[AshyRocks]

Did Bangalore - Mangalore through Shiradi yesterday. Started from Bangalore at 7.30 am ( woke up at 5 to start early. Ever wonder when you check your watch that it's already late but you have no idea where the 2.5 hrs went ) ?

Well, pleasantly the drive was uneventful. Been using the Channarayapatna - Somwarpet route, so this was my first time on Shiradi after almost a year. In line with the bad reactions everyone had, I was on the same page. I surely wasn't expecting an autobahn but 7 months for a 10 odd km stretch was ridiculous. These are times when you believe the conspiracy theorists that the roads were blocked for illegal logging.

Well overall roads were decent and I reached Mangalore at 1 pm with a 40 min break around 9 am for breakfast.

But that's that. Nothing to talk about. I expect the remaining portions to deteriorate in a couple of months. So if you plan to use this road, use it within a couple of months and wait for the regulars to start reporting on the decline of the road again (frankly by the time the shoulder work is done we should be seeing the road close down again)

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[venkyhere]

Originally Posted by AshyRocks

Did the Bangalore - Mangalore thru Shiradi yesterday. Started from Bangalore at 7.30am ....
Well overall roads were decent and I reached mlore at 1pm with a 40 min break arnd 9am for breakfast.

an avg speed of ~75kmph - you must have totally gunned it on the 4L till hassan

[fast_elegance]

Originally Posted by AshyRocks

Did the Bangalore - Mangalore thru Shiradi yesterday. Started from Bangalore at 7.30am ( woke up at 5 to start early.. Ever wonder when you check your watch that it's already late but you have no idea where the 2.5 hrs went )

Well overall roads were decent and I reached mlore at 1pm with a 40 min break arnd 9am for breakfast.
[/b]

Even I did the B'lore - m'lore yesterday through Shiradi. Started at 5:45 AM from B'ghatta road and reached home in Falnir at 12:45 PM.

I guess you would have spotted me looking at your timing. What were you driving?

[AshyRocks]

@venkyhere - Yes. I do maintain a higher speed on the toll road but rarely over 100kmph. Since I drive a Scorpio I can do a slightly higher speed even on bad roads. And this time didn't have the family with me, so maybe was a bit faster than necessary. BTW, my stop in Mangalore was mudipu so it probably saved me 30 mins of drive time.

@fastlane - I was in a white scorpio. Yet to use the tbhp stickers.

[Neel]

Drove the Shiradi Ghat to and fro over the weekend - Aug 23/24. Was a good drive, the return was something i enjoyed with dark clouds and really heavy rain between Sakleshpur and Kunigal. Most sections of Shiradi had taken care of water not coming on to the roads but i am really not sure how long the gravel on the shoulders will last long. Am hoping the concrete lasts a few years!

[chethan.ram]

Has anyone travelled Hassan - Mudigere - Kottigehara - Kalasa - Kuduremukha - Karkala - Udupi? I am planning this route. How's the road condition? Thanks in advance.

[Pilot77in]

I too did the Blr-Mlr stretch 23rd-24th Aug. I must have passed by or been overtaken by some of the others on this forum. Left at 615 on the 23rd and reached Mangalore at 1130 with no breaks.On the return, left Mangalore at 1030 and reached Bangalore at 430, with a 1 hour break for lunch.The stretch is good and I was noting down the concrete portions, it is around 14 Kms. They have now covered the shoulders and the road being wide enough, there wasn't an opportunity to go off the road and test how stable they are though they looked fine. The Blr-Hassan road is a breeze and you at times don't realise you are doing 140.At one point when doing around 120, I was passed by a Skoda I could only get a glimpse of. Scary as the guy didn't even honk in the act of overtaking.Must have thought no point in honking as he is anyway barely seen I was driving the XUV, btw.There are quite a few patched stretches on the ghats and rumblers at Intersections on the tolled roads that slow you down from time to time.It was raining hard as we left Mangalore on the 24th at around 1030 but the roads were largely all good and the rain made the landscape look prettier.This should be back as the preferred route for Bangalore-Mangalore.

[hangover]

Originally Posted by chethan.ram

Has anyone travelled Hassan - Mudigere - Kottigehara - Kalasa - Kuduremukha - Karkala - Udupi? I am planning this route. How's the road condition? Thanks in advance.

I haven't been on that road since a year. But before that I was a regular user.

