[punto_]

Back from Hampi.. wonderful place!

Took the NH7 route while going and coming back. The roads are excellent as usual till Gooty. Gooty to Guntakal are also in very good condition. However, the story changed once we crossed Guntakal. The roads are sloppy in many patches. And from Bellary things get worse. Once you cross Bellary - roads for about 10-15 kms are in horrible condition. I think the regular truck movement in the mining area are the reason for this. Post that, the roads are fine till Hospet.

About 470 kms via NH7 -Gooty-Bellary-Hospet route.

[adimicra]

Me too back from Hampi last night.
Hampi was wonderful though we had our share of misfortune.
Took the Raichur route both ways..

Will post the detailed update about the route in a short while.

@Punto, Did you take the Raichur route while coming back? If yes, how do you compare it with the Gooty route?

[adimicra]

I will limit the post mostly to the route as there are plenty of travelogues and information about Hampi in team-bhp and elsewhere.
But just let me say that it is a wonderful place and definitely worth the visit.

Cars - Honda Jazz (me and my family) and Ritz VDI (friend and his family)

Onward journey -
Hyderabad - Bhoothpur(NH7) - Started at 6 AM on Saturday morning. Breezed through the Bangalore Highway in a hour or so and then took the turn at Bhoothpur to avoid Mahboobnagar as suggested by many.

The MahboobNagar-Raichur road is decent - there are not too many potholes but the road surface is undulating and the sides of the road is borken up or badly patched in several places. On top of that, there are small villages on the way and entry and exit of every village is marked by big bumpers.So, expect lots of hard braking and acceleration and a few hair raising moments when you jum over some of those bumps.It took us around 2:30 hours to complete this stretch along with one 15 min break for breakfast.All in all, this road is not great for cruising at all and this is where you can lose some of the travel time.

Raichur-Sindhanur-Gangawati: This stretch is good to great and it is more scenic as well. There are still speedbreakers on the way but the good road surface makes up for it.You can easily do 100+ speeds consistently, just need to be careful about speedbreakers. We were unfortunately caught up in a big traffic jam in Sindhanur which wasted at least
30 mins. Took us 2:20 mins roughly for this stretch but can be done in less than 2 hours unless if you are unlucky like us.

Raichur-Kampli-Kamalaur-Hospet: This is where our journey really turned bad.. Once we took the turn to Kampli, the roads are awefully narrow and the progress is painfully slow if are stuck behind a truck as we were. And then there was some local festival going on which caused a traffic jam and everything completely stopped. It has to be one of the worst traffic jams in my life. We were stuck for almost 45 mins without moving an inch. At one time, we lost all hopes. But fortunately, things started moving after almost an hour. Once we were out of this, we had to take a turn towards Kamalapur and the road there was completely broken...it was like non-existent. Thankfully, this lasted only for 3-4 kms. After that, the road surface became nice and smooth and the last 20 kms through Kamalapur and Hampi were extremely scenic and beautiful.
It took us 1:45 hours to complete this stretch against the budgeted 1 hour.

So, overall it took us 8 hours and we reached our hotel - Royal Orchids Central Kireeti - at roughly 2 PM, 1 hour later than expected.
Overall, this route is decent with some stretches being excellent and should be doable in 7 hours unless you get stuck in the traffic jams like us.


Return journey -
Since we had very bad experience in the Raichur-Kampli-Kamalaur-Hospet stretch at any cost.
After inquiring with the locals, the Gooty-Bellary route was ruled out.
The route suggested by locals was: Hospet - Tungabhadra road - NH63-NH13-Budugumpa X roads - Raichur Koppal Road (SH23) - Gangawati.
This route was approx 10-12 kms more but we were fine with that.
So, we decided to try this route. And what a marvelous decision it turned out to be. Such amazing roads - brilliant surface and mesmerizing views - the drive till Gangawati has to be one of the best drives I had.
Rest of the journey was same as earlier and the overall travel time was around 7 hours.

So, to summarize, for people going to Hampi/Hospet, the recommened route is -
Hyderabad - Bhoothpur (bypass Mahboobnagar) - Raichur- Gangawati - Budugumpa X roads -NH63 - Hospet.

