[maverickdrive]

I drove to the famous temple at Kukke Subramanya this weekend. In spite of apprehensions about the road quality, I took the Shiradi Ghat route. Here's the summary:

Car: Hyundai i10 AT
Driving Aid: Garmin Nuvi 215W with MapMyIndia v4.0
Average Fuel Efficiency: 16.6 kmpl
Fellow passengers: Mom and aunt

Total Distance: 620 km
Total Driving Time: BLR to KKS 4:50 hours; KKS to BLR 5:40 hours
Average Driving Speed: BLR to KKS 64 kmph; KKS to BLR 55 kmph
Peak Speed achieved: 137 kmph (as per my Garmin) - achieved on NICE road

Route: Bangalore (BTM Layout) - NICE road - Magadi - Kunigal - Hassan - Sakleshpura - Gundya - Kukke Subramanya

Started from home at 10:15 PM, reached Kukke Subramanya at 3:05 AM. No breaks.

Return journey - started from Subramanya at 10:30 AM, reached home at 4:10 PM. One break near Magadi to buy vegetables

I was afraid I would get stuck in the middle of all the coast-bound buses on the onward journey, but by some luck I missed them all. Encountered a veritable procession of buses of all shapes and sizes coming in the opposite direction, though.

Magadi Road (from NICE) looks like its been recently relaid and is in superb condition, except for a small stretch through Tavarekere. The road gets horrible through Magadi town, but returns to its good self till Kunigal.

NH-48 is having road widening works up to a little beyond Adichunchunagiri Medical College, which around 40km before Channarayanapatna. The road surface is good, but watch out for near-invisible speed-breakers on this stretch.

The Hassan bypass also looks newly relaid, and this was a huge relief because I have had a torrid time on this stretch in the past. Generally, NH-48 right from Kunigal until Sakleshpur is in very good condition and I could easily keep the needle between 80-100 kmph in spite of the procession of buses coming in the opposite direction.

Now for the crunch. Shiradi Ghat road is in the best condition I have seen it for a long while (just relatively speaking). It is by no means as good as it was say in 2002-03, but at least the surface is by and large smooth. A lot of corners are showing wear though, and I am pretty sure the road's going to disappear when the monsoon starts in earnest. Even so, the road got worse as I went on and the last 6-7 km before Gundya were just about average. There are a few big potholes, especially before and after culverts and bridges. The surface resembles a golf ball in some short stretches. I doubt if I can risk my i10 on this road come late July or August.

On the return, I toyed with the idea of driving via Sulya - Madikeri - Srirangapatna, but I stuck to the NH-48 route. As it was a Saturday, there were village markets setup all through the route (with many dozens of cows crossing the road at one place); so my average speed was cut down.

In summary - an excellent drive and an excellent darshan at the temple. I enquired about the five-headed snake that was reported in the papers, but no one could give me better than vague ideas.

Oh yeah. The traffic. There were many LPG tanker-trucks on the return journey, but no great volume of traffic. The ore trucks seem to be on vacation, which is awesome news. KSRTC bus drivers were mindless as usual. Except for a curiously overturned autorickshaw near Kunigal on the return journey, there were no accidents to gape at or hamper the average speed.

[ampere]

Wow! 16.6 FE on an i10 AT is great.

If you Garmin said 137 peak speed, you would have been driving much more than that!

[mooza]

I am planning to do Bangalore-Puttur, via Hassan and Shiradi, in a couple of days time. I plan to leave at 6.30 am from Bangalore. A couple of queries :

1. Should I take the Magadi route option, or is the Nelamangala Kunigal stretch better now ? I will be leaving from Koramangala / Audugodi.

2. Any good places for a South Indian breakfast on Magadi road ? I want to preferably clear the city traffic before stopping for breakfast.

Thanks in advance

[Samurai]

There is Hotel Mayura at Bellur Cross, that is after Kunigal and Yediyur. Best place to break for breakfast.

[lohithrao]

I second that! also there is a "thatte idli" hotel in kunigal town, but its most likely one can miss it as its a small place. while driving towards hassn just after the kunigal bustop keep loking at the right ...you see a crowded place that should be it!

btw i guess monsoon has arrived, started to rain hard yesterday evening and the temperature dropped. am i glad yea...looking forward for some nice rain drives:0

Originally Posted by Samurai

There is Hotel Mayura at Bellur Cross, that is after Kunigal and Yediyur. Best place to break for breakfast.

