[gajadonga]

So you stopped at Kamat upachar near Karwar one of my favourite place for breakfast.
Last week on the way to Goa I stopped at that place.
You have taken the pictures from the Karwar sea front from the road.
Just attaching a picture I took at the same place.

[noopster]

Very nice narration and pics Karthik! I did a similar route with the missus when we were still relatively newlywed and her younger bro who lived with us back then. We drove from Bangalore in my Accent via NH206/Nh17. A friend started from Bombay and we met up at Murudeshwar. Return trip we dropped in at a relative's at Kumta before hitting the road and planning to reach Shimoga by nightfall but a freak thunderstorm hit meaning we had to find a hotel before that- thankfully found an excellent one near Sagar and stayed there instead.

Good times! And this was back when I was the only driver, so you can imagine quite an experience!

Overall how would you rate the coast-hugging route compared to the regular one?

[flycatcher]

Nice pictures and narration Karthik! If it is okay can you share the number of Doddamane in Agumbe ghat? Looks like an interesting place. Would want to go there when I drive down Agumbe ghat.

[Me-hul]

Well written travelogue with lovely pics.

I was planning to go to Goa sometime in the coming days.
Was wondering if I could get back via Karwar-Honnavar-Sagar-Shimoga route.
How is the route all the way?I've received inputs that the road after sagar(towards Goa) is in bad state.

I was basically looking for a good scenic drive.
Asking this as this route has not been mentioned in detail in your travelogue.

[sandeepmohan]

Originally Posted by KarthikK

And see honeymooning couples coochi-cooing on stone benches everywhere?

You might want to be careful saying this. You and your friends are probably in line for the same thing and when you are "AT IT"; your bloods going to be boiling over the annoying passerby trying his/her best to ruin it for you.

Originally Posted by KarthikK

We had 'The Jet®' (my personal aircraft) , a Verna 1.6 SX petrol, a Honda City (ANHC) and a Palio 1.6 sport to choose from (my friends' cars)

Wow; this is a very elite group of petrol heads. It is, nowadays, rare to come across a group of friends driving petrol cars.

Originally Posted by KarthikK

With 2 days left for the drive, my friend and I got his Palio 1.6 sport serviced at Prerana motors

I would refrain from doing a service at the last minute. Things can go very wrong. I am not sure if the car was given a few days after the service to check if everything was good before you headed out for the drive.

Originally Posted by KarthikK

The Palio 1.6 is one hell of a gas guzzler.

Surprised to read this and I keep reading this everywhere. A pedal to metal highway run with my friend and ex colleagues Fiat Palio GTX (now sold) returned a very decent 12kmpl. The Palio 1.6 is far from a gas guzzler. His city average used to be 11kmpl. Your friends Fiat Palio Stile is a detuned (not by much but still) version of the original GTX. The Stile was not built as well as the original. It had a softer suspension setup and lighter body too. The Fiat Palio S10 was even better. All said and done, it is still a very special car. A rare breed own them.

Why on earth did your friend switch to those lame after market wheels? I can't for the life think of any reason for someone to replace those beautiful stock Palio alloys. They are beautiful even today.

Oh, and the very first long distance motorcycle trip I did was to Gokarna and it follows the same route you did. This was in 2004. I went down the same road again to Goa on two relic Jawa motorbike's in 2006. The 2006 ride went horribly wrong. Both the bikes belonged to my friend and the one he was riding was attended to just the day before the trip. A general service was done. It packed up with serious engine damage when we were just 100km shy of reaching Goa. We had to ditch both the bikes and send them back to Bangalore as parcels in a bus. We were actually worried if the bikes would reach Bangalore but they did. A Jawa motorcycle is very small so we could not manage with one bike.

[KarthikK]

Originally Posted by addyhemmige

Nice!!! Good to know that you guys had a good time. When we went to Turtle Bay, we made it a point to call the resort every other day to confirm the booking. Each time we called, it was a different person who took the call. Although we had transferred the payment, we were still unsure about our booking as they never acknowledged receipt of payment nor did they confirm our booking (via email).

Yeah, they are really disorganized in that aspect. Thankfully we could deviate to another location since we had a car. Imagine getting stuck like this if we had gone by bus and got down at Kundapur to get this shock news.

