[sandeepmohan]

I am probably saying this because I have not seen Shiradi at its worst. Even in the present state of Shiradi ghat section, my car took a battering this morning. Shiradi is difficult for a low slung car. I was driving to Puttur. I dont want to take Shiradi on my way back to Bangalore. Would much appreciate some guidance, a map link for an alternate route back to Bangalore. Does Charmadi figure for a return route?

[rajshenoy]

Originally Posted by sandeepmohan

I am probably saying this because I have not seen Shiradi at its worst. Even in the present state of Shiradi ghat section, my car took a battering this morning. Shiradi is difficult for a low slung car. I was driving to Puttur. I dont want to take Shiradi on my way back to Bangalore. Would much appreciate some guidance, a map link for an alternate route back to Bangalore. Does Charmadi figure for a return route?

Yes, though its bad its still holding up especially downhill. I just drove yesterday and now wondering if i should return via charmadi

From what i heard, roads are not good near belur

So whatever route we take it has 20km odd bad stretches i guess

Shiradi is still fastest

[fast_elegance]

Originally Posted by rajshenoy

Yes, though its bad its still holding up especially downhill. I just drove yesterday and now wondering if i should return via charmadi

From what i heard, roads are not good near belur

So whatever route we take it has 20km odd bad stretches i guess

Shiradi is still fastest

The roads inside Belur town is bad. Probably about a km and not more. One more thing to be careful between belur and hassan is the small pot holes that are creeping up under the tree canopies on this stretch.

I will be returning on monday through charmadi.

[gakudva]

I just made a trip this week to Mangalore both via Shiradi Ghat and Charmadi. I would recommend Charmadi Ghat considering the road conditions as of today.

Shiradi Ghat has gone bad (though not very bad). Additionally, the road before the actual ghat and also the after the ghat have gone bad in patches. The road after the Shiradi ghat have surprise potholes ... it will either make you brake hard or, will make you hit the ground.

Charmardi Ghat is in beautiful condition. There is no heavy Gas tanker traffic. There are some rough patches around Belur and around Ujire. But, overall still better than Shiradi.

[speedsatya]

Originally Posted by sandeepmohan

I am probably saying this because I have not seen Shiradi at its worst. Even in the present state of Shiradi ghat section, my car took a battering this morning. Shiradi is difficult for a low slung car. I was driving to Puttur. I dont want to take Shiradi on my way back to Bangalore. Would much appreciate some guidance, a map link for an alternate route back to Bangalore. Does Charmadi figure for a return route?

Just did my weekly mangalore trip. Did a mistake of starting from bangalore at 6 pm. Ran into heavy oncoming traffic on the Ghat.

About road conditions , I would say this is still the best option available. Just that one has to be careful about not tailgating any HCV. With 5 adults on board , we had no issues at all with low GC. Just that I was super cautious wherever I couldn't see the road ahead.

The worst part for me was the stretch between Uppinangady and Mani. Inspite of doing this road every alternate weekend , I crashed into so many potholes as I was blinded by all those idiots driving with high beams.

Return journeys for me these days start at 6 pm from mangalore. Most of the weekend jokers would have left by then and would be busy trying to kill each other between gundya and Hassan at this time.


Sent from my iPad using Team-BHP

[Ross]

Did my third trip through Shiradi today on my Scorpio in last one week, this time towards Mangalore. Shiradi is very much drivable with bad roads in patches and is in far better condition than its worst couple of years back. But roads on either side of sakleshpur have gone for toss. I think this is still the fastest route to Mangalore. Left JP Nagar by 830AM and reached Mangalore by 3PM with one 20 minutes break in between.

[rajshenoy]

Worst part of Shiradi route now is the roads around sakleshpur

From ballupet till 5 km after sakleshpur including the town area is shattered

Ghat section actually is much better in comparison. I hope they fix sakleshpur as well in the budget allocated for shiradi

Other bad stretch is from uppinangadi till bantwal melkar. Too many sudden potholes if one is driving in the night

[ampere]

The sad part is there is no bypass for the town. Dont know if its possible to make one too.

[sandeepmohan]

Returned from Puttur via Belthangady - Ujire - Charmadi - Belur - Hassan - Bangalore. As its Puttur, the turn off is at Uppinangadi town so you don't loose much time. We took a comfortable 8 hours with a one hour break in between to cover 350km. The drive to Puttur was via Shiradi, it was exactly 300km to Nehru Nagar in Puttur. We took 6.5 hours. I am not taking Shiradi ever again or until they fix it. It was bad going down hill. Can't imagine dealing with the same broken roads driving up hill. It won't matter if you have a Scorpio/Duster class of vehicle or you know where exactly to place your wheels as you are familiar with the road. Though hatches/sedans were flying down Shiradi, there was no way I could do that. The sump guard, front bumper over hang on my car took a few hits.

As for quality of roads, Charmadi is way better. There is a little rough patch in Belur town but nothing that a car with low ground clearance can't manage. As already mentioned, the stretch between Belur - Hassan has a few rough patches. Nothing that one needs to worry about though. What you do need to watch out for are speed humps around a few sharp bends. You can miss them.

Charmadi is not a fast road. It is a slow climb. Speeds averaging no more than 35kmph. Slow because the roads are very narrow and there are blind turns almost everywhere if you approach it from the Ujire end. Runs through very thick vegetation. Un marked hair pin bends. I would not head down this road post sunset. Traffic is sparse which is a good and bad thing. The good being it makes the drive easier, bad if you have a breakdown or require medical attention. Getting help is going to take a while. Over taking is difficult. Make peace with the LCV driver struggling up front and he will let you pass.

