[rohitm]

Folks i am scheduled to visit Sai Vishram, Byndoor. Given the reports that Shirdi Ghat is now in fantastic condition, wondering if i should take the Bangalore - Mangalore - Byndoor route. instead of Bangalore - Shimoga - Sagara - Honavar route and save time and distance.

Thanks for the responses!

[civicsense]

Hi Friends,

I will be travelling from Bangalore to Kollur (Mookambika Temple) this weekend. I plan to take this route:

Blr-Tumkur-Arsikere-Shimoga-Ayanur-Ripponpet-Hosanagara-Nagara-Nittur-Kollur

I have taken the above route 2/3 times before. Tumkur to Ayanur has always been mediocre, with by-passes always in pretty bad shape. Ayanur to Kollur also had broken roads, but I like that rural stretch of road. It also goes through a bit of forest...

Any inputs on how the recent road condition is of this stretch? Is there an alternate route that I should take? My criterion is if roads are considerably better, I wouldnt mind driving 30-40km more than the shortest route.

Thanks,
Pravin

[NoMind]

Special thanks to JMaruru, rajshenoy, prasad14 and samurai ! We forgot our camera(can you believe it) and so no snaps and so no travelogue...

I went to Kukke subramanhya first, was tired by then(was working till 10 pm previous night and then had to pack etc).

I was in no mood to go looking for a room in crowded dharmasthala, so I decided to head on to Surathkal. Why surathkal ? The hotel Sai suraj looked decent and I'd heard the food was pretty good. We are in Veg Mode so non veg is a big no-no.

The beaches around NIITK were very nice and semi deserted. Dipped our feet in the Ocean and went on to the Hotel, ate some food and crashed. Loud thunder noises through out the night....
Woke up the next day to see the roads semi-inundated and pitch dark. started out at 5.30 Am a worried lot...to Kateel.
Reaches kateel somehow..don't ask me.. finished darshan and started to Udipi. Had breakfast at udipi and waited in line for close to 2 hours to see the queue move about 10-15 feet. Kids were Tired and so we left without darshan :(. We made up by going to Anegudde Vinayaka temple . Good Darshan.
Went back to surathkal , had lunch, crashed again, very tired. Mangalore private transport drivers are crazy !
Woke up at 5 Pm, checked out , left for Dharmasthala. Arrived there at 7.30 Pm to find there is no accomodation available on a Sunday Night, Monday being a Unbelievably busy day there... who would have thought ?
Finally found accommodation at Belthangady and hung up my tired feet for a good night's rest.
Got up tired but alive the next day and had a good a good darshan at the temple. Started back around 1 Pm or so and got back home (bangalore) around 7 pm. Next time I will be prepared better and I will do south canara in a more organized manner with a good travelogue !

[vnambiar]

Originally Posted by rohitm

Folks i am scheduled to visit Sai Vishram, Byndoor.

Originally Posted by civicsense

Hi Friends,

I will be travelling from Bangalore to Kollur (Mookambika Temple) this weekend. I plan to take this route:

Thanks,
Pravin

For sai vishram and kollur, mangalore route is the best, effortless and lesser time than alternative routes. I used alternative routes till last month, tried shiradi and saved an hour and half plus no jumps/pot holes enroute. From mangalore to byndoor 4 laning is progress, but you could do comfortable speeds.

[kicksperliter]

Originally Posted by rohitm

Folks i am scheduled to visit Sai Vishram, Byndoor. Given the reports that Shirdi Ghat is now in fantastic condition, wondering if i should take the Bangalore - Mangalore - Byndoor route. instead of Bangalore - Shimoga - Sagara - Honavar route and save time and distance.

Thanks for the responses!

I would suggest you take Bangalore-Hassan-Sakleshpur-(Shiradi Ghat)-Managalore-Byndoor route. This route is awesome compared to Shimoga route at current conditions.

[sureshurs]

Thanks drkakkilaya. I am planning to go through Mangalore to Bajpe rather than BC Road- inner roads -Bajpe. Planning to start at 4.30 am so as to reach Bajpe airport by 11.30 am

[unk9ja]

Travelled to Mangalore today via Kumigal-Hassan-Shiradi-BC road. The roads are good throughout save for some rough patches. Left Bangalore at 6:00 and reached Mangalore at 12:30 with 3 short breaks in between.

[civicsense]

Did the weekend trip to Kollur and back. @vnambiar, thanks for the suggestion on taking MLR route. I saw the update late, but will try this out the next time we go (Sept/Oct possibly). Hoping the road doesnt detriorate before that!

Bangalore - Kollur:

Bangalore --> Tumkur --> Arsikere --> Shimoga --> Ayanur --> Ripponpet --> Hosanagara --> Nagara --> Nittur --> Kollur (442km)

Bangalore to Ayanur (around 330km) route is mostly smooth now. Out of the 3 times I've been on this route, this time was by far the best. We left Bangalore at 6:45AM and reached Ayanur around 1:15PM (with a couple of short breaks).

