Siddapura - road condition is good (except for couple of potholes). They even asphalted few KMm stretch - Congition *good*

2) Kootupuzha-Iritty: They asphalted few KM stretch and repaired rest - Condition *Good*

3) Iritty-Mattanur - Repaired - Condition *Average*

I left Bangalore @ 10PM and reached Kannur @ 5 AM - So total time 7 hours including 50 min dinner break - That too in tiny Spark. So according to me Periyapatna-Siddapura route is good considering Hunsur-Gonikoppal stretch is not repaired.