[Ranga]

Originally Posted by Samurai

Yesterday I did my 4th trip of the month on Shirady. Now I consistently do Sakleshpur-Gundya in 1 hour. That's like 38kms I think, making my average speed 38kmph on Shiradi. People unfamiliar with this route might wonder what's the big deal.

This time I drove through Mangalore since I wanted to avoid horrible Karkala stretch. Reached Mangalore in 6.5hours including a 1/2 hour break at Mayura.

There is nothing else for now.

I am frantically looking for people to share the misery of driving on Karkala route. Most of the Udupi BHPians are out of town.

Usually 1.5 hours. But it took 45 minutes extra last time.

I recently went to Dharmastala & Kukke Subramanya .The Sakleshpur to Gundiya gate of 38 Kms was just horrible . Not sure how u could go so fast in a non existing road . Which vehicle did u use for this trip?
The irony is that even roads leadin to Dharmastala & Kukke ( State roads ) have gone for a toss .

[Ranga]

Originally Posted by bkishore_77

Folks,
Need an urgent advice. I'm no stranger to Shiradi ghat but this time it is a different situation. The last time I travelled over Shiradi ghat was in June when the patch work was almost done.

I'll be leaving to Mangalore in this coming weekend with my wife and she is carrying( 7 mths). Is it ok to go via Shiradi in a Safari or do you think it is too much of a hassle. She prefers travelling in a car rather than any other mode of transport for compelling reasons.

Could anyone share the present condition of the road via B'lore -Hassan

Belur--Gendehally---Mudigere---Charmadi---Dharmasthala--Joining back again to NH48.

Based on some previous posts, I understand that Belur--Gendehally- Mudigere is a better option then via Cheekanhally. Is it still the case? How is the road further down from Kottigehaara- Charmaadi --Dharmasthala.

I assume it is only the Shiradi road which is a mess and the road either side of Shiradi is good and that is the reason i want to join NH48 rather than proceeding from Charmadi--Ujire--BC road route.

Any inputs are much appreciated.

Please for heaven sake do not drive with ur wife who is carrying and is in 7th month . This road between Saklesphur and Gundiya is off road conditions .

Book Bangalore to Mangalore train in Thattkal . If need be i will pass my Travel agent number who will door deliver the tickets

[Samurai]

Originally Posted by Ranga

Please for heaven sake do not drive with ur wife who is carrying and is in 7th month . This road between Saklesphur and Gundiya is off road conditions .

Originally Posted by bkishore_77

Thank you all for the feedback. I made it to Mangalore without much of an hassle.

He has already made the trip, even I felt it was a huge risk. I am a father of two, and have seen my wife undergo one miscarriage due to bad road, that is when we lived on Bannerghatta road (2004) when it was really horrible.

Originally Posted by bkishore_77

The ghat starts at 255Kms and the first 25 odd Kms is in ok condition. With some patience, you can avoid the bad stretches. The next 7kms i.e to Gundya check post and 2 Kms past Gundya check post, it is a continous stretch of bumpy road but can be done with some extreme caution and patience.

So overall except for those 10-14 Kms of 380Kms i.e 4% of the route, the rest of the road is GOOD.

I think you have really played it down. How long did you take to cover Sakleshpur to Gundya?

Originally Posted by Ranga

I recently went to Dharmastala & Kukke Subramanya .The Sakleshpur to Gundiya gate of 38 Kms was just horrible . Not sure how u could go so fast in a non existing road . Which vehicle did u use for this trip?

One would think bkishore_77 and you are talking about very different roads. Yes, it is horrible. But I drive my usual badroad vehicle, the Grand Vitara.

[sagarpadaki]

Originally Posted by Samurai

Yesterday I did my 4th trip of the month on Shirady. Now I consistently do Sakleshpur-Gundya in 1 hour. That's like 38kms I think, making my average speed 38kmph on Shiradi. People unfamiliar with this route might wonder what's the big deal.

This time I drove through Mangalore since I wanted to avoid horrible Karkala stretch. Reached Mangalore in 6.5hours including a 1/2 hour break at Mayura.

There is nothing else for now.

I am frantically looking for people to share the misery of driving on Karkala route. Most of the Udupi BHPians are out of town.

Usually 1.5 hours. But it took 45 minutes extra last time.

That's ruddy awesome Samurai! Maintaining average of 38 kmph on the horrible stretch is an achievement indeed. BTW at what time of the day you travelled? And is there any time during which we can cover shiradi ghat in less traffic?(other than the night time).

One more query,is the route through madikeri->sulya->subrahmanya complete?

[rajshenoy]

Originally Posted by sagarpadaki

That's ruddy awesome Samurai! Maintaining average of 38 kmph on the horrible stretch is an achievement indeed. BTW at what time of the day you travelled? And is there any time during which we can cover shiradi ghat in less traffic?(other than the night time).

