[NPV]

Originally Posted by tckanth

Hi Guys,
Leaving for Mangalore this Saturday in my Beat (two people on board), any updates / words of caution?
...
Please pour in your suggestions / recommendations for
- Places to look-out for
- Places to stop and click pics
- Munching some Veg food / snacks (need not be an 'Only Veg' place).

On a drive last month I encountered dense fog from Nelamangala till Bellur cross.
Also, drive carefully after Bellur cross since there are diversions due to road work thats in progress as well as some stretches where you will be driving on the wrong side.
Folks have given you several suggestions for food stops, here's one more, we stopped here twice in the last 2 months and found it to be good.
There is a new veg place called Swathi Delicacy on the right side when going from Bangalore towards Mangalore. Toilets were very neat and has a small play area for kids as well. This is about 1 or 2Km before the turn off for Yediyur and about ~10Km before Bellur Cross. You can make a U-turn about 100m or so after you pass this place (I think I saw a signage for Nagasandra where you make the turn). We preferred to stop here since it wasn't very crowded and we reach this before Mayura at Bellur Cross.

[MCR]

What is the condition of the road from Dharmasthala to Udupi? I plan to take this road on this weekend.
The route planned is ;
Dharmasthala - Belthangady - Bajegoli - Karkala - Hiriadka - Manipal - Udupi.

[explorer09]

Originally Posted by MCR

What is the condition of the road from Dharmasthala to Udupi? I plan to take this road on this weekend.
The route planned is ;
Dharmasthala - Belthangady - Bajegoli - Karkala - Hiriadka - Manipal - Udupi.

Isnt that a little longer route if your final destination is Udupi. I would probably take the following route :-

Dharmasthala - Belthangady - Karkala - Belman - Shirva - Katapady - Udupi.

The only thing you may want to find out is the road condition between Karkala and Belman which may be bad. If this section is not in a bad state, then overall this would be a better and shorter route in my opinion.

[Rufus_M]

Originally Posted by MCR

What is the condition of the road from Dharmasthala to Udupi? I plan to take this road on this weekend.
The route planned is ;
Dharmasthala - Belthangady - Bajegoli - Karkala - Hiriadka - Manipal - Udupi.

I don't know the conditions of Dharmasthala-Belthangady, but rest of it from Bajegoli-Udupi is good.
Wishing you a happy & safe journey :-)

[Samurai]

Originally Posted by MCR

What is the condition of the road from Dharmasthala to Udupi? I plan to take this road on this weekend.
The route planned is ;
Dharmasthala - Belthangady - Bajegoli - Karkala - Hiriadka - Manipal - Udupi.

It is in good shape, did it 3 times this month.

Originally Posted by explorer09

Isnt that a little longer route if your final destination is Udupi. I would probably take the following route :-

Dharmasthala - Belthangady - Karkala - Belman - Shirva - Katapady - Udupi.

It is exactly same distance as the other route.

[explorer09]

Originally Posted by Samurai

It is in good shape, did it 3 times this month.

It is exactly same distance as the other route.

Yes, you are right. I just compared the 2 routes on Google Maps and as you said, the distances are exactly the same. Thanks for that.

[unk9ja]

Originally Posted by MCR

What is the condition of the road from Dharmasthala to Udupi? I plan to take this road on this weekend.
The route planned is ;
Dharmasthala - Belthangady - Bajegoli - Karkala - Hiriadka - Manipal - Udupi.

The route is fine throughout except it is a 2 lane road. Look out for moron drivers of the pvt buses and 2 wheelers in towns. They tend to own every inch of the road.

[CLIX]

Here's a collage for the KT Coffee (Kalladka) lovers!!

[_chikku]

Originally Posted by CLIX

Here's a collage for the KT Coffee (Kalladka) lovers!!

Hey thanks for the pic. Its been so long that I had KT or Rimjim. Will be visiting soon anyways..

[tckanth]

Hi All,
Wanted to share my recent Mangalore trip experience.
Thanks to Karthikk, speedsatya, rajshenoy, NPV for their inputs.

Route Taken:
I took the usual route Jayanagar - Tumkur Road - Kunigal - Channarayapattana - Hasan - Sakleshpur - The famous Shiradi Ghat - Mangalore

I initialy thought of taking the Magadi road and hit Kunigal but the missed the left turn on ORR, thanks to the empty roads and the lack of a GPS.

