[somil]

Guys,

So you suggest I should take the Tavandi - Utlur - Amboli - Sawantwadi - Bardez route right? I was just trying to skin hilly roads during this season, since we would be passing this area by late evening/night if we leave from Mumbai at around 9-10am in the morning.

Thanks,

[Darryl.Burke]

Originally Posted by deutscheafrikar

Ok I left this morning at 7 and reached home at 7 pm. I noticed something from amboli to sawantwadi after the amboli ghat ends there is a town called Danoli, and just after this is a left turn towards Banda and Panjim as the sign board says 15.6 km and 62 kms to each respective place. I think taking this turn would mean avoiding sawantwadi. Has anyone tried this?
Nigel

I did, on the 11th of July, and regretted not sticking to the main road. The first 2-3 km of the road are deceptively ok, but after that there is a very narrow stretch where even two small cars would pass with difficulty, and several badly broken patches, one of which was on a short but fairly steep upslope and slick with rain. The front wheels of my Esteem started to spin and I consider myself lucky to have made it to the top. There are also 2 or 3 causeways, with the water inches below the road when I passed through -- I'd guess that the road is impassable for low-slung vehicles later in the monsoon, or at least after heavy showers.

I'm not sure how much distance the 'shortcut' saved me, but I'm confident the longer route would have been faster.

Incidentally, I signed up to this forum mainly in order to post this warning. I'd been reading the posts here about the Amboli-Goa route, and none mentioned this side road, which is unfortunately well signposted.

db

[Munish.Thapar]

I am planning to drive in Swift , from Bombay to Goa on 14 Aug & plan to go vie Pune - Amboli , how is the Road condition ????

Many thanks in advance .

[Minardi]

Originally Posted by hvkumar

The road via Belgaum, Khanapur, Londa, Molem and Ponda to Panaji/Madgaon is lovely but typically breaks up between Londa and Molem during the rains. Luckily, the iron ore exports have fallen significantly which means truck traffic will be reduced. No update on the road condition, but I would avoid this route during the rains.

You have to enter Belgaum city, and this is NH4A.

hv, actually there exists a road that bypasses londa and connects molem to khanapur directly (as indicated by the blue road on the map). this new road forms the hypotenuse of the Molem-Londa-Khanapur triangle. Londa i think is the vertex of the rt angled road shown in the map.

Around 5 years back, when we took this road, we missed the left turn at Molem. May be it was not prominent, as it was a newly built road. That time I checked in several maps, and only a few maps showed this 'hidden' road. Now it can be seen on Google earth, though its entry into Khanapur seems to be s bit unclear.

[SAHIR.KITTUR]

Originally Posted by Minardi

hv, actually there exists a road that bypasses londa and connects molem to khanapur directly (as indicated by the blue road on the map). this new road forms the hypotenuse of the Molem-Londa-Khanapur triangle. Londa i think is the vertex of the rt angled road shown in the map.

Around 5 years back, when we took this road, we missed the left turn at Molem. May be it was not prominent, as it was a newly built road. That time I checked in several maps, and only a few maps showed this 'hidden' road. Now it can be seen on Google earth, though its entry into Khanapur seems to be s bit unclear.

The road as marked in the attached snap shot of Google earth as "NH4A"
Is wrong. In fact the road marked as NH4A exists but herd that its very very bad. Original NH4A remains the same Belgaum-Khanapur-Ramnagar-Anmod-Molem

[Minardi]

Thanks Sahir for that piece of info. In fact, many old maps do show the google 4A as the real and newer 4A. May be it was intended that way, but may be was never developed into a national highway. It would be interesting to check out first hand info from a t-bhp member who has travelled on this road. 5 years back, a stretch of around 8 kms between Anmod and Ramnagar was undriveable. Looks like the same case today :( But the Ramnagar-Khanapur road is very good!

[deutscheafrikar]

Originally Posted by Darryl.Burke

I did, on the 11th of July, and regretted not sticking to the main road. The first 2-3 km of the road are deceptively ok, but after that there is a very narrow stretch
Incidentally, I signed up to this forum mainly in order to post this warning.
db

Darryl, I'm really sorry about your unfortunate experience. I should not have posted the question

Thanks a lot for your warning.
What was the rest of the route like after the few months of rains? from Nipani to mapusa.
Regards.
Nigel

[Darryl.Burke]

Originally Posted by deutscheafrikar

Darryl, I'm really sorry about your unfortunate experience. I should not have posted the question

Thanks a lot for your warning.
What was the rest of the route like after the few months of rains? from Nipani to mapusa.
Regards.
Nigel

Nothing wrong with the question, in fact it's better that more members come to know about this trap of a road.