One more query,is the route through madikeri->sulya->subrahmanya complete?

I think we regulars using shiradi are immune to the road condition now, so we might be biased if someone asks how good or bad the road conditions are.

I am not sure what is best time, but when i start from bangalore, i typically reach shiradi at around 9AM, it takes about 75-90 mins to cross gundya. there will be very very less traffic at this time of the day(which is why i leave bangalore early)

While returning from Mangalore, i am forced to start late and thus end up hitting gundya-sakleshpur stretch post 11 AM, and it takes close to 90 mins again as i reach sakleshpur by 12:30PM( traffic will be average, but no road block as such)

I am not sure if there is any peak hour like here in Bangalore, as it takes about 90 mins

[guyfrmblr]

Originally Posted by sagarpadaki

One more query,is the route through madikeri->sulya->subrahmanya complete?

No. The stretch between Jodupala (the place where ghat ends and few kms before Sampaje) and Sullia is in a very bad condition. I also heard that stretch between Mani (NH-48) and Sullia is non-motorable.

[guyfrmblr]

Originally Posted by speedsatya

I stuck to my limit of 100 kph on the left lane with an occasional 120 kph

Be careful when you drive on NH-48 next time as I came across police stationed with speed monitoring cameras last weekend at two places, one near Bellur Cross and another near Kunigal. I think they have reduced the NH-48 speed limit to 80 kmph. I had seen speed limit boards of 100 kmph between Nelamangala and Hassan three months back but they have replaced all the boards with 80 kmph now.

Note from Moderator: Post copied to this thread. Thanks

[Samurai]

Originally Posted by UB_007

And yes I am also attending fellow Bhpian wedding at Belthangady on 31st this month. Is that Slicvic you are talking about? Then lets catch up at GV kere.

-UB

I was in two minds until the last minute since I couldn't find anybody to join me in the long drive and back. Then my US office called and wanted to have an urgent meet on an issue, so I gave up and stayed back.

Originally Posted by sagarpadaki

That's ruddy awesome Samurai! Maintaining average of 38 kmph on the horrible stretch is an achievement indeed.

Thanks. Now here is the the real surprising bit. First, I never exceeded 100kmph throughout the entire drive from Bangalore to Manipal. Second, I got 12.2kmpl for the first 220kms drive until Sakleshpur. The FE dropped to 11.8 kmpl by the time I reached Mangalore, thanks to the bad roads in the ghats. This is despite doing Bangalore-Mangalore in 6 hours excluding 30 minutes at Mayura. These FE figures are really good for a fulltime 4WD petrol SUV.

Originally Posted by sagarpadaki

BTW at what time of the day you travelled? And is there any time during which we can cover shiradi ghat in less traffic?(other than the night time).

I would never drive Shiradi at night if I had a choice. No, I always drive Shiradi between 11AM to 4PM. Traffic has never been an issue in Shiradi since the roads are so wide.

My offroading experience does help me judge/handle the craters much better than average drivers on Shiradi. Also the knowledge that I have custom made underbody armour covering all the critical parts. I often see SUVs driving only little faster than sedans. If they did couple offroad events, they would have lot more confident in their SUVs. Yesterday I overtook a white Fortuner easily and then took a nature break. It passed me and was couple Kms ahead before I started. Five minutes later, I easily passed it again and it vanished from my RVM in less than a minute. If that driver was more aware of his Fortuner's ability, he would have left me in dust.

[vinboy]

I am uploading some pictures for people who want to know the status of Shiradi ghat section. I have been doing the trip few times on these roads recently!

The road is really bad as you come closure to Gundya! I could not take clear pictures of that stretch as it started raining!

[hemanth.anand]

Originally Posted by slicvic

Looking forward to seeing you guys on the 31 st!!!

Originally Posted by Samurai

I was in two minds until the last minute since I couldn't find anybody to join me in the long drive and back. Then my US office called and wanted to have an urgent meet on an issue, so I gave up and stayed back.

Wish you a Happy married life slicvic.

UB just spoke to me and told that he was at your wedding ceremony. Samurai has mentioned that he missed out.

@UB_007, Can we have the photos of the Ghat section which you took yesterday?

[iPai]

Originally Posted by Samurai

I am frantically looking for people to share the misery of driving on Karkala route. Most of the Udupi BHPians are out of town.

Usually 1.5 hours. But it took 45 minutes extra last time.

