[rajshenoy]

Originally Posted by ampere

Road around Hebri are bad. Thats the only deterrent. In fact you also find minimum ghats (just around Agumbe)

The only option is to get into one of the towns and have food. No other choices.

Very true. Minimum ghats is good when driving with old people or those having nausea.

[kala]

Originally Posted by rajshenoy

I traveled from udupi to Bangalore via Agumbe-Shimoga route and really enjoyed the drive.

Can you detail this route ? Was it Agumbe-Tirthahalli-Shimoga ?

Also does anyone have an idea as to how the route from Someshwara to Kollur via Halady is ? Am planning a trip to Kollur and want to try that route as an alternate to the one via Hosanagara or via Charmadi ghats.

[speedsatya]

Just back from mangalore. Took the Belur - Mudigere - Charmadi - Dharmasthala route both ways.

Needed 8 hours while going to mangalore , while we needed 5.5 hours to reach Kamat from mangalore on the return leg. Roads were good , scenery was awesome ,... Will I do it again ? We usually do this trip over weekends. And I don't think I have it in me to do this every weekend.

About the route , there are some slightly bad stretches here n there but nothing to be worried about. This route is very slow and one has to be really careful about mad drivers overtaking on the blind turns.

All these years of driving to mangalore , I have never encountered any issue with drivers on the entire stretch. This time was a different experience though. Loads of rash drivers , close calls.

A friend did the usual route via Shiradi in his brand new micra. They needed 6 hours to reach gundya from bangalore out of which 2 hours were spent on the ghat !

I think I won't drive to mangalore for sometime till the roads improve. Will take the super reliable Durgamba B9R for a few weeks now.

[ampere]

Originally Posted by kala

Can you detail this route ? Was it Agumbe-Tirthahalli-Shimoga ?

Also does anyone have an idea as to how the route from Someshwara to Kollur via Halady is ? Am planning a trip to Kollur and want to try that route as an alternate to the one via Hosanagara or via Charmadi ghats.

What he did was " Udupi-Hebri-Agumbe-Thirthahalli-Shimoga-And then NH206 to Bangalore.

Any route around Kollur would be bad. Another option would be :

Kollur-Halady-Hullikal-Ripponpete-Ayannur-Shimoga.

[kala]

Originally Posted by ampere

What he did was " Udupi-Hebri-Agumbe-Thirthahalli-Shimoga-And then NH206 to Bangalore.

Any route around Kollur would be bad. Another option would be :

Kollur-Halady-Hullikal-Ripponpete-Ayannur-Shimoga.

The Ayanur-Ripponpet- Hosanagara stretch has always been somewhat iffy all the time (In fact worse than the Nittur ghat section every time I travelled). So I'm not sure choosing the route via Hulikal instead of via Nittur would help too much (Just more of the unknown since there haven't been any recent reports here about the status of any of these roads in the recent past).

Now that there is a positive report about the Someshwara-Agumbe-Shimoga-Bangalore stretch, I think it may be a smaller risk to go from Halady to Someshwara instead of going to Hulikal - after all that distance is only about 30 kms, and unless the road is really bad, you may not lose too much of time.

[rajshenoy]

Originally Posted by kala

The Ayanur-Ripponpet- Hosanagara stretch has always been somewhat iffy all the time (In fact worse than the Nittur ghat section every time I travelled). So I'm not sure choosing the route via Hulikal instead of via Nittur would help too much (Just more of the unknown since there haven't been any recent reports here about the status of any of these roads in the recent past).

Now that there is a positive report about the Someshwara-Agumbe-Shimoga-Bangalore stretch, I think it may be a smaller risk to go from Halady to Someshwara instead of going to Hulikal - after all that distance is only about 30 kms, and unless the road is really bad, you may not lose too much of time.

Someshwara-Agumbe-Shimoga-Bangalore is pothole free (almost). But the flip side is 2 lane roads with plenty of villages enroute. Twowheelers play spoilsport in maintaining continuous speeds above 100kmph

[lyneld]

Got back from Mangalore yesterday as well. Did the same route most people suggested; Mangalore-Belthangady-Mudigere-Belur-Hassan-Bangalore.

Being my first drive through the Charmadi ghats, the roads were really good and the scenery was excellent! The only down side is getting through Hassan city, however as someone suggested, there is a way to get to the bypass road. Which would make it a better option.

Overall, a great drive. Highly recommended!

[prasad14]

Hi,

Which one of these two options is better in term of road conditions?

1. Mangalore-Belthangady-Mudigere-Belur-Hassan-Bangalore.
2. Mangalore-Uppinangadi-Dharmasthala-Mudigere-Hassan-Bangalore

Also, from Ullal (Summer Sands resort), would coming via M'lore university
save any time or is it reco'd to come to Mangalore itself?

Prasad

[Samurai]

Yesterday I drove to Bangalore via Shiradi.

Last month I did Manipal-Sakleshpur in just 2 hours 55 minutes. But I didn't think it would happen this time, after hearing all the horror stories. But mine was bit different. I took 3 hours just to reach Gundya. Ok, I rescued a stuck Xylo near Bailoor, that took less than 10 minutes. Still 3 hours to Gundya is really bad. It happened because of bad stretches between Naravi-G.V kere and then really bad between Dharmasthala and Kokkada. Since those roads are also narrow, I couldn't escape the slow cars that were negotiating the craters.