Nipani to Ajra was slightly broken up, may be worse after another month of rains. Ajra onwards was in somewhat better state of repair, but nothing to go gaga about

Through most of the Nipani-Amboli route you can drive at around 50-60 kmh, but keep your eyes peeled for potholes.

db

[deutscheafrikar]

Originally Posted by Munish.Thapar

I am planning to drive in Swift , from Bombay to Goa on 14 Aug & plan to go vie Pune - Amboli , how is the Road condition ????

Manish Please inform us about the road condition after your return from Goa
Thanks

Darryl thanks, I get your point.
Regards
Nigel

[somil]

Guys,

I drove from Mumbai to Goa on Aug 8th, 2009, but came back by air. A local coming from opposite direction at very high speed in a Maruti Alto lost control and smashed into my 5-Series near Colva Beach and made it immobile, Our luck that nothing happened to us but he got badly hurt with major head injuries.
Anyway I took Mumbai - Pune - Kohlapur -Amboli - Bardez - Goa Route. The roads were great except for a small patch before and after Amboli. Try to avoid driving at this section in late evenings since the fog was thick on the ghats and later you'll find very slow traffic when you enter Goa.
This picture was taken at Amboli Ghats;

[goandude]

Another major issue I faced was returning to Goa on a Sunday through Amboli. Hordes of people come to amboli to experience the waterfalls. so the road gets jammed. Sometimes even saturdays are bad. It took me 1.5 hrs to cover 4 km.

[Sawyer]

Another interesting and more scenic route is from Kolhapur to Gaganbavda, and then down to the Konkan - it will take more time because you are essentially exchanging the NH17 for the NH4 for the Kolhapur to Nipani distance. But the road is decent, and there is a lot more to see of nature than on the Nipani to Amboli road. It will add to the time by about an hour, I reckon, but is a nicer alternative drive.

[ranjitp1]

Agree with Sawyer on this..the Gaganbawda route is a very scenic and beautiful route.Unspoilt by traffic or humans.

Another route is via the Phondaghat.We happened to take this route on our way back to Mumbai from Panjim.The roads are very good and surprisingly the ghat sections have withstood the rains and the landscape is mindblowing.

Kankavli-Kolhapur vi Phondaghat is approx 110kms.

The large majority of the route is through the ghats.So long winding roads,not much of fog though.Roads are decently wide enough.

The route is Panjim-NH-17-Sawantwadi-Kudal-Sindhunagari-Kankavli-6kms from Kankavli,you see a fork road,take the right(this is SH-117).SH-117 and SH-116 intersect a little distance before Phonda town.From thereon the road is known as MH MSH-116.(Maharashtra Major State Highway 116)

After crossing over the Phondaghat you reach Radhanagari which is the only major town apart from Phonda on this route.Radhanagari to Kolhapur is an hour's distance.

Departed Panjim at 1000.
Departed Kankavli at 1310
Departed Phonda at 1320
Departed Radhnagari at 1350
Departed Kolhapur-NH4 at 1510


The only downside is that you would have to drive through Kolhapur town to reach NH-4,but the roads were pretty straight-forward inside the town so did not face too much of hassles.

Fo the r Gaganbawda route continue further on NH-17 and take the turn off towards right at Talere Naka after Nandgaon.This is MH SH 115.

Kankavli-Kolhapur vi Gaganbawda is approx 85kms.

[Munish.Thapar]

Originally Posted by deutscheafrikar

Manish Please inform us about the road condition after your return from Goa
Thanks

Darryl thanks, I get your point.
Regards
Nigel

As adviced by Ashish Pallod we took the following Route :
mumbai-expressway-pune-dehuroad katraj byepass-shindewadi tunnel on nh4[don't take katraj ghat]-nh4-satara-kolhapur byepass-nh4-kagal-nipani-sankeshwar-turn right-gadhinglaj-ajra-amboli-sawantwadi-goa.

But took a sharp left after we got down the hill of Amboli , do not take this left as the road is very bad on the way back we went up to Sawantwadi then to Amboli .

The road from the exit of NH4 ( Sankeshwar ) to Sawantwadi is patchy , you can maintain speed of 60 - 70 kmph do look out for pot holes & people walking on the road .

I drove SWIFT petrol left Juhu at 6 am reached Kolhapur`s MacDonells by 11:15 am and check in at north Goa hotel at 3:30 pm .

On the way back left the hotel 8:30 am reached Kolhapur`s Mac at 12:10 on the way back we stopped for refreshment at Kamats at Amboli .

The swift gave me fuel average on 12 - 15 kmpl. touched max sped of 140 kmph .On NH4 I did a distance on 100 Km in 40 min . We were three adults and my 10 year old daughter with bags .

It was a pleasure to drive on the NH 4 the swift overtook all the vehicles it came across besides a Merc which overtook us on the Mumbai - Pune express way .

Once again thank you Ashish for the route .

Cheers.

[Sawyer]

@ranjit - thanks for that update. It gives one a chance to see Radhanagari as well. I will take that route down the next time, because NH4 is a boring road! I knew about that route but was not sure about the state of the roads.