[DDDHRUV]

Originally Posted by laluks

Road conditions update around madikeri. You can chose which one to try



Hunsur - mysore -Superb roads.

Hunsur - periyapatna -Byalakuppe - good roads.

Bylakuppe -Hunsur road - harangi dam - good narrow roads, except some patches near the dam, not a major issue.

Harangi Dam - SH88 - good scenic roads, few patches, but not an issue

SH88- Dubare -valnoor-siddapur-chetalli-madikeri - good narrow roads, but small patches through out.

Sidapur - pollibetta -good narrow roads, but small patches through out.

Pollibetta - ammathi -virajpet -good narrow roads, but small patches through out.

Virajpet -kadanga-kakkabe-madikeri - good narrow roads, but small patches through out.

Madikeri-bhagamandala-talacauvery -Mostly good narrow roads, but small patches through out, and near madikeri some rough patches.

Virajpet -kutta - good narrow roads, but small patches through out.

Kutta - nagarahole -murkal -hunsur - good roads except that it is narrow.

On all these narrow roads you can comfortably do 40-60 kmph. Be careful when you get down to allow the oncoming vehicle to pass through.

Completely byepassed kushal nagar - so have no idea what it was like.

Though I took the swift through these roads, there were nothing which could have been a threat to the civic.

Hi Laluks thanks for the detailed info on the roads around Madikeri. Any information on the Madikeri- Murned-Virajpet road as shown in google maps to be SH 27.
By the way beautiful photographs on the coorged thread.

[sushrutha]

Originally Posted by DDDHRUV

Any information on the Madikeri- Murned-Virajpet

Madikeri to Murnad is also not so great, not too many potholes, but a rough stretch.

[mohan41]

Originally Posted by funda2max

Slightly off topic. Blackberry has this feature as well. But, it will open up a browser and show you the forecast. In HTC, you will get a widget.

Sorry for one more off topic on this. Can I get this feature on my Windows Mobile phone (its a Palm Treo 750, not HTC)? I have BSNL connection.

thanks

[laluks]

Originally Posted by sushrutha

Madikeri to Murnad is also not so great, not too many potholes, but a rough stretch.

Right, small rough patches as usual.

[zteg]

Ok guys, Here is a small update on the Madikeri route.

Bangalore-Mysore-Madikeri-Sullia_Puttur-Mani-Melkar-Konaje-Thokkotu-PumpWell-KottaraChowki.

Started at 6:30 and reached at 1:30 ( including breakfast, tea, cigs and nature's call)

Bangalore-Mysore-Hunsur-Kushalnagar : Excellent road. Great to drive.

Kushalnagar : After kushalnagar 20kms road is bad. But it can be managed in 3rd gear. Potholes are not deep. Car had no problems at the bottom.
After Kushalnagar 50kms some potholes here and there. Some are deep. Not deep enough to hit the bottom.

After that excellent road till Melkar. OK OK road till thokkotu. Once on the highway, horrible traffic. Express buses in full flow. I stopped twice in the middle of road and screamed at the driver for honking unnecessarily. People here are yet to get used to the traffic. I got bugged stuck in traffic with nobody moving. Its then i decided to show them Bangalore style of driving.
Over all it was a nice drive. Roads were not as bad as i thought. its good enough. It rained badly in the ghat section and visibility was low for a while. Not much of traffic as well because today being a weekday.

I will upload the pics once i am back.

[StarVegabond]

Guys,

My plan of driving to Udupi on 18th morning is changed just now

now we would be driving to Shimoga on 18th morning together with my bro-in-law (my wife's cousin) and stying at their house for couple of days, visit Jog falls. I just referred to Ravi Bhat's post in BLR-Goa thread that Jog would be in full force at that time, plan to goto Jog on 19th.

and then go to Udupi. so i wont be bothering about the road condition of BLR-Udupi as of now.

while returning we plan to return via Agumbe-Chikmagalur-Hassan route.

[chandan]

Originally Posted by Sha

Good it stopped, how is future weather forecast.

Sha,I can understand your concern.We're getting about 1" rainfall everyday(that's only 25% of what we receive during this time).Donot worry,it is good enough to make you drive sideways ,just " keep your eyes on the road & hands upon the wheel " . Have fun.

[Samurai]

It's raining continuously since yesterday morning with hardly 5-10 minutes breaks in between. I confess I have never seen such extensive rain over so many days in my entire life. The damage this rain is causing to our roads is mind boggling. The coastal roads are designed to give up after one week of monsoon rain. But this is two months of hard monsoon rain. The roads are just unbelievably bad now.

[sushrutha]

Update as on yesterday .
Mudigere - Charmadi managable by any sedan, first few kms to the ghats is in good condition(Chikmagalur Dist end) from thereon(DK district) it's in Ok condition itseems(heard from my parents).
But BC Road to Mangalore is tatally pathetic condition.

[ravibhat]

StarVegabond water at JOG depends on how best it will rain next 1 week. I feel there will be better rain in coming days for a week or two which would be end of rainy season this year. So in couple of weeks time JOG has still luck to show its glory to tourists.

Which route you plan to take to Udupi from JOG ? I guess either from honnavar or via Agumbe ? Thonk about via hosanagara - (nice single lane roads) kodachadri - kollur - (maravante beach) kundapura - udupi.

Regards,

Ravi.