The Shiradi is totally destroyed. In most places, there is no road left. So I switched my driver hat to offroader and enjoyed the drive. Did the Gundya-Sakleshpur stretch in 52 minutes. Could have been lesser if not for some cars blocking me in narrow stretches. Thankfully I had no passengers to curse me. While driving there I had an idea for a sticker "Made for Shiradi" to put on my Vitara.

[rajshenoy]

Originally Posted by Samurai

Yesterday I drove to Bangalore via Shiradi.

Last month I did Manipal-Sakleshpur in just 2 hours 55 minutes. But I didn't think it would happen this time, after hearing all the horror stories. But mine was bit different. I took 3 hours just to reach Gundya. Ok, I rescued a stuck Xylo near Bailoor, that took less than 10 minutes. Still 3 hours to Gundya is really bad. It happened because of bad stretches between Naravi-G.V kere and then really bad between Dharmasthala and Kokkada. Since those roads are also narrow, I couldn't escape the slow cars that were negotiating the craters.

The Shiradi is totally destroyed. In most places, there is no road left. So I switched my driver hat to offroader and enjoyed the drive. Did the Gundya-Sakleshpur stretch in 52 minutes. Could have been lesser if not for some cars blocking me in narrow stretches. Thankfully I had no passengers to curse me. While driving there I had an idea for a sticker "Made for Shiradi" to put on my Vitara.

Any realistic news on when they will start patching up? Considering whole stretches are gone, its much more than patch but it should last till next june

I only hear stuff like making tunnel etc but i don't think i will be alive or still driving till then

[lohithrao]

Funny part is they still havent figured out to build a road which can last 1 monsoon and they are talking about tunnel, oh yea simple flyovers take more then 5years

Couple of weeks back i spotted just 1 tractor and few people trying to do their bit, which is too less for the present state.

Originally Posted by rajshenoy

Any realistic news on when they will start patching up? Considering whole stretches are gone, its much more than patch but it should last till next june

I only hear stuff like making tunnel etc but i don't think i will be alive or still driving till then

[iridium]

Had been to Dharmasthala on Oct 15th (Tuesday).
We left Bangalore (home) at 5:45pm. Reached Sakleshpur at 9pm.
Shiradi ghat - there's literally no road.
Reached Dharmasthala at 11:30pm.

Left Dharmasthala yesterday. Came back via Ujjire - Charmudi Ghat - Belur.

There are some patches that aren't good. But when compared to Shiradi Ghats, this is a world apart.

From Belur had to go to our village Chikkanagal.
From Belur - Bikkodi - Kanati - Chikkanagal.
Most parts of this stretch here again are in bad shape.

Used the Garmin GPS (Maruti Suzuki branded) for the route. The route was shown right. However we landed up in a different village since the GPS claimed that we have reached Chikkanagal. Luckily it was just a few kms away and we kept asking and reached our village. It did take us through some internal roads (read it as mud roads).

Had been in our Ertiga. Never scraped anywhere. Used P2 mode of RD's box. It was a wonderful experience. In fact entire drive to and fro, used the P2 mode.

Average when we reached BLR, the MID was showing 21.7.

Regards
Ravi.

[hallik9]

So here is the latest on this route.
I travelled from Kundapur to Bangalore last evening.Left Kundapur at 3.30pm and reached Bangalore at 1am
Shiradi can officially be declared as a " No drive zone".The roads are non existent and even my XUV took some brunt.The only saving grace on this route are the roads from Hassan to Bangalore.The next trip to my native will be via Charmadi for sure.

[TheTeacher]

Just back from my trip. Drove to Udupi from Mysore on the 14th via Hassan, Belur, Mudigere, Charmadi, Ujire, Karkala. Overall, roads were good.

Mysore - Hassan, and Hassan - Belur: surface was very good with occasional potholes easily avoided. But numerous speed breakers which kill the joy. There are also a few very sharp 150 degree curves without adequate signage.

Inside Hassan and Belur the roads are bad but easily motoroable. You can do 20 - 30 kmph. These are fairly short stretches, so we did not find them to be a major problem.

After Mudigere roads deteriorate a bit, but very motorable.

Charmadi ghat: road is a bit narrow, with a lot of twists and turns and bends, a bit steep here and there. Overall not a problem. Views and scenerey is to kill for. Totally awesome drive. Unlike others, we did not find any buses on the Charmadi stretch. Even at 10 am, there was mist on the top of the mountains. Unless the roads deteriorate, this will be my preferred route to go to Udupi.

Rest of the drive was uneventful. Overall took 8.5 hours in 2 cars with a breakfast break in Hassan.

We also did the Udupi - Mangalore stretch till Katpadi and back, and the surface is mixed. Where completed, it is excellent, in other places there is only kutcha surface. One still has to swing back and forth as the road shifts from divided dual-carriageway to single carraigeway in the unfinished portions.

I am updating the other parts of my journey in the mega "Road Updates" thread.

[speedsatya]

Dunno why is it so difficult to maintain the Shiradi Ghat in motor able condition. With elections around , one would have expected much better response , guess they have given up. Imagine the plight of bus operators plying these expensive B9Rs on this route ! I am sure none of us would hve problems if they collect toll on this road and use that money to repair/ maintain this road. It's anytime better to pay toll than pay thousands at the service center to repair your vehicle