Maravanthe beach road is one my most favorite places. Your picture of the road with water on both sides is wonderful. Although the beach at the roadside is deep, the one at Turtle Bay (hardly 500 mts from there) is shallow and is great for fooling around.

hopefully the next time I go there, I will get to check out Maravanthe beach at turtle bay, provided they improve their booking methods.

Originally Posted by gajadonga

Last week on the way to Goa I stopped at that place.
You have taken the pictures from the Karwar sea front from the road.
Just attaching a picture I took at the same place.

This looks so different man. Looks like rains have started to approach the coast already. The place was bone dry last month this time.

Originally Posted by noopster

Very nice narration and pics Karthik! I did a similar route with the missus when we were still relatively newlywed and her younger bro who lived with us back then. We drove from Bangalore in my Accent via NH206/Nh17. A friend started from Bombay and we met up at Murudeshwar. Return trip we dropped in at a relative's at Kumta before hitting the road and planning to reach Shimoga by nightfall but a freak thunderstorm hit meaning we had to find a hotel before that- thankfully found an excellent one near Sagar and stayed there instead.

Good times! And this was back when I was the only driver, so you can imagine quite an experience!

thanks noopster! Nice to know about your trip in an Accent on the same route. How were the roads back in those days, on this route? Thunderstorm near Sagara, eh? Must have been an amazing experience, the rains in the western ghats are pretty nasty when they hit. Kudos if you did this route during monsoon time

Overall how would you rate the coast-hugging route compared to the regular one?

In terms of distance, the coast route is longer, needless to say. But we found very less traffic. Whatever vehicles were there, were trucks. The roads are very smooth throughout till Udupi. For someone who is bored of the same old 600km Hubli route, he/she can try this 800km route to check out tea/coffee estates, rainforests, waterfalls, grass meadows, backwaters and beaches, all in one single route.

Originally Posted by flycatcher

Nice pictures and narration Karthik! If it is okay can you share the number of Doddamane in Agumbe ghat? Looks like an interesting place. Would want to go there when I drive down Agumbe ghat.

Sure. I'll PM you their landline number. You might have to inform them in advance about how many people are going and for which meal. Just in case you want to stay there for a few days in Agumbe, they even have rooms in that bungalow which they let out for tourists, but don't expect anything substantial. Its a beautiful little village though, i've had fantastic experiences whenever I've been here.

Originally Posted by Me-hul

Well written travelogue with lovely pics.

I was planning to go to Goa sometime in the coming days.
Was wondering if I could get back via Karwar-Honnavar-Sagar-Shimoga route.
How is the route all the way?I've received inputs that the road after sagar(towards Goa) is in bad state.

I was basically looking for a good scenic drive.
Asking this as this route has not been mentioned in detail in your travelogue.

Thanks Me-hul.
We took the same road while going to Goa. It was fantastic throughout. I have put up a few pictures of sharavathi valley and Jog, both of which lie on the same route that you mentioned (Sagara - Honnavar - Goa). 80% of the road was pothole-free when we went, and we saw them working hard to complete the remaining stretches as well. I assume the entire retarring exercise will be over by now. I would definitely recommend this route if you are thinking of it.

Originally Posted by sandeepmohan

You might want to be careful saying this. You and your friends are probably in line for the same thing

I might as well make fun of others till my time arrives

and when you are "AT IT"; your bloods going to be boiling over the annoying passerby trying his/her best to ruin it for you.

precisely the reason why we didn't go to these cliche'd hill stations. We didn't want to disturb busy couples on these stone benches, you see *lol*

Wow; this is a very elite group of petrol heads. It is, nowadays, rare to come across a group of friends driving petrol cars.

None of us take our cars to office, mainly restricted to weekend use and for our travelling, so we happen to be *clatter-free* for the time being (pun intended)

I would refrain from doing a service at the last minute. Things can go very wrong. I am not sure if the car was given a few days after the service to check if everything was good before you headed out for the drive.

you're right sandeep. A last minute service is risky, in case something goes wrong on D-day. This was more of a general checkup we did to fix an issue with the AC vent, ensure the fluid levels were at the optimum, and wheel alignment correction, etc. Not a servicing in the true sense.

Surprised to read this and I keep reading this everywhere. A pedal to metal highway run with my friend and ex colleagues Fiat Palio GTX (now sold) returned a very decent 12kmpl. The Palio 1.6 is far from a gas guzzler. His city average used to be 11kmpl. Your friends Fiat Palio Stile is a detuned (not by much but still) version of the original GTX. The Stile was not built as well as the original. It had a softer suspension setup and lighter body too. The Fiat Palio S10 was even better. All said and done, it is still a very special car. A rare breed own them.