The mishap -
As we were going through the wonderful stretch of road in our return journey on the Raichur-Koppal Road before Gangawati, my friend called and told me that his car was making some strange sound. We stopped and checked the sound and it looked like coming from the engine. On opening the bonnet, it looked like the sound is coming from the timing belt.
We could not get any mechanic nearby and Monday being Eid, all of them were on leave. We decided to drive cautiously till Gangawati and look for some help there.
But unfortunately, 3 kms before Gangawati, the Ritz gave up and stopped.
We realized that it is something serious. First, we tried the Maruti helpline but in vain. Even after trying for 15-20 minutes all possible numbers we could find anything, nothing seemed to work. Damn you Maruti! Is this the famus mauti service? Is this why people buy Maruti?By the way, the car is only 3 months old and done 4000 kms.
Fortunately, one of my friend's colleague stays in Gangawati. So, we called him up. He got a mechanic from Tata motors to have a look. The mechanic confirmed that there is a problem with the timing chain and it can be fixed only in the Maruti service center which will open only on Tuesday. By this time, it was already 4:30 PM and we had to make a decision. So, we decided that my friend will stay back at Gangawati and his mom and wife will come with us in my car.His colleague said that he will arrange for the vehicle to be towed to a safe place and they will go to the Maruti service center next morning.

As I write this, my friend is still in Gangawati. The Maruti service center at Gangawati said they can't fix the problem..so the vehicle has to be towed to Hospet. Can't imagine what my friend his going through.


A note about Royal Orchids Centrl Kireeti hotel -
It is a very nice hotel, the rooms are tastefully done and the decor is grand. Only problem is they are severely under-staffed to handle peak load and that reflects in their lousy service level during such a busy weekend. My room had some problems with the TV, so they upgraded me to a suite free of cost

A note about Sygic MMI GPS -
I used the Sygic MMI GPS on my Android phone through the journey and it was very helpful. I didn't have to ask for the route any time. It has some strange bugs due to which I made some wrong turns and wasted some time but still, it is a very handy tool and a must for travellers. But, as a backup, it is better to have some printouts of google maps in case something goes wrong.

Cheers
~Aadi

[punto_]

Originally Posted by adimicra

@Punto, Did you take the Raichur route while coming back? If yes, how do you compare it with the Gooty route?

Took the Gooty route to and fro.

Looks like I have made a good decision by not taking Raichur route after reading your post.

Gooty - Guntakal route is pretty good. You can clock 100+ without any major problems.

Guntakal - Raichur route is pretty patchy and you can still clock about 70-80 kmph.

However, once you cross Raichur it gets worse. The mining trucks seem to be the reason for this. The roads are pathetic for about 15kms after you cross Raichur. However, things start getting better post that sector.
It took about 8 hours for the drive. (This includes 1 hour break!)

Also I spotted a white Jazz at Hampi multiple times with Team-BHP sticker on the bumper.. is that yours?

[adimicra]

Originally Posted by punto_

Took the Gooty route to and fro.

Looks like I have made a good decision by not taking Raichur route after reading your post.

Not sure, the route that I recommended seems the best to me. The Gangawati-Kampli stretch can be easily avoided as we did in the return journey. That way, it won't have any real bad stretch and can be comfortably done in 7 hours with couple of breaks.

Originally Posted by punto_

Also I spotted a white Jazz at Hampi multiple times with Team-BHP sticker on the bumper.. is that yours?

Yep, that's me

[MileCruncher]

Originally Posted by punto_

Guntakal - Raichur route is pretty patchy and you can still clock about 70-80 kmph.

Why would you take this route? The route is Gooty - Guntakal - Bellary - Gangawati. And the road is very bad between Guntakal and Bellary with 2 feet craters common

[punto_]

Originally Posted by adimicra

Not sure, the route that I recommended seems the best to me. The Raichur-Kampli stretch can be easily avoided as we did in the return journey. That way, it won't have any real bad stretch and can be comfortably done in 7 hours with couple of breaks.


Yep, that's me

Oh okay. Btw, did you visit the dam? We went to the Dam late in the evening after 7:30 PM on Sunday and unnecessarily went into that park beside the Dam where they had the musical fountain - its a joke. Good only for kids probably.

