[swiftnfurious]

After 6 months of extreme planning and postponing twice, we finally made it to Goa on 2nd October 2009. Four of us - Haby, Rajesh, Deepak and me, we all are excited. And ICING on the cake -- i get access to team-bhp after 1.5 years of browsing! YUPPY! i posted the route queries -- replies of best route were to go through Belgaum & Shimoga. Deepak suggests to take Mangalore - Udupi route and said thats the most scenic place. i posted the query on team-bhp and there comes replies suggeting to skip that route. Deepak is adamant and re-assuring on the other side -- that the route is the longest but best. he convinces me saying all the KSRTC buses to Goa is plying though this route. I agree to it -- and I make THE BIGGEST MISTAKE of my life - skipping team-bhp advice and the FUN factor of a great journey I planned.

Day 1 -- 02 Oct 2009 -- Friday.
===============================
And here its the D-Day. The plan was to pick Haby from Domulur and then Rajesh from Koramangala and Deepak from Mysore Road.
I reached Domulur @ 5.50 AM and picked Haby and went to Rajesh, picked him and headed to Mysore road thru BTM.
I had tank filled the previous day and had checked air pressure.
We were cruising nicely on the NICE road and had our breakfast from Bidadi -- thattu idli and Chitranna and some Vada. I like this shop so
much for the food they have and wanted to have breakfast here only.
We were off to Mysore and then crossed Mysore and on the way to Coorg. we were proceeding and suddenly we see a bluw Indica on the left side
and a guy trying to move the earth from the underbody! And we saw his wife and 2 little kids in the car. Never before in my life I had this
thought before -- i just asked; shall we help them. YES was the call from rest all 3. We parked the car slightly in front of the indica and
walked back towards them.
What happened was the question and the couple was relieved. We checked the car and the left underbody was jammed on the underside when the
front tyre went into a small dig and being a front wheel drive was not pulling the car out.
I asked shall i try to get it out and the guy said ok. I got in and ripped hard in first gear. What i could see was the front wheel spinning
and nothing else. I got out and we started pushing it.
WHAT THE HELL! it didnt move even an inch with 4 of us putting 150% of the effort! I was stunned at the weight of the car. Having a 800,
Wagon -R and Swift, I could never imagine a car to be this heavy!
we were dis-heartened and looked at each other -- we had to carry on and we could not help them. I was standing on the left side of the car
and was looking at the other guy on the right side -- eyes doing all the talking and just looked inside the car. HELL!!!! The hand brake is
ON and we didnt check it!
Deepak being the thinnest guy, was asked to sit inside the car and apply brakes if we take it out of the place. Deepak had never driven a car
and was not at all familiar with the pedals. So i released the hand brake , asked him to steer the car and just pull the hand brake once we
are back on road.
And now with 200% effort we push the car as it proved heavy the first time -- and the car starts rolling at a good pace -- and we are worried
for a different reason now -- Deepak is in the car and he doesnt know a bit about driving. I shouted "pull the brake" and Deepak is
completely lost after the speed run of the car and is looking at me confused. Earth moved from under my feet for a second, and I shout again
and again -- Deepak is back to normal and pulls the hand brake. Ufffff..car stopped! the couple is happy and we are relieved. No one spoke a
word, but the faces reveled a million things.
we said a bye and started back -- everyone was happy and were laughing at what just happened.
we reached Coorg around ---- and some one saw a board reading "Hotel Coorg International". We decided to have lunch there and had mixed
feelings about the rates we might encounter. being bachelors and having a slightly tight budget, thought a exploring the option anyway. We
follow the sign boards and reach a BIG hotel. Again eyes doing the speaking, we enter the hotel and go straight to the reception where the
direction to the restaurant was shown.
we get inside, the ambience is really good -- and its buffet. I learnt that the buffet will be charged at 275 + taxes. by the time Haby comes
and gives a green signal about the items on display. So we decided to have this food.
The food was AWESOME and very tasty. we had so much food and decides to take some rest. And there comes a beautiful receptionist. I was
looking at her and suddenly see "Sindoor" on her forehead. Even before dreaming, my dreams go shattered. better luck next time - I console
myself.

[swiftnfurious]

Now time for some pictures! These pics are from Mysore road thru Coorg!

[akas_chauhan]

Nice pictures, keep them coming.

[swiftnfurious]

And soon we started from Coorg.

Now here onwards, the roads start deteroraiting. and Deepak assures me that the raod will be good in around 15-20 kms. We keep driving, no sign of raods getting better. and its actually getting worser and my patience starts wearing off. I had told Deepak that I dont mind driving 100 kms extra but not in bad roads. We took a break in between and started again. Deepak was supposed to get down at Udupi and come back to Bangalore next day for a family event. I was struggling hard to keep pace so that we can reach Mangalore on time. The bad roads give way to huge pot holes and my heart broke more and more when i drove my car though those roads. Everyone was getting impatient and was irritated by the condition of the road and lots of silence prevailed inside the car in contrast to the mornng conditions. I kept looking at the trip meter and the kms just didnt seem like increasing. And in the mean time, my headlights got dirty because of the monsoon and the dirt on the roads. Owing to bad wipers, the windshield was not getting cleaned and left the wiping marks causing the headlights from other cars to scatter on the windshield and visibility was NIL for me.

