[Rajeevraj]

Originally Posted by A350XWB

Did you take the route via Anangadi-Athanikkal-Kottakkadavu or the Feroke-Karuvanthuruthy road? At times, I feel it is better to take a right at Chettippadi or Anangadi, merge to NH66 at Chelari or Chettiyarmadu and continue via Ramanakttukara, Nallalam and Meenchanda. At least you will have comparatively wider roads and better surface.

Took the Feroke-Karuvanthuruthy road. I used to like it because once you cross Chettipadi, traffic thins out and there are no monster trucks or private buses to intimidate you. Also used to be a quick drive from Chettipadi to Ferok. It is still pretty traffic free compared to the other routes, but traffic volume has definitely increased.

On the NH I don't like the Chelari-Ramanatukkara stretch because I invariably get stuck behind trucks and being a conservative overtaker, rarely get a chance to overtake on this stretch. That is the primary reason I usually opt for the Karuvanthuruty route. But with the current Karuvanthuruthy ferok road condition, the NH is definitely a better choice.

Guess it is a choice between the devil and the deep sea.

[A350XWB]

Originally Posted by Rajeevraj

I used to like it because once you cross Chettipadi, traffic thins out and there are no monster trucks or private buses to intimidate you.

True that. Traffic after Chettippadi used to be sparse and it was a breeze to drive. Guess that has changed now. The traffic density has definitely increased. When at Thenhipalam (Haajiar Valavu, to be precise) I usually visit Chaliyam to buy fish . The roads are bad from the Kottakkadavu bridge and they leave it like that for a long time before repairing it. The roads from Kadalundi up to Chaliyam was already a mess, when I visited during September 2017.

Originally Posted by Rajeevraj

On the NH I don't like the Chelari-Ramanatukkara stretch because I invariably get stuck behind trucks and being a conservative overtaker, rarely get a chance to overtake on this stretch.
Guess it is a choice between the devil and the deep sea.

Agreed to this as well. Unless you have suicidal tendencies, you'll get stuck behind traffic, mostly. To add to that, the road is widened at a lot of places and 3 or 3.5 lanes of traffic is a norm at these places.
The biggest mess however, is the by-pass. After ~8 in the morning, it is like an in-city road. Heavy, maddening traffic and construction. I seldom take this now-a-days and always go via Nallalam and min by-pass or the good old road, if I have to go to the city. This is a much more peaceful drive.

[silversteed]

Originally Posted by Rajeevraj

Took the Feroke-Karuvanthuruthy road. I used to like it because once you cross Chettipadi, traffic thins out and there are no monster trucks or private buses to intimidate you. Also used to be a quick drive from Chettipadi to Ferok. It is still pretty traffic free compared to the other routes, but traffic volume has definitely increased.

My experience has always been a hit of miss affair. I run into pockets of thick local traffic, often times in the company of some "ricer" boys, and then short bursts of relatively less traffic. But I have always been to that side during day time and not before sunrise or late after sundown. On those counts, sometimes I find the Chelari Ramanattukara route a lot less stressful as slow-moving trucks are better than reckless boy-racers and ricks that are driven as though they're doing us a favour by letting us drive there

[Rajeevraj]

Drove Calicut Bangalore via the usual route today. Good news is that roads are now excellent all through-including the churam section. Traffic in the ghats continues to be a pain though, did not get stuck but the truck traffic is a huge drain on energy.

Rest of it was a breeze.

In other minor updates, the Chaliyam-Kadalundi road is closed on the Chaliyam town side for repair work, had to take some real narrow detours on the way to Tirur. There is also road work happening in and around Parappanangadi.

[mpksuhas]

Needs to be seen how they enforce it.

Link

The time spent in the jungle will be calculated according to the length of the stretch and the legal top speed of 35 km/h.
According to the order, a copy of which is with Bangalore Mirror, all vehicles that pass through forest areas are registered and tracked through ‘Gasthu’ — an app based on GPS technology. “While letting vehicles inside the forest, the personnel at the check post would inform them of the various conditions like no stoppage, no honking, no photography, no teasing or feeding animals, no littering, no smoking, no overstaying and no drinking; they will be told to drive at a maximum speed of 35 km per hour keeping in mind the safety of wildlife. This would ensure prevention of roadkill too,” said a field officer from Nagarhole Tiger Reserve.

