[rajivtelang]

Originally Posted by ashis89

Came yesterday via the Hubbali - Ramnagar - Anmod route. The 20-30 kms stretch after Ramnagar is horrible. The road is washed out in a lot of stretches and one has to choose between the lesser of the devils while negotiating the ruts. Even the NWKSRTC and the Fortuner in front of me were judiciously creeping into these ruts. And I saw a Creta and a 5th gen City with dislodged engine guards.

I was driving my Seltos very carefully with 5 people on board and even then had 2-3 instances of just touch-n-go with the ground below.

A friend who was driving his mark 1 Octavia from Hyderabad and took the Chorla route, also faced several instances of scraping the car's underbody.

Ok, that means even Anmod route is ruled out. How about the longer route ankola, yellapur, hubali? There is one post mentioning it in better shape. I am one week away from my travel to south Goa.

[ashis89]

Originally Posted by rajivtelang

Ok, that means even Anmod route is ruled out. How about the longer route ankola, yellapur, hubali? There is one post mentioning it in better shape. I am one week away from my travel to south Goa.

I might return via Yellapur in a couple of days. Will share an update if I do.

[rajivtelang]

Originally Posted by ashis89

I might return via Yellapur in a couple of days. Will share an update if I do.

I assume you will be taking Ankola-Yellapur-Mundagod-Bankapur road and not Yellapur-Hubli to hit NH48.

[Ride_N_Drive]

Originally Posted by rajivtelang

Ok, that means even Anmod route is ruled out. How about the longer route ankola, yellapur, hubali? There is one post mentioning it in better shape. I am one week away from my travel to south Goa.

I did Bangalore - Goa - Bangalore from 11th to 14th August. While going from BLR to Goa we stayed overnight at Karwar. Took a left before the Hubbali road toll starts(Followed the Google Maps). The road was pretty scenic and good till we hit the NH and the NH was also pretty good till we reached Karwar. Next morning the road from Karwar to South Goa was such a treat.
While returning to Bangalore from North Goa, the road from Anmod Ghat around 20-30 Kms has huge potholes. I saw an Amaze had skid a slight off-road and couldn't get back to the road. Hope you have a good trip

[rajivtelang]

Originally Posted by Ride_N_Drive

I did Bangalore - Goa - Bangalore from 11th to 14th August. While going from BLR to Goa we stayed overnight at Karwar. Took a left before the Hubbali road toll starts(Followed the Google Maps). The road was pretty scenic and good till we hit the NH and the NH was also pretty good till we reached Karwar. Next morning the road from Karwar to South Goa was such a treat.

Looks like you went via Kalghatgi, Yellapur, Ankola, Karwar, Goa route while going. Please confirm. I need to take it while returning from Goa to Bangalore. Longer driving distance is not an issue at all but will be with my parents, dad 80+, so just want a smooth drive without much of rolls and jerks.

[Ride_N_Drive]

Yeah looks like. I didn't notice it that time because I was just following Google Maps and lost in the scenic route. I crossed a huge Tibetan monastery (Drepung Loseling Monastery) and looks like it comes in the same route you mentioned. Please verify it one more time. Also one word of caution that this road didn't have a lot of vehicular traffic and by the time we hit the Ghats on NH, it was only 7 PM and it was dark and raining. There were some moments of apprehension for me. Please plan to cross this road early if you take this road.

[rajivtelang]

Originally Posted by Ride_N_Drive

Yeah looks like. I didn't notice it that time because I was just following Google Maps and lost in the scenic route. I crossed a huge Tibetan monastery (Drepung Loseling Monastery) and looks like it comes in the same route you mentioned. Please verify it one more time. Also one word of caution that this road didn't have a lot of vehicular traffic and by the time we hit the Ghats on NH, it was only 7 PM and it was dark and raining. There were some moments of apprehension for me. Please plan to cross this road early if you take this road.

Cool, you took the Haveri, Bankapura, Mundagod, Yellapur, Ankola route. The monastery clarified my doubt. Thanks.

[ashis89]

Originally Posted by rajivtelang

I assume you will be taking Ankola-Yellapur-Mundagod-Bankapur road and not Yellapur-Hubli to hit NH48.

Got a confirmation from Bhpian Parag not to take the Mundgod route as it is narrow and so I didn't. He suggested to give Kalaghatki - Tadas route a try. I went a km into it and decided to take the longer Hubbali route instead.

Ankola - Yellapur is driveable. BUT look out for huge potholes which suddenly appear on the road. Due to these potholes, one can't drive peacefully.

My preference would be the Anmod route. If I drive those 20 odd kms carefully then the rest of the route is tension free.

[rajivtelang]

Originally Posted by ashis89

My preference would be the Anmod route. If I drive those 20 odd kms carefully then the rest of the route is tension free.

Done. I too will go for Anmod then. If it is raining it will be tough to judge the depth of concrete steps on this route but otherwise should be fine. I hope my Ertiga's 185mm GC can handle it.
Yellapur Hubbali route is way too long and if not great better to avoid. Once NH48 is reached things should be perfect on my return leg via Anmod Ramnagar Dharwad.

[ashis89]

Originally Posted by rajivtelang

Done. I too will go for Anmod then. If it is raining it will be tough to judge the depth of concrete steps on this route but otherwise should be fine. I hope my Ertiga's 185mm GC can handle it.
.

Ertiga should do fine. Try to follow another vehicle so you know where to go and what to avoid.