The route from Hassan to Kudremukh is possibly one of the most beautiful areas in South India. Only a few points to be noted as below:

1. There are very few petrol pumps on that route. So be sure to fill the tank at the first available petrol bunk. Top up before the halfway mark is reached.
2. The road itself is very narrow. It’s a single lane most of the way. Often you will find these red KSRTC buses suddenly emerging from a turn in front of you. So be alert.
3. From one year back 80% road was in good condition. But the 20% that was bad was really bad. Meaning you had to go very slowly and place the wheels correctly between the potholes. Otherwise you will need someone with a bucket walking behind your vehicle picking up "spare parts”.
4. But please note friends who have traveled recently on that route have said its all in good condition. Nicely tarred all the way and widened where possible.
5. There is a very good eating place. From Belur towards Mudigere about halfway you will find a restaurant in the ghat area on the left side. It’s a coffee estate and this is a type of big room on stilts. I don't remember its name. It has a sloping red roof. They make excellent neer dosa and chutney. The rest room facilities are also okay.
6. You will find many places around Kudremukh Park with unmanned gates. Depending on your courage and language skills you may drive inside to enjoy even more intimate and beautiful scenery.
7. Better to leave Blr early morning. Others leave at 1am and 2 am. But I don't feel that's needed. Even milkmen don't get up that early! 4 am is a good time to leave.
8. Depending on which part of Blr you live, you may also escape from town via Magadi road. Head to Magadi town and then Kunigal. After Magadi town you will find a right turn. That takes you straight to Kunigal. This way you can avoid the misery of going via Peenya and the jams on that route. Google maps won’t show you this route unless you add each place as a destination.

[prasad14]

Originally Posted by hangover

1. You will find many places around Kudremukh Park with unmanned gates. Depending on your courage and language skills you may drive inside to enjoy even more intimate and beautiful scenery.

There used to be a forest check post just after Kalasa where they'd give you a chit with the expected time to reach the next check post precisely to avoid folks enter into the forest. They were very nasty when our entourage was 30mins beyond their time - not because we ventured inside the forest, but we were in the middle of a long drive (on Bullets) and took a break in a shaded area (and also visited the scenic Lakya dam just after Kuduremukha). The guards would have none of it and were demanding hefty fines per vehicle and it took some pleading to let them go. I'm not sure if this process still exist and you may want to check it out.

Prasad

[chethan.ram]

Originally Posted by hangover

I haven't been on that road since a year. But before that I was a regular user.

The route from Hassan to Kudremukh is possibly one of the most beautiful areas in South India. Only a few points to be noted as below:

1. There are very few petrol pumps on that route. So be sure to fill the tank at the first available petrol bunk. Top up before the halfway mark is reached.
2. The road itself is very narrow. It’s a single lane most of the way. Often you will find these red KSRTC buses suddenly emerging from a turn in front of you. So be alert.
3. From one year back 80% road was in good condition. But the 20% that was bad was really bad. Meaning you had to go very slowly and place the wheels correctly between the potholes. Otherwise you will need someone with a bucket walking behind your vehicle picking up "spare parts”.
4. But please note friends who have traveled recently on that route have said its all in good condition. Nicely tarred all the way and widened where possible.
5. There is a very good eating place. From Belur towards Mudigere about halfway you will find a restaurant in the ghat area on the left side. It’s a coffee estate and this is a type of big room on stilts. I don't remember its name. It has a sloping red roof. They make excellent neer dosa and chutney. The rest room facilities are also okay.
6. You will find many places around Kudremukh Park with unmanned gates. Depending on your courage and language skills you may drive inside to enjoy even more intimate and beautiful scenery.
7. Better to leave Blr early morning. Others leave at 1am and 2 am. But I don't feel that's needed. Even milkmen don't get up that early! 4 am is a good time to leave.
8. Depending on which part of Blr you live, you may also escape from town via Magadi road. Head to Magadi town and then Kunigal. After Magadi town you will find a right turn. That takes you straight to Kunigal. This way you can avoid the misery of going via Peenya and the jams on that route. Google maps won’t show you this route unless you add each place as a destination.

Thank you so much. However, I will not be driving. Planning a cycle trip. From your comments on Kuduremukh area we need to be careful. I will be driving that route next weekend to determine if it is good for cycling. Thanks again for your inputs.

[chethan.ram]

This is what I have planned as of now.