We left Puttur at 630am and reached Bangalore at 230pm. Very comfortable drive. No madness at any of the toll gates. Driving inside Bangalore city was also quite fast. Had a nice relaxed weekend in Puttur.

[nma83]

Drove back from Udupi to Bangalore yesterday. Started from Udupi a little after 12 noon and reached Belur for a coffee stop at around 4.30PM via the ultra-scenic Charmadi ghats. Fell in love with this route for its breath-taking scenery and nice roads (though a bit narrow).
But the peace was shattered after Hassan with pile-up after pile-up at all the toll gates . Adding to that was a huge jam at the Nelamangala junction, following incessant rain after Kunigal. The drive from Hassan to Mekhri circle took almost 5.5 hours, from 5PM to 10.40PM. What a nightmare it was!

[vishwas]

Had a very difficult and unpleasant driving experience while driving back from Kundapur to Bangalore thro' Mangalore and Sakleshpur. Our overall route was Bangalore-NH4-Hubli-Yellapur-Karwar-Shirur-Kundapur-Mangalore-Bangalore. The route till Karwar was absolutely superb. But the Udupi-Dakshin Kannada part was very disappointing.

The NH17 stretch from Kundapur - Udupi - Surathkal is being 4 laned, with lots of new bridges coming up for the newer two lanes, so traffic is very choppy. Also the existing two lanes of NH17 are very badly maintained. But this should be fixed soon with the NH17 4 laning completion.

The Mangalore-Sakleshpur was unbelievably bad. I guess from previous posts, this is still better than a couple of years ago - I cannot imagine how bad that would have been. Almost every kilometer has a bad stretch with rocks that have come off loose from the black top. After heavy rains, channels of water flows right on top of the road - ideally these points should be in concrete or the high way should have pipes underneath for the water to cross over to the other side. Add to all of this is the super heavy truck traffic. Makes this route no fun to drive.

An alternative suggestion was to take the Kundapur-Agumbe-Shimoga-Arsikere-Bangalore route. I regret not taking that suggestion.

[NPV]

Update from a weekend trip to Bekal:
I'd heard that Shiradi is bad but still holding up compared to the dreadful conditions few years ago. I'd driven to Mangalore in 2012 and it was bad but manageable and I think it is in similar condition now. However, the tone for bad roads is set after Hassan, it slowly deteriorates and the worst stretch is when nearing Sakleshpur and exiting Sakleshpur - this is much worse than the rest of Shiradi (I went up to Gundya and turned left towards Kukke). There is almost no road here and resembles a scene from a war movie
On the return, I decided to try Sullia-Madikeri-Somwarpet-Arkalgud-Holenarasipura-Channarayapatna-Kunigal-Nelamangala. This is much better overall though longer in distance and road is narrower. At Holenarasipura there is a 2Km stretch of mars/moon surface with no asphalt whatsoever just mud and stones and then magically the surface normalizes!

EDIT:just saw @rajshenoy's earlier post and echoes the exact same views on the Sakleshpur Vs Shiradi condition!

[Samurai]

Anybody considering the modest Bisle Ghat in order to escape Shiradi?

[carlosTHEjackal]

I recently had opted to drive to Udupi and then Kundapur via Shiradi.
Drive:
01 Oct 2014 - 4:30 am (Bangalore) to 12:30 pm (Udupi) Including breakfast and nature call breaks.

Here are my few observations:
Road conditions are good till you exit Hassan town.

Average to Moderate from Hassan to Sakleshpur town. The road is pothole ridden about 5 Kms before Sakleshpur and about 3 Kms exiting Sakleshpur. Can complete the stretch if you are maintaining 40 to 50 Kms speed.

Sakleshpur to Gundya (Shiradi Ghat):
Most of the curves are an issue, but can manage if one maintains 20 to 30 Kms speed. And isn't in a hurry to overtake other vehicles. Low GC vehicles are advised to take min 1 Hr of drive time to complete this Ghat stretch without any scraping of underbelly of the car.

Gundya to Mangalore:
Some of the potholes are right in the middle of the road. Difficult to spot them if you are at 80 Kms and above speed. May create maintenance to your car if one is driving in excess of 80 Kms per hour. Average road conditions.
I got stuck behind a convoy of 3 Buses and a Truck which delayed my travel duration in this stretch.

Mangalore to Udupi:
No potholes, but lot of 4 Lanes to 2 lane diversions.

The return was from Someshwar, Agumbe, Thirthalli, Shimoga, Kadur, Tiptur, Tumkur and Bangalore where most of the road conditions are good.

04 Oct 2014 - 3:30 pm (Mandarthi) to 6:00 pm (Ambuteertha) Overnight stay.
Had to encounter senseless tourist crowd at sunset point Agumbe which delayed my travel by about 30 Mins.

05 Oct 2014 - 5:30 am (Ambuteertha) to 12:00 Noon (Bangalore) Including breakfast and nature call breaks.

[ramki067]

Hi guys,

Travelling to Dakshin Karnataka religious places next weekend. Leaving Bangalore early morning by 4 am.
My travel route is,
Day 1:
Bangalore -> Horanadu -> Udupi/Ambalpadi(Night halt)
Day 2:
Udupi -> Anegudde Ganapati Temple -> Kollur -> Kamalashile(Night halt)
Day 3:
Kamalashile -> Sringeri -> Bangalore.

As it would be hectic to drive to Sringeri on the second day with the above plan, thought of resting at Kamalashile. Hence please suggest staying and dinner options for 3 adults at Kamalashile for a night.

Thanks,
Ramki