Ayanur-Kollur (SH-26) is around 100km. The first half, till Nagara was a mix of smooth 2-lane rural roads and narrow, 1-lane broken roads. Nagara to Kollur (45km) was in quite a bad shape. Luckily, there wasnt much traffic in the afternoon. We reached Kollur by around 3:45PM. Total travel time of 9 hours with about 1 hr break.

Kollur - Bangalore:

Bangalore --> Nittur --> Nagara --> Tirthahalli --> Shimoga --> Arsikere --> Tumkur --> Bangalore (459km)

On the return leg, I decided to try out the route through Tirthahalli. We started back at 11:20AM on the same route until Nagara, from where there is a right turn to Tirthahalli. The road was again broken in places and just about OK. There was hardly any vehicle on this stretch until you near Tirthahalli. But it took us a long time to reach Tirthahalli (reached around 2PM). Tirthahalli to Shimoga is a breeze on NH 169. Very smooth roads through the Kadekal forest area, passing near the reservoir of Gajanur dam. We reached Shimoga by 3:10PM. Had lunch from Shimoga and started around 4:30PM. Rest of the stretch was the same route we took for the onward journey. We reached home around 10:30PM, with a couple of breaks in between.

Next time, I want to try out BLR --> MLR --> Kundapura --> Kollur and maybe come back via Chikmagalur and Hassan, though that may be longer than through Shimoga.

[drkakkilaya]

Originally Posted by sureshurs

Thanks drkakkilaya. I am planning to go through Mangalore to Bajpe rather than BC Road- inner roads -Bajpe. Planning to start at 4.30 am so as to reach Bajpe airport by 11.30 am

Yo welcome bro, hope u enjoy yo journey.

[ajithbr]

Originally Posted by civicsense

Kollur - Bangalore:

Bangalore --> Nittur --> Nagara --> Tirthahalli --> Shimoga --> Arsikere --> Tumkur --> Bangalore (459km)

On the return leg, I decided to try out the route through Tirthahalli. We started back at 11:20AM on the same route until Nagara, from where there is a right turn to Tirthahalli. The road was again broken in places and just about OK. There was hardly any vehicle on this stretch until you near Tirthahalli. But it took us a long time to reach Tirthahalli (reached around 2PM).

I have taken the above route once or return from Kollur. Started shart 10.30 AM and reached Tirthahalli by 1 PM for lunch. The road is indeed narrow for quite a long stretch but it was in OK condition. The restaurant folks where we had lunch in Tirthahalli advised us that we should skip the first right turn after Nagara (just after Nagara fort) and continue for about 5-10 kms and then take right on the Sagar->Hosanagara->Tirthahalli road where all the private/KSRTC buses run. In fact, the narrow road we took join this SH somewhere near Araga which is about 10kms prior to reaching Tirthahalli. Remember the last 10 kms before Tirthahalli to be very wide and in excellent condition?

[civicsense]

@ajithbr, you are right. After reaching back, I checked Google Maps and found that there is SH 52 which goes around 5-10 km after Nagara, exactly as you said, to Tirthahalli. Indeed the narrow road I took joined SH 52 a few km before Tirthahalli.

[ajithbr]

Originally Posted by civicsense

@ajithbr, you are right. After reaching back, I checked Google Maps and found that there is SH 52 which goes around 5-10 km after Nagara, exactly as you said, to Tirthahalli. Indeed the narrow road I took joined SH 52 a few km before Tirthahalli.

I believe there are some Nagara->Thirthahalli buses that also take this route. Had seen some Thirthahalli bus (regular size) on the Nagara bus stand on my return trip and after coming through the narrow route to Thirthahalli, I felt it is suited only for mini-buses and so enquired with the hotel guys(at Thirthahalli) about the better/alternate route for Nagara->Thirthahalli. That is when he mentioned about this route.

[nitzien123]

18th May - total driving time from South BLR to MLR city 6 hours. Roads on Shiradi Ghat were delightful, I hardly remember any part over the 360km being bad. Actually they look well made at the Shiradi curves, let us see if they fare better during the rains.

[sureshurs]

I went to Murudeshwars via Mangalore airport from Bangalore. Bangalore(HSR Layout) -Mangalore airport was covered in 7 hrs with 4 breaks totally 1.5 hrs. Excellent road conditions.

I tried to take the roadvia MRPL from Mangalore airport to reach Surathkal and it was bad decision. I took us 45 mins with non existent roads in some stretches. Surathkal to Kundapur was a pain with four laning in progress( 1 side is done and hence road surface is good, however need to regularly switch over) and city like traffic. It took us 3 hrs to cover the distance of 100 kms with constant shifting of gears and braking. Excellent 2 lane road from Kundapur to Murudeshwar.

[cool_dube]

Originally Posted by sureshurs

Surathkal to Kundapur was a pain with four laning in progress( 1 side is done and hence road surface is good, however need to regularly switch over) and city like traffic. It took us 3 hrs to cover the distance of 100 kms with constant shifting of gears and braking.

Any projection on completion of this stretch? Till it gets done, it makes sense to go via Dharmastala - Karkala - Udupi.