Day 1 - Hassan to Kalasa
Day 2 - Kalasa to Thirthahalli
Day 3 - Thirthahalli to Sagar
Day 4 - Sagar to Udupi

[paragsachania]

Originally Posted by hangover

[*]There are very few petrol pumps on that route. So be sure to fill the tank at the first available petrol bunk. Top up before the halfway mark is reached.

The last good fuel stations are situated at Udyapura (IOCL COCO) and BPCL at Belur Circle. Both of these have been good and reliable. So, essentially, you are 220kms away from Bangalore to find the last good reliable station else you may need to enter Mudigere from Handpost to fill at 2 stations here and return back.

[*]The road itself is very narrow. It’s a single lane most of the way. Often you will find these red KSRTC buses suddenly emerging from a turn in front of you. So be alert.

Its 2 lane from Belur. Hassan-Belur (36 kms) and Belur - Cheeknhalli (20 kms) is wide enough to pass at cruising speeds. Post Cheeknahalli is where roads get narrower due to small ghat section. Again after Jannapura till Kottigehara roads are wide enough anyway. Also, KSRTC buses would be lesser between Belur-Mudigere but more between Mudigere and Kottigehara. Post Kottigehara you would find only Kalasa-Horanadu bound buses.

Beyond Kalasa there will be zero KSRTC Buses all the way till SK Border. In fact, very few private buses too.

[*]From one year back 80% road was in good condition. But the 20% that was bad was really bad. Meaning you had to go very slowly and place the wheels correctly between the potholes. Otherwise you will need someone with a bucket walking behind your vehicle picking up "spare parts”.

From the latest reports, the roads are holding up good that one need not bother much about breaking parts . This was about a fortnight ago.

[*]There is a very good eating place. From Belur towards Mudigere about halfway you will find a restaurant in the ghat area on the left side. It’s a coffee estate and this is a type of big room on stilts. I don't remember its name. It has a sloping red roof. They make excellent neer dosa and chutney. The rest room facilities are also okay.

Belur is a good option for a stop over. Vishnu Prasad, Gayatri are decent Veg restaurants with clean restrooms. Apart from this, if one can manage to deviate a bit towards Mudigere town from Handpost, there is a Hotel where Mudigere Club was before. A newly opened, excellent veg food, clean rest rooms.

If not this, you have an excellent Coffee Bar right after Mudigere Handpost on the left hand side. Serves wonderful coffee and hot snacks too. Good rest-rooms again.

[*]Depending on which part of Blr you live, you may also escape from town via Magadi road. Head to Magadi town and then Kunigal. After Magadi town you will find a right turn. That takes you straight to Kunigal. This way you can avoid the misery of going via Peenya and the jams on that route. Google maps won’t show you this route unless you add each place as a destination.

Agreed. we drove Magadi Kunigal a month before just for the heck of it from Electronics City and the roads are holding up really well. It may not really save much time but indeed a tension free option.

Now if you need to break at Kalasa - You have "Suprabha Residency". This one is on road leading to Horanadu. That means, if you are headed for Kuduremukha, you need to turn left a few hundred meters in front of the temple but to reach this hotel, you need to drive a few hundred meters straight towards Horanadu. A Pure vegetarian hotel with a very humble owner. Has a decent accommodation attached to it too.

Post Kalasa - Its got to be Bajagoli or Karkala as your next option to break out.

[hangover]

@ Paragsachina - thanks so much. It is very good information that you provided on the hotels. I will certainly take that route next time.

@ Chetan Ram - since you're cycling go to agumbe if you can. There is family that is there who can put you up. Their phone number should come up on a google search. There are no other hotels there. Couple of very good falls too here.

Another option only for next few months is Bisle ghats. It's currently blocked for traffic. But cycles won't have problems. If you PM me I can share a chaps number In Bisle town. He will put you up in basic but rustic comfort. And you make him show you the secret waterfall. It's a bit of a trek but worth it.

[UB_007]

Next month 16th, I will be driving to Mangalore. Taking home my ’95 make HM Contessa.
This will be my first drive home after Oct 2014 on Shiradi route. Anybody making a Mangalore trip on this day?

Though I am confident my Conti won’t let me down, would be good if BHPians are around on that stretch in case my Conti has an unfortunate breakdown.
-UB

[fast_elegance]

I noticed an increase in the number of bullet tankers on the ghat section during my trip to M'lore last weekend. Any reasons?

Check out my dashcam video that shows how the bullet tankers ply on the Shiradi section. First few seconds are not clear. Something went wrong while editing. Drive safe.

https://youtu.be/Gtox_GXovEc