Somehow we managed to reach mangalore and Deepak wanted to enquire whether the KSRTC could deviate to Udupi to pick him up. We struggled to find the KSRTC stand and somehow made it. The guy in the counter agreed and now we had to head to Udupi. By now it was 7.30 PM and our plans of reaching Goa in 14 hours were completely washed out in the monsoon that was lashing across in North Karnataka. I got a fair share of
scolding for choosing this route irrespective of team-bhp sugggestions. And I was cursing myself for such a big mistake. We get the deal done in Mangalore, had a cup of coffee each and start back. Inside the city, we were waiting behind a bus for the signal and I rolled the car when the bus moved to the front. DHUM is the sound and We all could feel the way the back hit the ground! I was totally suprised of such a crater inside the city and it happened at less than 10kms/hr speed. This drove me crazy and I started abusing the entire Karnataka government for such a shabby maintenance of roads. I was dead scary whether the bumper broke or not. And there was pin drop silence in the car. And I started having nightmares of spending BIG cash for the car bumper in case of breakage. And my
insurance was due next month which was 15K when I bought the car.
we decided to stop at Udupi and call it a day. We decided to start the next day morning. Deepak assures me again that after Udupi, its good
road. i struggled a lot and finally we reached udupi on time for Deepak to catch the bus. My legs started paining so much because of the slow
driving and constant gear change and braking. We got into a nice hotel and retired to bed after a nice bath and dinner. By now we all were so disappointed and started to think of coming back to Bangalore. I suddenly jump and say -- "I am not going to go back - U guys wanna come with me, then come". True spirit right? you are mistaken -- I didnt want to drive my car back thru the same non-sense road and decided to drive forward till i get a different route which is better than this for the return trip.

We got up at 5 AM in the morning and came to car. I forgot to check the damage the previous night and decide to have an inspection! The
bumper is mis-aligned with the left back coming out of the place creating a gap between the side panel and brake light assembly. The brake
light also came out of the socket slightly and I could not keep it back by pushing it. Thank God, there was no breakage. I cleaned my headlights and fog lamps with Colin and we started our journey. One thing for sure -- everyone was gloomy and we didnt have any enthusiasm. I started driving and just before starting, we enquired the road condition till Goa -- BAD TILL Karnataka Border was the answer and I just thought for a moment why did I ask! It was dark and I encountered the same problem again -- there was slight drizzle and the light getting scattered on my windshield making it really impossible to see the road. The sun rose and we had enough light on the road and made my life better though we had bad roads. We came across some short good patches and we thought we are done with bad roads. And then suddely the roads are at its worst. Now we started discussing and finding RCA as to why the roads are good in some places and really bad in the next few meters. We concluded after a long discussion! Corruption and GREED for money!

And we suddenly see a beach on the left side of road and we are so happy! enthusiasm is back and we all jump out of car and take some snaps -- looks like we are pretty near by to Goa though my trip meter forced to make me believe that we had another 400 kms to cover!

[swiftnfurious]

We start our journey back and there comes my Mom's call saying that all roads are closed to Goa from North Karnataka and there are whole lots
of issues related to heavy rains. I convince her that I have taken a different route and we continue our journey. We did come across some
good road where i touched 100 and we started to be back in track about the energy levels. Fun prevailed within the four doors. And now we
reached this place and the road in front of us is completely blocked and we were asked to take a deviation. And now we have to go to Goa like
a triangle from the place where we took deviation. Thats through Yellapur, Dandeli and Haliyal We move forward and the roads are just
brilliant with jungle on both sides. this is the ghat section and road was good. We are all happy that after 500 kms of difficult driving, we
are getting good roads finally. In the mean while Rajesh is so frustrated that he says he will go to Goa by flight for his honey moon. and he
is determined about that. And on the other side, Haby , Rajesh and me are worried about the time we are going to get in Goa, the entire plan
is smashed already and looks like we are not going to get much time in Goa as we are supposed to start back on Monday morning to Bangalore.
And its already Sunday 1 PM. We went thru Ram Nagar and asked some one about the route. We are shocked at what he said! All routes except one are closed! and he is confident about the 3rd route that its open. Now pitches in his dear friend who was listening to this conversation and
assures us that route is also closed. there starts an argument between both and we move forward. The route from there was good in terms of
the quality of road and scenery and we keep driving. Finally we get down the ghats and suddenly we see a board! "Welcome to Goa". We were
moving really fast and our joy knew no bounds! we just crossed the mile stone and I want a pic of the stone! we went ahead and I took a U-
turn on the road and came back to take the pic! I know u will be thinking how crazy this guy is -- you will sure do the same when you travel
thru a tunnel for two days and suddenly you see a light at the end of tunnel.