[StarVegabond]

Originally Posted by lohithrao

btw i guess monsoon has arrived, started to rain hard yesterday evening and the temperature dropped. am i glad yea...looking forward for some nice rain drives:0

In fact that is what we did yesterday.

Returned from my parent's place yesterday.

Started at 9:40 AM, reached home at 11:10 PM. Total time 13.5 hours

Drove through Bramhavara-Hebri-Someshwar-Agumbe-Bidargodu-Hariharspura-Narave-Jayapura-Chikmagaluru-Belur-Hassan-Kunigal-Nelamangala-Yelahanka

We encountered rains some 7 occations raning from 10 minutes to 30 minutes duration each time.

Took a 3 hour break at Prabhodini Gurukula near Hariharpura. It was an experience. I will write about it in my travelogue "Story of Summer Barbeque" shortly.

Took another 30 minutes break at Hassan for Coffee/Snacks.
We also took several photo breaks on way at Agumbe Ghat onwards cumulative time could be some 30 minutes at max.

Nelamangala to Yelahanka (some 30+ KMs) took about 3 hours amid the bumper to bumper traffic and rains. All this because, i missed the turn to Magadi road after Kunigal, it was raining and it seems i just drove on.

Total Journey time was 9.5 hours for the 445KMs. Avg speed of 47KMPH.

Here are some snaps of the rain drive.

[_abhishek]

Yes, rains are back. While many of us just love to drive in the rain, I think driving in Shiradi ghat after 2-3 big showers will make driving miserable.

Had been to Dharmasthala - Chikmagalor over the weekend.
Left Bangalore at 6 and reached Dharmasthala at 11.30 with 1 hour break in middle. Road condition is very good, except for some stretches between Nelmangala cross and Kunigal. But beyond this the road is good.

For me the best part of the trip was driving in pot-hole free(there was only 1 pot hole in the whole stretch) Shiradi Ghat. If anyone wants to experience smooth driving in this ghat then i feel this is the time to go before actual monsoon sets in and road starts giving up.

[mooza]

Originally Posted by Samurai

There is Hotel Mayura at Bellur Cross, that is after Kunigal and Yediyur. Best place to break for breakfast

Originally Posted by lohithrao

I second that! also there is a "thatte idli" hotel in kunigal town,

Thanks, Samurai and Lohithrao, for the suggestions.

Mayura it will be, I guess, for the morning break. The Thatte Idlis sound tempting, but there never is any consensus on the menu within my family ! Hence the need for some good options, within the Southern menu.

Going by Starvegabond's experience, the Magadi route still seems to be the better option. Nice pics there, driving through the rain ! Will carry my camera with me

[Rajesh K R]

I drove from Hassan to BLR on 29th evening and encountered very heavy thunderstorms in between Bellur cross & yediyur.

Had to stop at roadside for almost 45 mts as visibility was near zero. I was driving a Getz 1.3 with poor wipers and stock headlamps which made life difficult in the very heavy rains. The 4 laning work made it even difficult with umpteen number of diversions & road humps coupled with very heavy oncoming traffic.

[Gany]

I drove from Bangalore to Vittal over the weekend. I drove via Madikeri! Here is the road condition:(started at 6'15 AM, reached 3PM - lots of stops+visit to golden temple at Bylukuppe). Return 7;30 AM start, 7:30 at HSR (few stops & visit to Nisarga dhama). ~360 kms, point to point you can do this is about 7 hrs in comfort)
1) Nice road (BG to Mysore exit) - too many trucks on every lane! Pathetic when compared to the cost of travel on this road!
2) BM - Very good. On the return journey, I found every alternate town being worse (Srirangapatna being good, Mandya worse etc). This road is better than NICE (no cost & avg speed was higher)
3) Mysore bypass - good. This road is being widened (good & bad news)
4) Mysore to Kushalnagara - very good road. Bad part - too many cars with drivers having no highway manners!
5) Kushalanagara town - ok. Preparation work for road widening is in full swing, drive slow.
6) Kushalanagra to Shuntikoppa - Good road/newly laid. Be watchful for oncoming vehicle/blind overtaking
7) shuntikoppa - widening work is full swing, drive slow. At one place there is only 1.5 lane for both side traffic
8) shuntikoppa to Madikeri (~2 kms from town) - good road/newly laid. Has some sharp curves where one needs to be careful
9) Madikeri to Puttur - Pot holes have been filled, upto Sampaje,is bit rough due to patch work and this is the slowest stretch
10) Puttur bypass - Roadwork is in progress at one small stretch(to make this 4 lane)
Not sure how the road condition would turn out once the rain hits this strech!
Overall good trip, roads have improved. But only sad point is with improved road, we have too many on the roads who have no proper training to be behind the wheel! The price we pay for road widening (100's of huge trees were cut and now they are breaking houses & shops)

[deepax]

Hi Lohith, Samurai or all other frequent travelers between BLR & MLR:

I am driving to Mangalore from Bangalore with my family somewhere around 3rd week of this month. This will be our first by car to MLR. I know the timing of the visit is not good with respect to the weather condition.

