[prasad14]

Originally Posted by Samurai

The roads are so dug up, I have to say it reminds me of the mine truck days. Yes, it is that bad now. I usually don't slow down much for potholes, but this time I had to pause and wonder at certain stretches.

Some repair work was happening just before the Gundya checkpost.

Traveled to M'lore by bus this Sun night and return on Tue morning. After reading this post by Samurai-san was prepared for the worst. Traveled in Durgamaba A/c sleeper, the guy was in a mad hurry that atleast twice I almost got tossed out. Even just sitting on that sleeper clutching whatever was available to avoid injuries was a pain, literally. Tuesday, I returned by day in a multi-axle KSRTC Volvo and realized how bad the ghats have become. The Volvo driver, a lot saner guy, stopped couple of times to decide which crater to take - thats how bad it has become. Sedans were limping inch-by-inch, Oil/gas tankers and a couple of long (18.75mtrs) VRL logistics trucks were seen expertly maneuvering.

Saw patch work in 3 different places, but they seemed to be patching only smaller patches and didn't seem to touch the large ones.

Prasad

[Samurai]

Seriously, I am thinking Bisle ghat may be more comfortable than Shiradi ghat right now.

Edit: But then Bisle route is lot longer. Charmadi is probably the best bet now.

[pramod]

Drove Bangalore to Murudeshwar via - Chitradurga, Shimoga - Sagar - Honnavar and finally on Coastal Highway.

Road is good all the way. Was pleasantly surprised with the condition of NH17. Also drive Murudeshwar to Kundapur and found that to be very good aswell.

[addyhemmige]

Originally Posted by roamingrao

From Kateel, I would suggest you drive down to Mangalore byepass - BC road - Bantwal - Belthangadi - Charmadi. Obviously, a longer route to avoid the tedious / winding roads on the Moodabidre - Venoor - Guruvayanakere stretch.

Hope this helps.

@roaming rao sir, how is the road condition on the Guruvayanakere-Venoor-Moodbidri route?

[roamingrao]

Originally Posted by addyhemmige

how is the road condition on the Guruvayanakere-Venoor-Moodbidri route?

Broken tarmac and sporadic potholes on the 20km very curvy Guruvayankere - Venoor stretch. 5km from Venoor to Moodabidre is good. We could drive the 35 km stretch in about an hour.

[guyfrmblr]

Originally Posted by Samurai

Seriously, I am thinking Bisle ghat may be more comfortable than Shiradi ghat right now.

Bisle Ghat? Ahem!

Myself and cousin decided to explore this ghat around 8 months back since its just 25 km from my hometown. We took an old Omni so that there won't be any scraping issues. But our assumptions were wrong.

We entered from Kukke Subramanya side. Excellent roads for around 4 km. Then it suddenly turned into a mud road but was manageable. We then reached a temple. There we faced a Wagon-R which consisted of a group from Bangalore in the opposite direction. They stopped us and told that they saw the board for Sakaleshpur and took this route from Kukke. They negotiated until the temple, got scared by seeing the dense forests and decided to return. We told them that there is no issues in that ghat but they were completely shaken.

As soon as we crossed the temple, the mud road turned into a rocky terrain. We crawled for around 8 km and then Omni scraped at two places! We somehow managed to drive another 6 km and finally reached the summit. It was a very tiring and scary drive. But once we reached the summit, all the tireness went off after watching the beautiful scenery at the two view points. We gave up the idea of driving back in the ghats and hence took Somawarpet - Madikeri route to reach back Sullia.

The stretch from the summit of Bisle ghat to Sakaleshpur is also in a very bad shape. Instead of coming back to Sakaleshpur, one can go staright after climbing Bisle ghat which reaches Kodlipete near Shanivarasante. This stretch is manageable. It passes through beautiful back waters of Gorur Dam. From Kodlipete, one can take the Holenarasipur route to reach Channarayapatna.

I remember taking some pics of Bisle roads during our drive. I'll upload it if I find it. I hope they don't repair this ghat. If they repair it, crowd starts flowing in and the natural beauty will be completely spoilt.

[speedsatya]

OT , but need some inputs.

Any idea on Davangere to Mangalore via Agumbe ? We are planning to avoid the Ankola - Mangalore stretch and try out this route for a change.

[ashkamath]

Originally Posted by speedsatya

OT , but need some inputs.

Any idea on Davangere to Mangalore via Agumbe ? We are planning to avoid the Ankola - Mangalore stretch and try out this route for a change.