Through the trip, it returned decent fuel efficiency figures of around 14 kmpl on the highways, with the AC perpetually on, this being summer season. In the city too, we usually use the AC and don't get more than 9 kmpl. The GTX / S10 had a much better build quality than the Stile 1.6 I'm told.

Why on earth did your friend switch to those lame after market wheels? I can't for the life think of any reason for someone to replace those beautiful stock Palio alloys. They are beautiful even today.

Absolutely. These look too jazzy to be tasteful, but the fact is my friend bought this car as a pre-worshipped piece, so there wasn't anything he could do about them (blowing up 25k for another set just for cosmetic value seemed unnecessary). The first owner had swapped the OEM alloys for these supposedly "snazzier looking" ones. The car was very well maintained though, so my pal overlooked the bad looking alloys and ended up buying this car. Perhaps sometime later, we might convince him to switch over to the OEM 'telephone dial' alloys of the 1.6.

Oh, and the very first long distance motorcycle trip I did was to Gokarna and it follows the same route you did. This was in 2004. I went down the same road again to Goa on two relic Jawa motorbike's in 2006. The 2006 ride went horribly wrong. Both the bikes belonged to my friend and the one he was riding was attended to just the day before the trip. A general service was done. It packed up with serious engine damage when we were just 100km shy of reaching Goa. We had to ditch both the bikes and send them back to Bangalore as parcels in a bus. We were actually worried if the bikes would reach Bangalore but they did. A Jawa motorcycle is very small so we could not manage with one bike.

Interesting to hear about this adventure of yours. Were there no service stations/machanics near Goa/Karwar that you could send these to, and attempt to fix the damage? Might be a stupid question, considering the spare part availability of Jawa bikes. Did the bike get repaired later here?

[KALSANKRPAI]

Originally Posted by KarthikK

After this stop at Maravanthe beach at noon, we departed towards Udupi along NH-17. Udupi, as we noticed, has undergone a serious transformation into another would-be IT hub. There has been a great deal of development in Udupi, both in terms of real estate and in the infrastructure scene.
========================
A few flights are on the anvil for the near future, so the Jet® will be back with a Jet log soon.

Karthik, nice write up indeed. Can you provide the particulars of road conditions from Bangalore to Shimoga, Shimoga to Honnavar, Honnavar to Karwar, Karwar to Panjim {Goa }

Mod team note: Please avoid Quoting entire large posts for short replies. Thanks.

[hydswift]

Karthikk, wonderful narration and write-up. Felt a little nostalgic being away from that beautiful part of India. Spent around 6 years at Manipal during my studies. Thanks for sharing your experience and wonderful pictures you have shared.

[kannan666]

Lovely pictures and narration Karthik, thanks for sharing ! More pictures are always welcome ! BTW - We too encountered the strange visitor at the Calangute beach when we were there during the beginning of March this year ! Had to make the journey to Goa by train though, no driving down this time !

[kingofmyworld]

Beautiful place and a beautiful trip I should say. I dint know there were such places around karnataka. I'm going to this place for sure when I'm going to karnataka later this month. Do you mind sharing some info about the places to stay and their prices?

[John]

Hi Karthikk,
Great travelogue and photos. By the way is the Bhadra Coffee shop located just outside Ballehonnur on the road to Chikmagalur?
My friend has an estate close by the coffee shop and I've been there many times.

[ravi@64bhp]

Nice narration and beautiful pics Karthik. Three years back we rode till Jog and Agumbe, but missed this due to time constraint. Its in my long-pending list.

Originally Posted by kingofmyworld

Beautiful place and a beautiful trip I should say. I dint know there were such places around karnataka. I'm going to this place for sure when I'm going to karnataka later this month. Do you mind sharing some info about the places to stay and their prices?

Hello kingof'your'world, going next week?

[kingofmyworld]

Originally Posted by ravi@64bhp

Hello kingof'your'world, going next week?

Planned to go there butdad put some restrictions as my b'day is falling in between those dates.

[shenoytech]

My whole body is itching for Goa drive right now after reading your post.
I missed my December annual pilgrimage to Ponda, which is due any time now. Your post is just making it urgent.

[lancersfx]

Superb narration and excellent pics. I will be travelling sometime in may end or July first week. I'll post the travelogue once the trip is complete.