[knightrider_7]

Going to Madikeri from Koduvally (Calicut), in a Dzire on the next Tuesday. There will be four people on board. As our hotel check-in is at 12 pm, we thought we could drive through any of these forest roads:

1. Mananthavady- Nagarhole- Hunsur- Madikeri

2. Mananthavady- Bavali- HD Kote- Hunsur- Madikeri

We will be starting the trip at 6 am. I would like to know the present road conditions of the above two options.

[binand]

Originally Posted by knightrider_7

Going to Madikeri from Koduvally (Calicut)

1. Mananthavady- Nagarhole- Hunsur- Madikeri
2. Mananthavady- Bavali- HD Kote- Hunsur- Madikeri

I think going to Hunsur via any route is unnecessarily circuitous. Mananthavady-Nagarhole-Gonikoppal-Madikeri should be the most direct route.

Also from Koduvally, you could try Iritty-Virajpet-Madikeri too.

[sandsun7]

Originally Posted by knightrider_7

Going to Madikeri from Koduvally (Calicut), in a Dzire on the next Tuesday. There will be four people on board. As our hotel check-in is at 12 pm, we thought we could drive through any of these forest roads:

1. Mananthavady- Nagarhole- Hunsur- Madikeri

2. Mananthavady- Bavali- HD Kote- Hunsur- Madikeri

We will be starting the trip at 6 am. I would like to know the present road conditions of the above two options.

Agree to what Binand suggested but If you still are looking to drive through Nagarhole forest I would suggest the Kattikulam-Tholpetty-Kutta-Nagarhole-Hunsur route as it runs through a lot more dense jungle compared to the Bavali route. Based on my experience, I have had more wildlife sightings on the Kutta route than the Bavali route. The roads are better on the HD Kote route than the Kutta-Nagarhole route. No idea about the HD kote-Hunsur stretch though.

The non forest routes via Kutta-Srimangala-Ponnampet-Gonikoppal-Polibetta-Siddapura-Madikeri and Kutta-Gonikoppal-Virajpet-Murnad-Madikeri is actually very scenic with lots of coffee and pepper plantations all along.

[knightrider_7]

Originally Posted by sandsun7

Agree to what Binand suggested but If you still are looking to drive through Nagarhole forest I would suggest the Kattikulam-Tholpetty-Kutta-Nagarhole-Hunsur route as it runs through a lot more dense jungle compared to the Bavali route.

Originally Posted by binand

I think going to Hunsur via any route is unnecessarily circuitous.

Thanks for the suggestions.

Driving through the forests was the initial plan. Time is not a constraint.

I will discuss these options with others and decide. Let me see what the other 3 prefer.

[mpksuhas]

Did Bangalore - Calicut - Bangalore couple of weeks back, details -

21 April - Bangalore - Calicut :

Started from home near Sarjapur road at 03:45 AM, reached Hosur road NICE road entry at 03:55 AM and Kanakpura roat NICE exit at 04:25 AM.

Compared to couple of months back, there are more sections which has road work ongoing now. Nothing to be concerned about, but you need to be careful since already narrow two lane road has become narrower at some sections since shoulders are dug up.

Was stopped between Kanakapura & Mallavalli due to election related checking. Past that there were some 3 checkposts till Mysore, however wasn't stopped at any.

Reached Nanjangaud CCD by 06:20, took a bio break of 7 minutes and reached Gundlupet at 07:00 AM after stopping at another police checkpost.

Thankfully most of trucks were inside forest area, hence crossed them easily and reached Batherry at 07:55 AM.

Past that, till Calicut traffic was really thin, not sure of the reason. Was able to reach Malaparamb by 10:00 AM. One of the fastest I was able to do Bangalore - Calicut recently.



Return 23 - Apr : Calicut - Bangalore.

Started from home at 02:55 PM, reached Batherry by 05:10 PM and stopped at Mathai Bakery / Mint flower restaurant. Couple of mins after stopping it started raining heavily, hence waited till 05:45 and started once rain has subsided. However, just before Muthanga a tree had fallen across road causing road block. It took around 20 minutes for it to be cleared by fire force.