Anyway, we hired a guide and had a great experience with him. He made us walk for 6 hours around Hampi! But its well worth it! He was very patient and enthusiastic. There were times when we lost patience but he kept pushing us and ensured he covered what was required!
I would recommend him to anyone visiting Hampi.

He speaks decent Telugu and Kannada(ofcourse) not sure about his Hindi/English skills though.

Originally Posted by MileCruncher

Why would you take this route? The route is Gooty - Guntakal - Bellary - Gangawati. And the road is very bad between Guntakal and Bellary with 2 feet craters common

Well, my bad. What route should I have taken after Gooty to reach Hampi?


Should I have taken Gooty - Adoni - Kampli route instead??

[MileCruncher]

Originally Posted by punto_

Well, my bad. What route should I have taken after Gooty to reach Hampi?


Should I have taken Gooty - Adoni - Kampli route instead??

You should have taken standard route Hyd - Mahboobnagar - Raichur - Gangawati - Hampi

I once did Guntakal - Bellary and ended up screwing my holiday. That was 3.5 years back and after realised that a SUV is a must if you intend to extensively travel across the country.

[mobike008]

Originally Posted by MileCruncher

You should have taken standard route Hyd - Mahboobnagar - Raichur - Gangawati - Hampi

+1

I did this route to Hampi in my i10 last year around this time and it was a pleasant experience all through except for terrible speedbreakers which are a common phenomena in KA and felt much more worse in a car like i10.

Smooth tarmac all through except for some potholes and water trenches when crossing small towns.

[Fiest@DuraTec]

Originally Posted by MileCruncher

You should have taken standard route Hyd - Mahboobnagar - Raichur - Gangawati - Hampi

I did the same route last year in december. Except the terrible patch between Gangawati and Kampli(underconstruction road), the road was a breeze. KA roads can't be built without speedbreakers, they love them

Originally Posted by adimicra

Not sure, the route that I recommended seems the best to me. The Gangawati-Kampli stretch can be easily avoided as we did in the return journey. That way, it won't have any real bad stretch and can be comfortably done in 7 hours with couple of breaks.

Where did you take the diversion to avoid Kampli ? Did you take the right from that bus station in Kampli(exactly at the start/end of the bad patch)?

Originally Posted by MileCruncher

I don't why you guys crib about those rumbler strips on this sections. Somehow they have never affected speed in my car

Sir, these rumbler strips also shake my humble fiesta to its core, along with my better half on the front passenger seat. After that I need to live with a glare from +1 along with a groan from the engine I wish someday I have your Bolero on my hands, would definitely want to try these rumblers out.

[MileCruncher]

Originally Posted by Fiest@DuraTec

I did the same route last year in december. Except the terrible patch somewhere between Gangawati and Hampi(underconstruction road), the road was a breeze. KA roads can't be built without speedbreakers, they love them

I don't why you guys crib about those rumbler strips on this sections. Somehow they have never affected speed in my car

[punto_]

Well, learnt my lessons!
Thank you everyone for the inputs! I took this route thinking Hyderebad - Gooty will be a breeze and the rest I thought should be fine.. but well except for the 20kms or so patch this is quite good.

[adimicra]

This is the route from Gangawati to Hospet I was talking about. The route is excellent and a pleasure to drive. Highly recommended

[vnabhi]

Originally Posted by punto_

Took the Gooty route to and fro.



Guntakal - Raichur route is pretty patchy and you can still clock about 70-80 kmph.

However, once you cross Raichur it gets worse. The mining trucks seem to be the reason for this. The roads are pathetic for about 15kms after you cross Raichur.

I suppose you mean Guntakal - Bellary. Must be a typo.

Originally Posted by adimicra

This is the route from Gangawati to Hospet I was talking about. The route is excellent and a pleasure to drive. Highly recommended

That is the route people have been taking for years, including me in 2009. The one via Kampili was always reported to be bad, though a wee bit shorter.

[MileCruncher]

Originally Posted by punto_

Well, learnt my lessons!
Thank you everyone for the inputs! I took this route thinking Hyderebad - Gooty will be a breeze and the rest I thought should be fine.. but well except for the 20kms or so patch this is quite good.

Saar,

i also did that route once and ended up opening a thread on TBHP http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/suvs-m...ml#post1153179

Don't think the Guntakal - Bellary stretch has changed much.