Needed a favour, please confirm the below route via Magadi

Planned route (by referring to Google Maps):

1) Starting from HSR Layout
2) Will connect to NICE Road from Bannerughatta Road
3) Connect to Magadi Road after Anjana Nagar
4) Drive through SH-85 Magadi Main Road
5) Connect to SH-94 Kunigal Main Road
6) Drive towards NH-48 Hassan Main Road
7) Connect and drive through NH-48 Hassan Main Road (crossing SH-33 Tumkur Main Road, I should be seeing Akash theatre here!)
8) Drive through Yediyur and continue towards Hassan
9) Pass through Bellur Cross
10) Should pass by Adichunchangiri Medical College
11) Continue on NH-48 by passing Channarayapattana
12) Pass through Dandiganahalli and Shanti Grama
13) Connect to Hassan or By Pass it (if there is any other connecting road) and drive to Sakleshpur
14) Drive via Naranhalli, connect to Shiradi Ghat
15) Complete Shiradi Ghat, connect to Nelyady and then Uppinangadi
16) Connect to Bantwal after Kalladka and then Final Destination Mangalore

Any good places to take a break for lunch or snacks or to relax.
Precautions to be taken on this route.
We will be traveling during day time. Will try to leave as early as possible in the morning but cannot guarantee because of the family and a toddler!

Any suggestions and pointers are welcome and appreciated.

Many thanks,
deepax

[Samurai]

Your route is perfect. Places for breakfast, Hotel Mayura & CCD at Bellur Cross. Both have ample parking and clean toilets. Haven't taken Shiradi ghat since two years, I'll let others comment on it.

Recently I took Sampaje, Kudremuk and Agumbe ghats. Tomorrow I am driving through Coorg again.

[lohithrao]

deepak, yup route looks good.

As mentioned by Samurai, Mayura is good place and its my first choice, you need to keep a eye to the left once you cross the "bellur cross" thanks to the 4laning work you might miss it...however since its a huge place you will notice as you cross this happened couple of times with me

Sakleshpura has couple of restaurants one just as you enter, and one just after the before the bus stop.

Get down the ghat you will find small dhabbas in gundya, good for omlet and limbo soda.

After uppinangadi there is a hotel(forgot the name) to the right when you are towards Mangalore. even this is good with decent rest room. masala dosa tastes great here!

About the road condition you can check few previous posts for latest updates, shiradi is in the best shape just hope that you dont find the truck traffic. have noticed that the traffic is not much on non-holiday season. so please don plan this trip on a long weekend.

Keeping the rain in mind, be cautious the moment you hit nh48 and take left towards Kunigal...till you cross adichunchungiri lots of construction activity is going on.

Shiradi ghat is in good shape but this has made many drivers to drive rashly, just take this road easily esp if it has rained or if its raining...

have fun!

[rajshenoy]

I think Hassan bypass is in good shape so you can avoid the city traffic.

I just came back from mangalore(by bus) today morning and felt the journey to be very comfortable(read hardly any potholes)

I reached mangalore by 5:20 and while return journey too, reached my home at 6:45(30 mins delay due to bus tyre change)

So good time to travel i guess

Only thing you need to watch out is heavy rains and road blocks(shiradi) due to fallen trees and landslides(try your luck). NH is the best bet since they clean it fast

[dkamath]

Originally Posted by deepax

Hi Lohith, Samurai or all other frequent travelers between BLR & MLR:

I am driving to Mangalore from Bangalore with my family somewhere around 3rd week of this month. This will be our first by car to MLR. I know the timing of the visit is not good with respect to the weather condition.

Do I have to cry out loud to suggest the Madikeri route?
Sparse traffic makes travelling along this route fatigue-free. Your itenary seems well planned, and hence wouldn't want you to change plans now.
Wishing you a pleasurable journey. Drive safe.