Reached Nanjangaud CCD at 07:40 for a 10 mins break, we crossed Mysore ring road junction at 08:10 PM and took Bannur - Mallavalli route (the same route we took onward).

Mysore - Bannur - Mallavalli - Kanakpura was devoid of traffic. However, Kanakapura - Bangalore had moderate traffic and also heavy rain causing us to slow down. Reached NICE - Kanakapura junction at 10:30 PM and home by 11:00 PM.

For those planning of taking Kanakapura road -

- Traffic on this route has increased compared to what it was some 6 years ago when I first started taking this route. However, I feel that is the case with any road, hence not a blocker.

-If you are not comfortable with driving on 2 lane road, do not take this route. More so since road work is ongoing. You will be better off with Ramanagaram - Mandya route.

- Those who are driving in peak traffic time will surely face difficulty due to road work.

- Road through Bannur town which was work in progress since past 6 years or so is done.

- Collapsible barricades which appeared on Mysore road few years back has appeared on Kanakapura road now. Also, normal barricades have increased in number on Mallavalli - Bannur - Mysore route.

[knightrider_7]

Did a short round-trip to Kalpetta from Iritty today. For the onward journey, took Periya ghat road. Roads were good throughout. Traffic was also less.

Return was through Palchuram ghats. Roads were ok compared to Periya route. Apart from some potholes here and there, it was not an issue.

[knightrider_7]

Heavy rains in Calicut and Wayanad. People are advised not to take Thamarassery ghats. As per the news, traffic is rerouted via Kutiiady ghats.

[mpksuhas]

Did Bangalore - Calicut - Bangalore, onward was on Friday - 15 June and return yesterday, 19- June.

Earlier plan was to travel on Thursday, however had to drop since ticket didn't get confirmed. Later took tatkal tickets for both onward and return journey.


Decided not to drive down since it was a solo trip and since it was raining along with reports of road closures.


While there, these are the news reports I came across -

* Thamaraserry ghats will be closed for all heavy vehicles for around 3 months. There is landslide between hairpin 1 & 2, fixing that is going to take time. In meantime, heavy vehicles will be diverted through Kutiyadi route.
Road has been leveled to allow smaller vehicles (cars) to pass through Thamaraserry ghats, so those who are driving down need no worry.

* Railway track maintenance is scheduled to be started from 15- October on all Sundays. This will be held at multiple locations, hence there will be timing changes for all trains on Sunday.


Rain has subsided now, out of the 4 days I was there, though it rained on all days multiple times, it was not something you can call out of ordinary for June in Kerala.

[sandsun7]

Originally Posted by mpksuhas

* Thamaraserry ghats will be closed for all heavy vehicles for around 3 months. There is landslide between hairpin 1 & 2, fixing that is going to take time. In meantime, heavy vehicles will be diverted through Kutiyadi route.
Road has been leveled to allow smaller vehicles (cars) to pass through Thamaraserry ghats, so those who are driving down need no worry.

Read today in a vernacular newspaper that only one-way traffic would be allowed through the temporarily repaired stretch. Uphill traffic (Kozhikode-Wayanad) would be allowed while vehicles downhill (Wayand- Kozhikode) would have to take Kuttyadi ghats.

[sajidclt]

Originally Posted by mpksuhas

* Thamaraserry ghats will be closed for all heavy vehicles for around 3 months. There is landslide between hairpin 1 & 2, fixing that is going to take time. In meantime, heavy vehicles will be diverted through Kutiyadi route.
Road has been leveled to allow smaller vehicles (cars) to pass through Thamaraserry ghats, so those who are driving down need no worry.

Originally Posted by sandsun7

Read today in a vernacular newspaper that only one-way traffic would be allowed through the temporarily repaired stretch. Uphill traffic (Kozhikode-Wayanad) would be allowed while vehicles downhill (Wayand- Kozhikode) would have to take Kuttyadi ghats.

The downhill traffic needs to take the diversion after the fourth hairpin. This is as per today's Mathrubhumi. I have taken this diversion earlier too whenever there is heavy traffic and it is okay for a car.

I am driving down tomorrow and will update the thread after my journey.