[ampere]

Originally Posted by ashis89

Ankola - Yellapur is driveable. BUT look out for huge potholes which suddenly appear on the road. Due to these potholes, one can't drive peacefully.

Is it that bad? I thought its doable with easy speeds. There are potholes yes, but can be easily managed.

Also with the bypass/interchange almost in place at Hubli, I think its always good to go all the way till Hubli and get onto the 4-lane. Much easier and hassle free than going onto the smaller Mundgod or Tadas. Personally I would always prefer that option.

[Tiger]

I did Blr-Hubli-Yellapur-Ankola-Karwar-south Goa on 13th in my Innova Crysta.
Started at 5am & reached at 5pm.
Tumkur section is pretty bad with stripped of surfaces. We saw 2 cars (Ecosport & another car) rims were broken after hitting a pothole. Probably more damage as there was a towing vehicle used to move the cars.
Hubli - Ankola stretch is good but few potholes, should be able to navigate easily if you are not driving too fast say beyond 100kmph.
Had nice lunch at Swetha lunch home, Karwar. Really enjoyed seafood there.

Will be returning on 19th from north Goa.

[ashis89]

Originally Posted by ampere

Is it that bad? I thought its doable with easy speeds. There are potholes yes, but can be easily managed.

Yes, it can be easily managed when one is going easy. However, I have noticed that all vehicles (including trucks and buses) tend to go fast on wide 4 lane roads. And when they spot the potholes, they brake hard/change lanes abruptly to avoid crashing into those. The whole lane discipline goes for a toss.

Truck traffic was also heavy on this route and hence, spotting the potholes can be difficult if one is behind a truck/car This increases chances of error and also makes the journey tiring.

As mentioned above about Tumkur, that's another example of a fast stretch with sharp and deep potholes. I saw damaged/broken down cars and also some close shaves due to lack of lane discipline. Some of the holes were big enough to engulf a whole car and deep enough to accommodate half a truck wheel.

I would prefer crawling through a 20 km stretch than looking over my shoulder for a 120 km stretch. The former is faster too.

Also with the bypass/interchange almost in place at Hubli, I think its always good to go all the way till Hubli and get onto the 4-lane. Much easier and hassle free than going onto the smaller Mundgod or Tadas. Personally I would always prefer that option.

If one is taking the Yellapur route, then going via Hubbali should be preferred. Bypass is ready (although one has to go on the service road for good few kms before they get on the Bangalore highway NH48) and road is better.

[indrangiri]

i just completed a Goa drive with wife and duaghter in my BMW 320D. We started at 5,30am on the 12th Aug and reached our resort at Bogmalo beach at 4.30pm.

As mentioned the highway till Tumkur is in need of urgent repairs with big craters where the asphalt has peeled off. From Tumkut till Huli the road is good and I could do go speed keeping the speedo up to good triple digit speeds.

The Hubli Dharwad bypass is again a single lane for around 40km but the road did not have any potholes. One needs to be careful while overtaking due to oncoming reckless bus /maxi cab drivers.

The left road towards Panaji from Dharwad is in real bad shape post the monsoons due to broken asphalt due to rains. Some portions the concereting of the road is half done and need to be careful when it drops down to the tar road.

I could manage it in my 3 series with miniumum touch to the underbody by taking it real slow and driving in a zig zag pattern. Once you cross into Goa, the road is good. Need to budget 3-3.5 hrs to cross this ghat road with the present road conditions

[Dr.AD]

Originally Posted by ashis89

Ankola - Yellapur is driveable. BUT look out for huge potholes which suddenly appear on the road. Due to these potholes, one can't drive peacefully.

Totally agree on this.

In fact, this is my regular road, and till April this year, this road was quite nice and I used to enjoy driving here.

However, I did a drive to Karwar this weekend, and I faced massive potholes which came totally as a surprise. It was a nightmare negotiating these sudden bad patches (and some of them were totally broken roads) that come as a a nasty surprise while driving on otherwise good tarmac.

Unfortunately, for the first time in my driving around in the Western Ghats since about early 2000s, I could not avoid hitting a surprise pothole at a decent speed and suffered my first tyre blowout, just this past weekend. This happened between Yellapur and Ankola. I have detailed that incidence here .

Originally Posted by ampere

Is it that bad? I thought its doable with easy speeds. There are potholes yes, but can be easily managed.

Yes, it is quite bad. Most of the tarmac is good. But that is what makes the surprise bad sections so dangerous. Those sections have gone really bad just in last 2 months or so, and they come as a nasty surprise. I saw many buses and trucks also broken down on the road, typically just a few meters ahead of such major potholes.

Also with the bypass/interchange almost in place at Hubli, I think its always good to go all the way till Hubli and get onto the 4-lane. Much easier and hassle free than going onto the smaller Mundgod or Tadas. Personally I would always prefer that option.

True. I drove all the way to Hubli and then took this new bypass. The entry to this bypass from NH48 is a bit tricky (seems like still under development), but thankfully Google Maps shows the correct way to enter this bypass. One needs to carefully follow Google Maps and find this entry. But once on the bypass, it is fast and straight road and saves a lot of time compared to going to the Hubli toll booth and then the Hubli-Dharward bypass etc.

Overall I agree with you that it makes sense just to drive till Hubli. Last time I drove via Tadas-Kalahatagi shortcut and regretted taking that. It hardly saves any time as the road conditions while passing through Tadas are bad and the roads are quite narrow too.