Goa to Bangalore Return Trip Report Goa to Bangalore Goa Road Trip: Travel Date - Tuesday, Sep 28, 2010
We experimented with a different route on the way back. Here is a report in the same format as the one for the onward journey. Stretch 1: Candolim (North Goa) to Karwar: 110 kms, 2.5 hrs.
We started at 6:18 AM from our hotel, through the town roads and hit NH17 in about 20 minutes. Being early morning, the traffic was minimal till Margoa. Getting through Margoa town took some time with a little local traffic even at around 7:30 am in the morning. After Margoa, NH17 was relatively empty, the road surface very good, but because of the really narrow 2 lane undivided road and extensive curves, overtaking was difficult and we could only average 45 kmh all the way till the Karnataka border. NH17 in Karnataka was wider (more like a normal 2 lane highway).
Stops: We didn’t notice any decent stops all the way upto Karwar (other than roadside tea stalls). We saw a nice looking hotel “Lotus” on the right on Karwar and stopped there for breakfast. The food was just about OK, but the place had clean rest rooms and we were happy with the stop. Stretch 2: Karwar to Ankola (upto the NH63 intersection): 30 kms, 45 minutes
NH17 in this stretch was again quite good (with a few minor bad patches) and we saw the sign board to take a left to get to Hubli just before entering Ankola. This is a small sign-board, so watch for this. Once we took a left, we saw another board with NH63 on it – reconfirmed that we had taken the correct road.
Stops: We saw sign boards for a few hotels on this stretch, but none seemed as convenient and nice as the Lotus place we had stopped at. Stretch 3: Ankola to Hubli via Yellapur on NH63: 140 kms, 2.5 hours
The NH63 stretch is mostly good with occasional bad patches. The big issue here would be the unexpected potholes – you will have an excellent stretch of road (you can do 100 kmh easily) and a few potholes suddenly pop up, not allowing enough time to slow down. In addition, there are unmarked road bumps whenever you come across a village. Watch for these – one of either side of the village. Overall this stretch was very empty with just some truck traffic, the road surface was quite good (much better than NH4A) and the route is not very curvy – so overtaking is not very painful. We got to Hubli (actually the NH4 bypass) by 12:00 Noon.
Stops: We did not notice any decent spots on this stretch where you can stop (there were a few food places in a place called Kalghatgi - this town seemed bigger than Yellapur). Your best best would be to stop somewhere around Karwar or go all the way upto Hubli. Stretch 4: Hubli to Nelamangala: 360 kms - 5 hrs, 15 minutes
Here on, the road report is similar to that of the onward journey (previous post). I have provided the stops on this side of the road below.
Stops: You will see a Kamat on the left within 15 minutes after you hit NH4 from NH63. The next Kamat (after about 45 minutes from the earlier Kamat) is on the right - the same one we had stopped at on the onward journey – you can access this easily from the left side too using a break in the highway. After this we didn’t notice places you can stop at, till the Kamat in Sira (about 260 kms from the time you hit NH4), right next to a IOC petrol bunk.
Comment: The road after Tumkur was quite crowded (maybe because of the time – around 4:30 PM). Also watch for craters/potholes on the NH4 stretch after Tumkur. This side of the road (Tumkur to Bangalore) has more of these than the other side. Get onto the toll road as soon as you see the sign board – we saw some huge traffic piled up on the service road. Stretch 5: Nelamangala to Sarjapur Road via NICE: 50 kms, 2 hrs
After Nelamangala, you will notice a sign board for Hosur Road/Mysore Road. Take the service road once you see this sign – you will also see a large overbridge about 100 m ahead (this is actually the NICE road). From the service road, clear sign-boards will direct you to the NICE road. We saw a few cop cars on NICE road and decided to restrict the speed to about 80 kmh. We also noticed that most trucks were virtually invisible (it was dark by then) with no tail lights – so driving at high speeds on the NICE road when dark may not be very safe. The NICE is fully complete except for the short detour you will need to take at Bannerghetta road – this is just a hop off, hop on type of break – so will not be an issue. Once we hit Hosur Road, we got stuck a little with local traffic and it was about 7:30 pm by the time we reached home. Additional Comments:
1) The NH63-NH17 route to Goa is definitely better in terms of road surface than the NH4A route, but the really narrow NH17 stretch with lots of curves all through from Karwar to Goa is a bit of a concern for me – chances of accidents seem higher and the drive will be more tiresome.
2) My overall recommendation would be to take the NH63-NH17 route if you are going to South Goa and NH4-NH4A if you are going to North Goa.
Last edited by JLN : 30th September 2010 at 10:21.
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