[ampere]

Originally Posted by sarathlal

Dear friends, any surprise elements in the Bangalore - Trivandrum route via NH 7 ?
Planning the drive after around 6 months, so checking on, as part of pre travel check.

Originally Posted by Sankar

There are no surprises on NH7 till Karur, been there couple of weeks ago. Most of the extremely bad sections on NH47 from Kaliyikavilai to Nagercoil has been tarred, but potholes still remain at places. From Parvatipuram to Aralvaimozhi its patchy with huge potholes near Vadassery.

I think Arun had tried a bypass for Nagarcoil. He mentioned, it being good for day drives.

http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/test-d...ml#post3520717

[sarathlal]

Originally Posted by Sankar

There are no surprises on NH7 till Karur, been there couple of weeks ago. Most of the extremely bad sections on NH47 from Kaliyikavilai to Nagercoil has been tarred, but potholes still remain at places. From Parvatipuram to Aralvaimozhi its patchy with huge potholes near Vadassery.

I'm planning to do a Bangalore trip in Oct. Once you are back please update how its for tourists in non KA cars in Bangalore. Hearing a lot about life time tax checking and harassment going on in Blore for non state cars.

Thanks, will update once am back. As of now, planning on keeping my service records at Tvm, petrol bills and PUC handy, in addition to the toll bills. It is an 8 day trip, so am also bit skeptical on how Bangalore police are gonna behave.

[Sankar]

Originally Posted by ampere

I think Arun had tried a bypass for Nagarcoil. He mentioned, it being good for day drives.

http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/test-d...ml#post3520717

I have partially taken this route the previous year. When we were approaching Nagercoil we saw the traffic diversion board saying "Heavy Vehicles to Madurai, Tirunelveli" take left. We took this route thinking we can bypass Nagercoil and the roads would be decent, but the route took us through bad stretches and village roads till Eracha kulam. Imo if you're not passing through Nagercoil during peak hours the regular route is good enough. During peak hours this route might be better.

I would like to know how the below pictured route is? From Marthandam till Kulasekaram the surface is kind of OK now, some bad sections have been tarred but one has cropped up near Kulasekaram. From Kulasekaram and on i have no idea.

[ampere]

Originally Posted by Sankar

I would like to know how the below pictured route is? From Marthandam till Kulasekaram the surface is kind of OK now, some bad sections have been tarred but one has cropped up near Kulasekaram. From Kulasekaram and on i have no idea.

No idea Sankar. I think what Arun did was not take whole of it.

This is what he did: Route Link

[hamster]

Originally Posted by Sankar

I would like to know how the below pictured route is? From Marthandam till Kulasekaram the surface is kind of OK now, some bad sections have been tarred but one has cropped up near Kulasekaram. From Kulasekaram and on i have no idea.
[/ATTACH]

Sankar,
THe route you had mentioned was taken by J Ravi recently and he has updated too on this same thread couple of pages before. Yes, of course, it would pass through small villages but according to him, the tarmac was better and the route scenic too.
You can either take Marthandam->Kulasekharam-> Thadikarankonam-> Boothapandi-> Shenbagaramanputhur-> Aralvaomozhi
or come down all the way till CHunkankadai and then take
Chunkandadai->Erachakulam->Boothapandi->Shenbagaramanputhur-> Aralvaomozhi.

Originally Posted by Sankar

From Kulasekaram and on i have no idea.

I drove on this route on 21 Aug 2014. Kulasekaram>Aralvaimozhi>Kavalkinaru section was a good 2-laned SH twisting through rubber plantations and paddy fields. The details are here.

[sarathlal]

Originally Posted by Sankar

From Parvatipuram to Aralvaimozhi its patchy with huge potholes near Vadassery.

This section is riddled with potholes and can slow down the sedans considerably. Covered this stretch early morning at around 5AM and was easy getting through. Not much of traffic.

Most of the road work after Krishnagiri toll is completed, with only very left. The new road is silky smooth, and very easy to cover those 150 odd kms.
Please do note that, only the tarring is completed, and road is unmarked. Please be careful driving at night.

Originally Posted by Sankar

I'm planning to do a Bangalore trip in Oct. Once you are back please update how its for tourists in non KA cars in Bangalore. Hearing a lot about life time tax checking and harassment going on in Blore for non state cars.

One day of running, no issues so far. Will update once more when am back after the week.

[sarathlal]

Hi, Any known effect of the recent issues at TN, on this Bangalore - Trivandrum route?
This would be for travel starting today evening.

[ravib]

Originally Posted by sarathlal

Hi, Any known effect of the recent issues at TN, on this Bangalore - Trivandrum route?
This would be for travel starting today evening.

Unofficial Bandh is observed in many districts along NH7. (Karur, Madurai etc), so you may not have shops opened or some minor dharna's within towns, but i hope, there should not be any problem in NH. So, drive with care.