[gowda79]

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chikmagalur: The main link road between the coastal district and Malnad has been cut off following heavy rain and landslides on State Highway-66, connecting Kudremukh and Karkala, on Sunday.

Those visiting Sringeri, Horanadu or Balehonnur Rambhapuri mutt will have to travel 150 km instead of the usual 70 km, due to the landslides on the Kalasa-Karkala road near Bhadra Nature Camp. Even light motor vehicles cannot ply on this road.

The road was maintained by the Kudremukh Iron Ore Company for movement of their iron ore trucks. After the ban on iron ore extraction, the responsibility of maintaining the road fell on the PWD, but the department never bothered to repair it.

The road which was never repaired for the past three years has started deteriorating due to heavy rain, in addition to digging by private telephone companies, who have already dug a 6-foot trench to lay cables. This could have loosened the soil resulting in the landslides.

[StarVegabond]

Originally Posted by ravibhat

Which route you plan to take to Udupi from JOG ? I guess either from honnavar or via Agumbe ? Thonk about via hosanagara - (nice single lane roads) kodachadri - kollur - (maravante beach) kundapura - udupi.

Regards,

Ravi.

Thanks Ravi for the update on Jog and also suggesting this route to go to Udupi, Actually i wanted to go to Kodachadri and Kollur. Will consider the route suggested by you. I want to check with parents whether they want to join the visit to Kollur Temple, if so than i will go to Udupi via Honnavar-NH17. and then visit Kollur and Kodachadri

[lohithrao]

AM back....

While going i took ...

Marathalli....ORR...Magadi road....Kunigal....Hassana....Bellur...Mudigere... Charmadi.....Ujre....BC road....totla distance was around 422kms

Started at 7:30 and by the time i reached Magadi it was about 9:45 thanks to traffic...going via mAgadi was a relief as i could avoid peenya road, only that if i had started about an hour or more early i would have saved lots of time...

NH48 surprised me as most of the bad pathached have been tarred and most of the places before adichichungiri has been completed but i guess will take few months to be ready...surprisingly traffic was very low on this road..

It was fun till Belur and then onwards its was a rough ride..almost till charmadi from belur the road gets rough and some places the potholes are big enough to scare a bus!

Once i got over the this strect then comes charmadi, intially i enjoyed this road...clouds had cover the top of the hill and was fun driving on the foggy hill. but as i descended on coming bus traffic increased...risky part of this road is on some curves the road is very narrow where in just 1 bus can pass at a time... i came across a instance where i had to reverse quiet a bit to allow the bus so it can get scarry...

Charmadi overall is decent but as you get down to Ujre very regularly you will have to go throu very bad patch and here sadly the traffic was little high from which i lost quiet a bit of time, doing this 80+kms was little bad and once i was out on the nh48 that is BC road... BC road at someplaces is very bad and thr are stretches which are good...BC road dint bother me much just that i was too tired which added up...

Over all i fell CHarmadi is not a good option...

While coming i wanted to try Madiker toute so took..

Pumwell circle - Thokottu -Konaje - Bantwala - Mani - Puttur - Sulya - Sampaje - Madikeri - Kushalnagar - Mysore road - Bangalore

It started to rain in the morning and rain gave me company till Madikeri

Pumpwell to Melkar...NH 17 here has also taken beating so need to watch of for the potholes which are many in number and alson with the insane buses hehe

Thokottu to Infosys was little bad as there are some bad patches, and traffic was heavy both college and the infy buses created a big jam...anyways after infosys about 14kms is fun drive...

From Melkar to Mani there are some patches which have gone bad but they dont bother, Mani to Puttur is clean and fun.. Puttur There are some bad patches on the out skirts but agin very managable. Sulya road is very nice... Here Sampaje till Kushal nagar is where the bad patches appear very often but most of it can be managed easliy..

Kushal nagar to Kengeri was a breeze, took0mins to cover this distance and Kengeri to Marathalli 2hrs hehe

I feel Madikeri route is more viable presently but when Shiradi is opened i feel iw ill take that route to save some time...looking at the road condition of the coast i seriously want a SUV/UV....Bolero and kind..

[Samurai]

We never discussed one more ghat that is even shorter than the Sampaje option if one is going to Udupi/Mangalore. I am talking about Bisle ghat. I drove through it on Saturday and today. I wouldn't suggest this to hatch or sedan drivers. But SUV owners should be fine. The key word is high GC. You can't go faster than 30-35kmph anywhere in the bisle ghat stretch except the few KMs near Subramanya. I drove the entire ghat stretch on 3rd gear in my Jeep. The views are fantastic if there is no fog. Don't try this during night, there could be elephants on the road. I encountered only 3 buses, one Jeep, one Force cruiser and one bike in the entire stretch.

This is the route:

Bangalore-Sakleshpur-Stay in NH48... just where the Shiradi is blocked, take the left on the fork towards Somvarpet/Madikeri, this is a state highway. Take the next possible turn towards Subramanya via Kooduraaste. After driving through bisle ghat, it will hit Gundya-Subramanya road. Take right towards Gundya, join NH48 again, then you guys know the rest.

Edit: BTW, they are allowing traffic into Shiradi from both sides despite the big no-entry board. I saw it from both sides.

[lohithrao]

A year back had taken Bisle route, i was on my bull and could manage..i think the raod condition has gone worse now.