[zoombiee]

Originally Posted by mempheS.D

It's a good route I think as I can meet my brother at NITK too. How about via Coorg? The Mysore-Coorg highway is awesome is what I've heard.

You dont have to go to Calicut. Take NH 212 and then join SH34 to Koyilandi. From there onto Thalaserry and Kannur .

http://mapmyindia.com/#direction+fro...MrNzYuMDM5MTYy.

Some one I know took this route and said except for bad stretch of 20 odd kms from S Bathery to Kalpetta the roads are good.

If I were you I would avoid Coorg completely. The roads are completely messed up.

[sandsun7]

Originally Posted by mempheS.D

Thanks for this update sir. So, I think my preferred route to Thalassery as per this feedback from you would be blore-hunsur-nagarhole-mananthavady-nedmpoil-thalassery, correct?

Please advise whether this sounds reasonable.

Towards Kannur, the best route undoubtedly is the one mentioned above. plan seems to be fine, but 7 hours driving time is bit too less. Budget for 6 hours for Bangalore to Mananthavady and another 2 hours from there to Kannur atleast. Remember, for around 30 odd km, you would be in a forest road with humps and few potholes. 4.30 AM start would be perfect. You could plan for breakfast at Hunsur, cafe coorg. What is your final destination? If it is Kannur town, do not go to Telicherry. you could go straight to Kannur from Kuthuparamba.

Originally Posted by zoombiee

I think best quality roads would be if you took Bangalore-Mysore-SBathery-Calicut-Kannur route. Except Muthinga to Kalpetta road is apparently very good. It should be about 50-60 kms more but should be better.
Wayanad to Kannur itself would take you about 3 - 4 hours. If you are not planning any breaks I assume 8-9 hours would be a better estimate

Via Calicut to Kannur would be too long, and stressful. Calicut to Kannur itself would tire you down a lot, not to mention crossing 3 highly crowded towns - Koyilandy, Mahe and Telicherry. Mananthavady to Kannur via Nedumpoil is not bad except a couple of hairpin bends on the ghats, as per reports earlier. If at all you need to take calicut route, do not even go to Calicut. Take the Koyilandi road from Tamarashery, (via Ullyeri Balusseri). Excellent roads, newly laid till Koyilandi, joins NH17 at Koyilandi

EDIT: Zoombiee, the nagarhole route is in much better condition and I can testify that because I drove the route last Wednesday. From Bangalore till Nagarhole entry gate via Hunsur, roads are excellent. National park road is average, but with sparse traffic. The park exit gate till kutta is good. From Kutta till Tholpetty (Kerala border) is bad but this is just 5 kms. Then on till mananthavady, the roads are amazing.

[mempheS.D]

Originally Posted by zoombiee

If I were you I would avoid Coorg completely. The roads are completely messed up.

Originally Posted by sandsun7

Towards Kannur, the best route undoubtedly is the one mentioned above. plan seems to be fine, but 7 hours driving time is bit too less. Budget for 6 hours for Bangalore to Mananthavady and another 2 hours from there to Kannur atleast. Remember, for around 30 odd km, you would be in a forest road with humps and few potholes. 4.30 AM start would be perfect. You could plan for breakfast at Hunsur, cafe coorg. What is your final destination? If it is Kannur town, do not go to Telicherry. you could go straight to Kannur from Kuthuparamba.

.
.
.Take the Koyilandi road from Tamarashery, (via Ullyeri Balusseri). Excellent roads, newly laid till Koyilandi, joins NH17 at Koyilandi

EDIT: Zoombiee, the nagarhole route is in much better condition and I can testify that because I drove the route last Wednesday. From Bangalore till Nagarhole entry gate via Hunsur, roads are excellent. National park road is average, but with sparse traffic. The park exit gate till kutta is good. From Kutta till Tholpetty (Kerala border) is bad but this is just 5 kms. Then on till mananthavady, the roads are amazing.

I just love this forum. Where else can I get current road status that's just 2 days old.. wow!

My destination is thalassery and I was almost going to take the Coorg-Virajpet route.. Not any more.

The Nagarhole route is the best and I must thank you more for the breakfast plan.. I always end up eating waste at the maddur CCD. This time I have an alternate plan. I ll keep you all posted on the exact condition of this route and the trip by the end of this week. Yooohoo!

Thanks again guys..