Time taken:
Onward - I left at 6 AM from BLR and reached Mangalore by 1PM, with pit stops for some pics and breakfast.
Return - Left at around 1PM and reached by 10PM, took the same route back with multiple pit stops for coffee.

Road Condition:
The road condition is really good till Sakleshpur, with the occational road diversions between Kunigal and Hasan.
Looks like Shiradi Ghats got a cosmetic makeover - filled the patched but there are a lot of undulations. That being said, my Beat just sailed through (wonder what Sail would do )

Pit Stops:
Onward - As NPV mentioned few posts earlier, had my breakfast at Swathi Delicacy, a very neat place and very tasty food. Coffee break at Sakleshpur at a road side stall. Lunch at Mainland China in Mangalore. Went there for a wedding, so all subsequent meals, till next day lunch, taken care of.
Return - Coffee break at Imperial coffee in Sakleshpur, Dinner at my favourite place, Meghnas Biryani in Jayanagar.

Pics:

[fast_elegance]

Originally Posted by tckanth

Pit Stops:
Onward - As NPV mentioned few posts earlier, had my breakfast at Swathi Delicacy, a very neat place and very tasty food. Coffee break at Sakleshpur at a road side stall. Lunch at Mainland China in Mangalore. Went there for a wedding, so all subsequent meals, till next day lunch, taken care of.
Return - Coffee break at Imperial coffee in Sakleshpur, Dinner at my favourite place, Meghnas Biryani in Jayanagar.

Nice pics there tckanth!! You surely have some camera skills.

I guess you missed having the akki rotis at Mythri Restaurant, Sakleshpur. Just loved them.

I returned from Mangalore today Morning. The Ghat section is ok but not great. I doubt if it will hold up till monsoon. There are already some pot holes in the making.

[srikanthp3]

JUst did a Bangalore-Horanadu trip, and thanks to Fauji's guidance, took the Bangalore-Hassan-Belur-Mudigere-Kottigehara-Kalasa-Horanadu route.

From a little after Nelamangala to Hassan, theres extensive roadwork going on, with traffic on one side of the road, so that might slow you down.

After Hassan till Mudigere the road is good, then becomes a little bad, nothing you cant drive on. The roads are winding after Muddigere, the scenery is very beautiful. Horanadu is of course awesome, though if you are staying there, the options are very limited, we checked out a few lodges and took the best of the worst - called Sri Devi Comforts. The drive took us about 6.5 hours from Bannerghatta Rd (took Nice Road). return was slower, about 7.5 hours.

[nitzien123]

[quote=Samurai;2988166]I use the Sakleshpur bus-stand as the ending point. Don't know where Nisarga is located.Now I am convinced your car is fitted with hover drive. Check out how others found the road.

Samurai, I am taking my hovercraft downhill tomorrow I think in my last post I logged the timings wrongly - sorry about that!
I guess the road conditions are better now. I am driving with family this time - so I will definitely have better sense of timings on this drive - will post both ways. I hope we can start early at around 5.
Thanks all for the positive feedback on road conditions. Cheers, guys.

[pariwar]

Completed a two day trip on the following routing:

Bangalore - Tumkur - Shimoga - Tirthahalli - Agumbe - Udupi - Mangalore (overnight stay)
Mangalore - Sakleshpur - Hassan - Nelamangala - Bangalore

Enough is known and said for the route upto Shimoga. The segment further ahead upto Agumbe is what amazed me. Fresh tarmac throughout other than for a very short segment of approx. a kilometre or so which will be laid in the next many days (machinery & equipment on the road and works going on). This was a dream compared to my previous pot holed & bumpy journey, a couple of years back. Post Agumbe & Someshwara, we were advised by locals (@ Someshwara) to preferablya avoid SH1 (straight to Mangalore) and take the Udupi route (SH 65) and subsequently the highway to Mangalore.

Nothing much different from the earlier posts re: Shiradi - Hassan - Nelamangala stretch.

I am not even attempting to explain our timelines as there were umpteen stops enroute and the going/coming was extremely relaxed.

[addyhemmige]

Did anyone here get held in the traffic pile up near Kunigal yesterday evening? Read in papers today that there was a big accident and a few people have died. TOI says 4 people dead, Deccan Herald says 6 dead and some other source says 12 dead.

I saw the huge amount of stopped vehicles and then took an alternate route via Markonahally Dam-Amruthur and then joined the highway at Kunigal bypass