Pics from Ramnagar - Goa:

[swiftnfurious]

Now we start driving faster as our destination is close and I didnt want to be told that the border is closed. The route was beautiful with
mist and fog, though the road was not all that great. We drove hard and faster and finally crossed the border! And now we DONT care! who will
say we cant reach GOA. God knows who all did we challenge in the first 10 mins after we entered Goa! Now everyone is geared up and we were
closing kms by kms to our accomodation in Calengute. Finally we reached Calengute at 5 PM.

We changed our dress, got feshened up in a jiffy and started to for the main event . After all we had to vent out our frustration of
27 hours drive to reach Goa. We found one of the restaurants and got in there.

After that we went the nearby beach and spent some time there. Came back around 9 PM and went straight into another restaurant for Dinner. We had sizzlers from there and retired for the day.Slept nicely and got up at 8AM on Sunday for the next day activities. The first thing we wanted were to wash the dirty boy and make it shine. Had to work really hard for an hour to get him shine. And we went to Auguda fort from there. Reached the fort, walked around and clicked some snaps and back to the room. It was real hot out there and we were all tired by the time we were back.
Went out for lunch and had some delicious fish curry meals. back to room for taking some rest. Thats when we realized that the crowd was far
lesser than the previous day. Goa was coming back to the normal state from a happening weekend and we were really disappointed. We were just
thinking of rocking and Goa is slowly beginning to sleep. Went to beach again and had some fun and got ourselves some tattos done -- had to have something when we came back to office to show off! I got the first tattoo done for 150/- [the guy said 250/-]and second one done @ 50/- . Came back after a nice dinner and went to sleep. We had to start the next day at 8 AM to reach back to Bangalore by evening. woke up slightly late and started from there at 9 AM.The place where we stayed at, those guys were so helpful to draw a route map of our return journey till Sawantwadi. it made our trip so easy till Sawantwadi and to Bangalore through Belgaum. Of the whole trip here comes the best part! AMBOLI Ghats. We stopped for a brunch there + enjoying the ghat sections and waterfalls. We reached Bangalore @ 11.30 after an event filled drive to Goa.

The route we took back was Calingute - Mapusa - Sawantwadi - Amboli - Belgaum - Hubli - Chitradurga - Tumkur - Bangalore. Uploading the rest of the pics as well.

[swiftnfurious]

Breakfast @ Subway on Sunday morning.





Augauda Fort

















Amboli Ghat Section:





















Belgaum Highway:

[MX6]

How bad is the road between udupi and ankola? In sept, there wasn't much of a road. It was a series of craters joined together. I did a quick trip to Udupi where I took a different route from hubli through yellapura, sirsi, sagar, Anandapuram, Hosanagara. Road was good till Anandapuram. It was a nightmare after that all the way till Udupi. Planning on a trip to Udupi again in dec. Wondering whether I should try out Sagara, thirthahalli, agumbe, udupi or stick to yellapura, ankola and NH17.

[swiftnfurious]

@MX6, I am not a frequent traveller in this route! this was the first time I travelled and dont think will ever dare to take this route again. You could post your query in the route queries for better response!

[PearlJam]

Very nice narration! Look at the silver lining - the deviation took you through some very scenic routes!

[swiftnfurious]

@Pearljam, the deviation did take us through some scenic routes, but there was an additional 150 kms which was added to the ODO with quite some extra hours! but return was even better thru Amboli ghats and lesser time as well.

[s3va]

Well written !!

I cruised the BLR-Mangalore-Goa route in 2006 and even though the route was about 60-70 kms more, at that time around fortunately the roads were good. Especially the beach side NH is an awesome circuit.

I dont know why the govt in KA is careless about these roads !!! For that matter they spent huge amounts to do up the Shirdi ghats, but I think the money went down the drains after a monsoon.

I think its better to stay away from traveling within KA, especially the Northern regions !!!

[vkochar]

Nice !! Some of the photos you have shown are so good and the roads look so tempting to drive. How I miss Goa !!

Where did you stay in Calangute ? Same place I assume where the car is hosed with water. What is the name and how much for a room ?

[swiftnfurious]

Originally Posted by vkochar

Nice !! Some of the photos you have shown are so good and the roads look so tempting to drive. How I miss Goa !!

Where did you stay in Calangute ? Same place I assume where the car is hosed with water. What is the name and how much for a room ?

Not sure where in Calengute -- it was very very near to the beach -- near Tittos club and all. The place is called Martin's guest house - rate was 800/- per day! Please PM me if you need details. Very nice place to stay as the beach is just 10 mins walk from there -- this place is next to Subway.

[Ramsagar]

You had a best drive passing through north Karnataka in the rainy season, though the roads are bad at few stretches must be memorable.

Awesome pics.