[binaiks]

Any idea on the current status of Virajpet-Kutta-Mananthavady route? Suresh Kallada (Kallada Tours and Travels) has started a new Volvo multi-axle servie through that route to Kozhikode, from Bangalore. (Bangalore-Ernakulam via Mysore, Kozhikode, Guruvayur, Kodungallur). Is the road in good state?

[sandsun7]

Just read in manoramaonline.com's kannur local news page that the stretch from Siddapura to Perumpadi (checkpost at the start of the Makkutta ghats) via Ammathi , Virajpet is being relaid at a cost of 20 crores and the work was inaugurated yesterday by Hon. Minister for sports and youth development Mr. Appachu Ranjan.
So once the work gets over, Hunsur-Peryapatna-Siddapura-Ammathi town-Virajpet route would easily be the best alternative route to Kannur till the Hunsur-Gonikoppal-Virajpet road gets repaired.

[denver85]

Originally Posted by binaiks

Any idea on the current status of Virajpet-Kutta-Mananthavady route? Suresh Kallada (Kallada Tours and Travels) has started a new Volvo multi-axle servie through that route to Kozhikode, from Bangalore. (Bangalore-Ernakulam via Mysore, Kozhikode, Guruvayur, Kodungallur). Is the road in good state?

This bus will not go to Virajpet if its not published as a boarding point/Destination. I hope the route will be Mysore-Hunsur(Takes Left)-Gonikoppal(Takes Left)-Kutta-Mananthavady. All the Calicut bound buses from Bangalore takes this route. I came back to Bangalore in this route two weeks back in Kallada Sleeper. The road conditions are as given below:

Mananthavady to Kutta - Excellent rubberized road till Kerala border. The 3 kms from border to Kutta bus stand (This is the junction where right goes to Nagerhole) is bad with some really big craters.

Kutta to Gonikopal - There are mainly two routes. Route 1 goes through Srimangala and Route 2 goes Bollera gate. (I have never seen any buses taking the Route 1). Kutta - Bollera gate - Ponnampet is relaid recently. So it is in a very good condition. The rest from Ponnampet to Gonikopal is bad which offers a bumpy ride.

Gonikoppal to Hunsur - Roads are good with occasional bad patches. Some of the these patches are really bad.

As you know, the rest of the route from Hunsur to Bangalore is excellent. Hope it helps

[sandsun7]

Originally Posted by denver85

Gonikoppal to Hunsur - Roads are good with occasional bad patches. Some of the these patches are really bad.

Are you sure about this? Was some patchwork done very recently? Most of the recent reports here said that the stretch from Hunsur to Gonikoppal is in terrible shape and would be very challenging for small hatches/sedans!

[denver85]

Originally Posted by sandsun7

Are you sure about this? Was some patchwork done very recently? Most of the recent reports here said that the stretch from Hunsur to Gonikoppal is in terrible shape and would be very challenging for small hatches/sedans!

Not sure about sedans/hatches.
Inside the sleeper bus it was much better. There were some good relaid stretches. The road was not horrible like 3-4 months back. The relaid ones were really good and the ride was not bumpy as compared to Gonikoppal-Virajpet route. Even,there were some bad patched which were crossed dead slow, these will be very challenging for a sedan/hatchback.

[mempheS.D]

Originally Posted by ak916

+1 to what sandsun said.

.
.
.Hunsur to Nedumpoil is pretty good. The U turns between Periya and Nedumpoil are in horrible condition though and sedans/hatches can bottom out here if one is not careful.

I am doing this route the coming weekend. As per what I've learnt from sandsun and yourself. Can you be more explicit as to where exactly is this BOTTOMING OUT terrain? Between mananthavady and nedumpoil?

[mempheS.D]

Folks. . Just got home a while ago. Left from koramangala around 5am. Reached cafe coorg around 8am. Took a break as suggested by sandsun. It was a great suggestion and a welcome change rom the maddur ccd.

Via nagarhole until between kutta and mananthavady, the roads are ok though not great. It sure is heaven compared to the gonikoppa route. One needs to be careful at 3 of the 4 hairpin bends on periya ghats.

The drive started getting boring after mananthavady until the rubberized roads started until kuthuparamba.

All together it was an amazzzzzzing solo trip. 373kms. 8 hours, spot on as sandsun described. Destination thalassery. A good evenings nap. And now tbhp with some masala 'chai' or 'chaaya' as we call it here. And oh yes!! There was one uneventful encounter with a solo elephant in the nagarhole forest road. Though I did freeze for a moment and cursed my DRLs on the fabia as switching off the engine would cut out my escape chances too, if at all circumstances demanded so.