Pardon me sir for asking this, but how did Ankola come into the picture whilst driving from Davanagere to Mangalore unless you are meaning to take the Yellapur road for which you may have to drive north from Davanagere up to Bankapur or even further upto Hubli to take the yellapur road to Ankola (I mean you could be driving in the opposite direction altogether)

Davanagere to Mangalore via Agumbe is the natural choice of route as Ankola is way off from the chart. Davanagere to Honnali-SHimoga-Thirthahalli-Agumbe-Karkala (bypassing Udupi) -Mangalore. The route from Shimoga onwards towards Mangalore is pretty decent. Haven't been on that road for a while now though

[Samurai]

Originally Posted by guyfrmblr

Bisle Ghat? Ahem!

Myself and cousin decided to explore this ghat around 8 months back since its just 25 km from my hometown. We took an old Omni so that there won't be any scraping issues. But our assumptions were wrong.

I have taken bisle ghat numerous times. But always in a 4WD vehicle. You should see how buses drive on the road. I had hard time keeping up with a bus I was tailing once.

[speedsatya]

Originally Posted by ashkamath

Pardon me sir for asking this, but how did Ankola come into the picture whilst driving from Davanagere to Mangalore unless you are meaning to take the Yellapur road for which you may have to drive north from Davanagere up to Bankapur or even further upto Hubli to take the yellapur road to Ankola (I mean you could be driving in the opposite direction altogether) Davanagere to Mangalore via Agumbe is the natural choice of route as Ankola is way off from the chart. Davanagere to Honnali-SHimoga-Thirthahalli-Agumbe-Karkala (bypassing Udupi) -Mangalore. The route from Shimoga onwards towards Mangalore is pretty decent. Haven't been on that road for a while now though

Apologies for the confusion. We are actually driving to mangalore from Mumbai. Instead of the usual route of taking Ankola road from Dharwad , we plan to take the Mumbai - Davangere - Shimoga - Mangalore route.

[guyfrmblr]

Originally Posted by Samurai

You should see how buses drive on the road. I had hard time keeping up with a bus I was tailing once.

One KSRTC bus goes from Kukke side to Sakaleshpur in the morning and it returns back in the evening. Poor chap was stuck behind our Omni for a long time due to space constraints for overtaking. We allowed him to overtake after crawling for around 2 km. He then gunned his engine and disappeared into thick forests. It belonged to Puttur depot and I pity the mechanic who'll be working on it. I could find the pics of our Bisle drive.

Butter smooth roads for first few km near Kukke:


Wide broken roads after covering some distance:


Huge stones started making their appearance:


This was the condition for around 7-8 km. The roads were very narrow:


There were more horrible stretches but couldn't click pics of those. At one point, a 407 appeared in front of us out of nowhere. The road was so narrow that it was impossible for two vehicles to pass. We had to reverse almost 0.25 km to find a suitable place to pass each other.

[Samurai]

At least you didn't have to deal with waterfall across the road.

My share of Bisle photos are here: http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/4x4-ex...isle-ghat.html

[SmartCat]

Took the Shiradi ghat to reach Surathkal from Bangalore yesterday. Many times, you have to stop the car, hit the reverse, crawl to the other side of the road to get around the seriously deep craters. Night driving is impossible now.

At Gundya, the road was blocked with barricades because of road repair work. All vehicles need to take the Subramanya road to reach Uppinangady - and that added extra 30 kms to the journey.

[Samurai]

I took the Shiradi ghats yesterday (22nd) towards Mangalore, with full family this time. The first few kms of bad roads have been patched up. But then another 20kms are really bad. I had to go slow at many places since my wife would yell at me otherwise. At one crater, my rear bumper banged into the road.

But there was no block at Gundya since the roads after that have been patched up.

I heard Rs.94 crores has been allocated to fix the roads this time. I thought we will get new roads. Instead we are getting the same old patchup or thyape!

The current union cabinet minister for Road Transport and Highways is from Udupi. Will we get a better deal this time, I can only wonder.

[fusionbang]

I am travelling to Dharmasthala and then to Ujire this weekend from Bangalore. I would not like to take Shiradi Ghat at any cost as I will be driving a Santro Xing and my uncle with an Alto. Also I would not like to take Madikeri - Sullia - Puttur road since it will add up to 80kms to my journey.

Can anybody suggest me with the best route to Dharmasthala - Ujire.