I am who you are looking for! Terrible terrible road. i left for karkala on first november. Left at 4 30 from my bellandur home. First electronic city and then nice. Reached nelamangala at five thirty on dot. Then took the four lane. With wife and kid sleeping drove without hindrance :P reached a top speed of 155 kmph on this stretch on my dads i20.
Then the trouble started. Five to ten minutes after i slowed down to say 110 or 120 found the car to be wobbling a bit. It increased with time and then some sound started coming from the rear left tire! Pulled over and stopped at an empty stretch to discover a completely flat tire! What if it had burst when i was on top speed!? I had failed to notice a puncture the previous night. Or am not sure. With no puncture shop in sight, i drove with a flat tire for half a km more and then found a shop but the owner was not in place. This was at around six fifteen am. Then waited for around half an hour. Took the help of a lorry driver and cleaner to fix the stepney!
left at around seven, food at kamat and then stopped at sakleshpura to fix the stepney only to discover that the tire had bubbles and it was not repairable. I had drove on and that had damaged the tire. The guy added some old tube as a temporary measure just in case i needed it on the ghats.
Then comes the ghat and also to the point of this thread
As everybody else has mentioned the starting section is really manageable. The last part is horrible. But what i found more horrible was the dharmasthala-karkala section. It was a royal pain and frustration stretch. No escape from the potholes. Pick up speed and then crash into a suddenshothole and the suspension noise of i20 didnt help either. Each time sounding as if a bone is broken! Reached karkala at 2 45. With around 2 hours of overall breaks time due to flat tire, breakfast, baby breaks etc.
Will be taking back my i10 next week. Wanna try gendehalli route. Will update you all. But the karkala stretch is hell. Please don't take it. Going to mangalore now on the padubidri stretch and i am already scared as hell. The state highway is inshaperrible shape :(
A long post this but it was an ordeal! I feel it was the dharmasthala-karkala stretch frustrated me more.

[TracerBullet]

@vinboy: If these are pictures of the worst/bad stretches, the road is not bad isn't it? Many a time driving through Shiradi I have experienced altitude change (ok I went too far exaggerating). I remember on couple of occasions you literally had to get into a pot hole or crater and climb out of it.

[flycatcher]

Hi all,
I hope this is the right thread for the following query.
I am planning to visit the following places on the 5th and 6th of November
(1) Kukke Subramanya
(2) Dharmasthala
(3) Hornadu
(4) Balehonnur

Last year I had done this same trip around October and the route I followed was
Bangalore-Hassan-Sakleshpura-Shiradi Ghat-Kukke-Dharamasthala-Ujre-Bajagoli-Kudremukh-Kalasa-Hornadu-Balehonnur-Chikmagalore-Belur-Hassan-Bangalore
Shall I follow the same route? or any other suggestions?
PS: I will going there in my Punto.
PPS: Whatever route you suggest please make sure that the Kudremukh stretch is there in the plan. My whole purpose of going on this trip is to drive on that stretch.

[UB_007]

Originally Posted by hemanth.anand

Wish you a Happy married life slicvic.

UB just spoke to me and told that he was at your wedding ceremony. Samurai has mentioned that he missed out.

@UB_007, Can we have the photos of the Ghat section which you took yesterday?

A short update on our drive to Mangalore and back in Alto.
We started early at 4.30AM from Bangalore on 26thOct to reach sakleshpur at 8.00AM. After a short break at Surabhi, the 35kms of ghat stretch was covered in 1hr 35mins. The stretch was quite manageable and the alto ground clearance seemed to be pretty good for the present road condition. Reaching Mangalore by 11.30AM as planned gave us plenty of time to rest before we drove to Manipal.

Drive back from Mangalore yesterday morning at 6.30AM to reach Bangalore at 2.00PM with 45Mins break at sakleshpur was quite easy. The road wasn’t worsened much compared to last week and pot holes were much familiar this time and were easy to maneuver.
I did not find any interceptors on the high way luckily or else I might have ended up paying a good amount of fine. We were cruising at 100-110kmph after CR Patna till Nelamangala.
Overall the drive was good and the Shiradi strech was also not so tiring, may be because we crossed the ghat by 10.00AM. Better avoid driving late in the evening on shiradi as the truck and bus traffic increases as the day ends.

PS: Will upload the ghat pics shortly as I did not get much time to upload them yesterday.

-UB

[UB_007]

Originally Posted by Samurai

I was in two minds until the last minute since I couldn't find anybody to join me in the long drive and back. Then my US office called and wanted to have an urgent meet on an issue, so I gave up and stayed back.

Plan of attending bhpian wedding on 31st was slightly changed and we were at the ceremony on 30th evening. The BC road- Belthangady stretch is pathetic and horrible. Huge pot holes at uneven span made the drive even more terrible. To add, it rained heavily on return at 11.00PM making the road hardly visible even with the wipers on full speed. I felt the shiradi stretch was much easier to cover than the Belthangady route.

Between BC road and Mangalore caught 2 pythons crossing the road at slow pace. The second one was just near the divider and I just managed not to go over it. Poor creatures have lost home due to road widening and infrastructure growth in and around Mangalore. Someone driving on this route late in the evening, please be careful not to run over these homeless creatures.

-UB