[sandsun7]

Originally Posted by mempheS.D

All together it was an amazzzzzzing solo trip. 373kms. 8 hours, spot on as sandsun described. Destination thalassery.

Glad to hear that you had a good drive! Cafe Coorg is pretty good option for breakfast, more so if you exit Bangalore by around 4.30-5 AM. Food good and is not very expensive also. They did take a long time to serve the food though.

Originally Posted by mempheS.D

There was one uneventful encounter with a solo elephant in the nagarhole forest road. Though I did freeze for a moment and cursed my DRLs on the fabia as switching off the engine would cut out my escape chances too, if at all circumstances demanded so.

Did you find the elephant near to the entry gate, that is just a few minutes after you enter the sanctuary? The one without tusks? This one, by any chance?

I had spotted this elephant at the same spot while going as well as while coming, in a space of 3 days.

[mempheS.D]

Originally Posted by sandsun7

Did you find the elephant near to the entry gate, that is just a few minutes after you enter the sanctuary? The one without tusks? This one, by any chance?

I had spotted this elephant at the same spot while going as well as while coming, in a space of 3 days.

Exxxxxactly.. it didnt have tusks and it was as big as this one too. Not too big. But enough to send a shiver down the spine..

It was about 15kms after the entry gate though. That too a hump-laden road.

You seem to be a regular on this road.

[kaushik60]

My parents are planning a drive from Mysore-Payyanur.
About a month back, they set off without too much research from Payyanur-Mysore through Irrity-Virajpet-Gonikkoppal-Hunsur and they had a pathetic experience on Virajpet-Gonikkoppal stretch. They were totally like
So, is the Mysore-Hunsur-Nagarhole-Kutta-Mananthavady-Irrity-Talipramba-Payyanur stretch the best to take right now? or are there any alternates.
From what I can see from recent posts, the route till Mananthavady is confirmed to be doable. But how is Mananthavady-Irrity? From Irrity-Payyanur is pretty good.
Hope to get some help, as I dont want them to go through the torture they had a month back. FYI they went through that torture in a Tata Nano

[sandsun7]

Originally Posted by kaushik60

From what I can see from recent posts, the route till Mananthavady is confirmed to be doable. But how is Mananthavady-Irrity? From Irrity-Payyanur is pretty good.

Mananthavady to Iritty via Perya-Nidumpoil-Peravoor is in good condition except patches around the couple of hairpin bends on perya ghats. These hairpin bends are horrible and has to be negotiated very carefully as per earlier posts.
The route to Payyannur via Kuthuparamba-Kannur-Taliparamba would also be a good option with far less curves to negotiate compared to Iritty-sreekandapuram route, but yes, you could encounter heavy traffic on Kuthuparamba-Kannur town-Puthiyatheru stretch. Thezhechovva-Kannur town-Puthiyatheru can get heavily chocked during peak hours.

[RajeshK]

Originally Posted by kaushik60

My parents are planning a drive from Mysore-Payyanur.
About a month back, they set off without too much research from Payyanur-Mysore through Irrity-Virajpet-Gonikkoppal-Hunsur and they had a pathetic experience on Virajpet-Gonikkoppal stretch. They were totally like
So, is the Mysore-Hunsur-Nagarhole-Kutta-Mananthavady-Irrity-Talipramba-Payyanur stretch the best to take right now? or are there any alternates.
From what I can see from recent posts, the route till Mananthavady is confirmed to be doable. But how is Mananthavady-Irrity? From Irrity-Payyanur is pretty good.
Hope to get some help, as I dont want them to go through the torture they had a month back. FYI they went through that torture in a Tata Nano

Kaushik, If your final destination is Payyanur, you can think about Mysore - Madikeri - Bhagamandala - Panathur - Kanhangad - Payyanur. I am not aware of the latest condition of the Bhagamandala - Panathur stretch, I belief it is manageable (~26km down the hill)

Other option is Kushalanagara - siddapura - Ammathi - Virajpet - Iritty - Srikantapuram - Thalipparamba - Payyanur. This will better/shorter than Nagarhole route, but ~30km more than the regular Hunsur - Gonikkoppal route.

Thanks
Rajesh