-Ravi

[sarathlal]

Originally Posted by Sankar

I'm planning to do a Bangalore trip in Oct. Once you are back please update how its for tourists in non KA cars in Bangalore. Hearing a lot about life time tax checking and harassment going on in Blore for non state cars.

Back from the trip. There has been no issues for the KL registration anywhere during the 6 days of stay and some moderate amount of drive in the city. Also didnt notice any checking

[suresh_gs]

Originally Posted by ravib

Unofficial Bandh is observed in many districts along NH7. (Karur, Madurai etc), so you may not have shops opened or some minor dharna's within towns, but i hope, there should not be any problem in NH. So, drive with care.

-Ravi

Only after oct 7th, we will get to know the gravity of the situation. Till then no issues

[Wind]

Did my first round trip to Kanyakumari last weekend. The biggest learning was that you need to plan well for your food breaks.

During the onward journey, I started from Bangalore at 4:30 AM and the plan was to have breakfast at Arya Bhavan which is about 13 kMS before the turn out to Namakkal. The hotel was not open in the morning and so we decided to proceed ahead and the same was the case with Hotel Vaibhav Laxmi and Hotel Fantasy as well. Ultimately, had a sandwich at CCD which is near Fantasy. I had lunch at Capsi near Tirunelveli and I would recommend that hotel to anyone who is traveling that route. There aren't many good restaurants in the highway between Salem and Madurai and if you are starting early from Bangalore, you would be caught in the no-restaurant land between Salem and Madurai during break fast time!

On my return the plan was to have lunch at BPCL Ghar ka kana which is after the Madurai bye-pass but discovered to our dismay that that it has been closed down. Finally ended up a having a very late lunch at A2B Thoppur!


-- Wind

[ampere]

Originally Posted by Wind

On my return the plan was to have lunch at BPCL Ghar ka kana which is after the Madurai bye-pass but discovered to our dismay that that it has been closed down. Finally ended up a having a very late lunch at A2B Thoppur!

If you are starting at 4:30 from Bangalore, then make sure you don't cross Salem before breakfast if you are heading down South. Because the next good place is only at Madurai bypass. (This one is before Capsi, but you might have felt the need to break then).

With breakfast done, if you are heading south of Madurai, you should be well past Madurai when you hit lunch time. Post breakfast a resume of journey by 8 should lead you past Madurai by about 11:30. Tirunelveli is another 150km and that should take about 2 to 2.5 hours at max. Capsi is ideal for lunch. But do note that beyond this point, there is hardly anything.

Same applies for return. If you are starting from Kanyakumri have your breakfast and then start by about 9AM. That should be mean you would be at Madurai bypass at about 1. Its about 300km to Madurai. Finish your lunch and then start to be past Salem by 4/5. To summarise, yes you need to know where the food points are. Especially because south of Salem, the options are not that many.

[kala]

Originally Posted by ampere

If you are starting at 4:30 from Bangalore, then make sure you don't cross Salem before breakfast if you are heading down South. Because the next good place is only at Madurai bypass. (This one is before Capsi, but you might have felt the need to break then).

There used to be a restaurant on the left side of the road just after Karur bye-pass which was quite decent. Don't remember the name, but looking at the GPX logs of my trip in 2011 Jan, the co-ordinates of the place is 10.924597,78.048410 (Latitude / Longitude)

Interestingly, when I was looking at the logs of that trip to locate this place, I realized that drives on NH7 used to be much faster in those days than it is today. With a 4 AM start from Electronics City, I had passed Salem at 6:07 and reached this restaurant at 07:10 - That is 283 kms in 3 hrs / 10 mins !! And from there on was probably even faster - Had reached Kavalkinar at 10:51 AM making it an actual driving time of 6 hrs 26 minutes (after deduction of 25 minutes for breakfast) for 624 kms on NH7 !

Of course it Kavalkinar-Trivandrum was bad even in those days, I had reached Trivandrum only by 13:10 hrs, the last 86 kms taking 2 hrs 20 minutes..

[ampere]

Originally Posted by kala

Interestingly, when I was looking at the logs of that trip to locate this place, I realized that drives on NH7 used to be much faster in those days than it is today. With a 4 AM start from Electronics City, I had passed Salem at 6:07 and reached this restaurant at 07:10 - That is 283 kms in 3 hrs / 10 mins !! And from there on was probably even faster - Had reached Kavalkinar at 10:51 AM making it an actual driving time of 6 hrs 26 minutes (after deduction of 25 minutes for breakfast) for 624 kms on NH7 !

Thats actually true. In fact when driving towards north on NH4, one can still maintain that kind of timings, even with a sedate drive. For example a breakfast break is almost at 350km in about 4 hours. With Hosur 6-lane being up that should be possible. But in spite of that, just because there are not enough good places south of Salem, I typically take it easy to reach Salem at just about 7. With the kind of situation right now, around Hosur, I assume about 2 to 2.5 hours for 200km for Salem. Hence a 4:30 AM start from Bangalore, takes me to Salem by 7. Perfect for steaming hot breakfast at any of the hotels in Salem.