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Thanks Ken

A slight change of route from bangalore to mangalore. New Route map.

Hi DV3 .. Welcome to XBHP ...
If I were you I would not plan to travel on Karnataka roads

If there are no specific reasons like family visit or something in Mangalore and you are just planning to see some wildlife and sea shore ... I would rather suggest you to take the route to Pondicherry .. Roads in Tamil Nadu are Awesome ..

Another point ... I would never ride after 7 PM on Karnataka roads (except mysore road) .. but on Tamilnadu roads I would drive until 9 PM without any hassles....

If your doing to Pondi you can take this route
Krishnagiri-Thiruvannamalai- Gingee-Thindivanam- Pondi

Recently, a few of my friends from Bangalore visited Pondi. This was the route they took. The said the roads where really good.

You can have a drive on the ECR(Pondi - Chennai). Visit Mahabalipuram, play on the clean shores of Pondi.

A hotel name Aruna International(think the names correct) in Pondi is a decent place to stay. AC rooms for 1000INR/day.

Have a great party time on the roads.
Drive safe. Happyiiiiiiiii Munching Miles..

Here's a suggestion based on my experiences.

Day 1: Ride to Bangalore to Chikamagalur via Tumkur and stay at a Lodge in chikamagalur. A good place is Rajmahal Hotel on Indira Gandhi Road. Avoid their blankets. Rooms are clean and good with tv and goes at 400 for two for non ac. Safe Parking available inside hotel premises.

Day2: Ride to Mullaingiri at about 9AM. The ride will be awesome and well complimented by some slight drizzle and heavy fog. Which makes things very interesting. Stay there till noon time as the fog clears and you view the valley and see how vast the place is and come back to hotel and leave to Mangalore via Mudigere-Banahakal-Charmadi-Belthangady-Mangalore which is a good route and the scenery is just awesome. Banahakal - Charmadi-Belthangady is superb. The main attraction is passing through Charmadi. The traffic is low-moderate at times but watch out for Racing/Cornering Mad Truckers as the roads are Narrow!!

Your Alternative Route to Mangalore which again is awesome with a lot of twisties would be Head towards Mudigere from Chikamagalur and you get diversion on the right heading towards Aldoor. Go to Aldur-Balehonnur-Kalasa-Kudremukh. This again is an awesome route. Tarmac is 70% good throughout and is a fast route. It takes about 5 hours with multitude of stops for pics, breaks etc from Chikamagalur to Mangalore. Btw with the rains this entire route is amazing to ride on. Very nice weather and very scenic. Expect Rains at Kalasa-Kudremukh and Heavy Fog heading from Kudremukh-Karkala especially near Hanuman Gundi falls which will sometimes reduce speeds to as low as 20-40kph while the usual speeds should cross 80+ easily and much more depending on how you ride. Watch out for Unexpected traffic.

On the Former route Chikamagalur - Mangalore is about 155kms and the 2nd would be a little longer. 220 Approx i guess as Chikamagalur - Kalasa via Aldur-Balehonner is 86kms approx and Kalasa Mlore via Karkala is 130kms approx

Must visit enroute is Soan's Pineapple Farm 5 kms from Moodabidri (its on the main highway itself) and ask for Pineapple Juice, you'll love it! Its about 12kms from Karkala enroute to Mlore.

Places of Visit in Mangalore are Tannirbavi, Panambur, Hosabettu, Surathkal and Someshwar, Kaup and Malpe Beach. You can take a diversion to Kaup from Karkala via Padubidri and enjoy the beach before reaching Mangalore, depending on your route.

Moodabidri has the 1000pillar Jain Temple and Karkala has Attur Church.

No attractions on the Charmadi route and Jamalabad fort is closed i guess and not worth the visit.

Day3: Mangalore-Khozikode is a good plan but the road heading southward aint in a very good condition. The roads get very bumpy a
few kms from Mangalore. I havnt been on the stretch in a while but upto Kasargod its not in the best shape.

Day4: Khozikode to Ooty. No idea about how good the route is but The roads in TN are superb. Ooty-Coonoor is a must see and the roads here are awesome and very much capable of high speeds. Climate at high speeds is very cold if you dont have adequate protection against cold weather. Watch out for rains. I would suggest you to spend some time in Ooty as the place is beautiful. There's quite a few places of visit there and the Botanical Garden, Wax statue etc are worth a visit. Also check out Doddabetta @ 2623m high is the highest peak in the Nilgiris.

Day5: Ooty - Mysore - Bangalore. The route from Ooty goes via Bandipur. I think There's a shorter route which is 120Kms and the longer one is about 160KMs. Take the longer one. Its just fantastic. It takes 2.5-3 hours with stops for pics and depending on your riding from Ooty-mysore. About 20kms of the route has some off-roading to do in it and rest are just beautiful. The ride through Bandipur Nat-Reserve is a must for any biker or traveler. Also The climb down from Ooty heading towards Bandipur is equally amazing. Do this stretch at day time. Preferably at morning or noon-evening. You will love it.

Mysore-Bangalore is a piece of cake!

Btw, I'm from Mangalore. Need any help around here let me know.

P.S. When riding through Kudremukh, the time allotted for bikes is 1hr to pass from Kalasa Checkpost to Malaghat Entry. If you wish to extend this time. Either get permission for free at the Forest Reserve Office at Kudremukh and/or get a ticket for 20 at Hanuman Gundi falls after Kudremukh before 4PM. Else you might have trouble with the exit, but normally they let you go if you are a bit late. Kalasa-Kudremukh is 20kms and Karkala is 50-55kms from Kudremukh.

P.P.S: If you intend to do Mysore-Kushalnagar-Madikeri-Mangalore Then Roads upto Kushalnagar is awesome. From Kushalnagar to Madikeri is F****d up big time. Madikeri - Sampage which is about 30kms from Sullia i guess is screwed up but do able, but its pot-holed especially mid-corner. Avoid night riding here. Unless your the type who's accustomed to riding at night and loves an adventure, cold, fog and rains and dust which reduce visibility to nil and importantly Volvo Buses racing through this entire section are on the wrong side always so you might not like this stretch AT ALL. I found this stretch with to be fun though but to each his own

I hope this helps.

The journey is what that always matters on a trip, make the most of the routes mentioned above. The time to ride is perfect with some rains set in and you and your friends will have a ball of a time.

~Cheers

Kwokfist ....You are damm good at planning routes ... that would be a trip ...

All the best guys .. you bet it .. this will be a really good road .. you will see the best of beach and hill sin Southern India....

^^ Not sure if the Charmadi Ghats are open to public. It was under repair until first week of june. So pls check before you head that route.

@Bhovan: What makes you say that never ride after 7 pm? Just curious to know.

I have ridden on various roads in Karnataka during the night (dry and in rain). It will definitely be more deserted, but did not have any hassles.

That's a good route but the roads arent in shape i heard from belur to mudigere. If you take this route to Chikamagalur (Chikamagalur is 35kms from Mudigere) you should visit Mullaingiri (25 kms from Chikamagalur) and then proceed to Mangalore. But this would mean a lot of riding. But it doesnt make sense taking a diversion as such. Cuz the traffic is horrible upto Nelamangala. Bad experience with this a few weeks ago.

Blore-Hassan-Mangalore was in good shape 3 weeks ago but cant say now. Heavy traffic will screw it up in days.

Charmadi is open. Rode to Chikamagalur via Charmadi 2 weeks ago. Was in a good shape! Half way through the climb there was new tarmac which continues till Chikamagalur.

Cheers

to goto Chikamagalur take the hassan->belur->Chikamagalur route, that's the best. From Chikamagalur go to balehonnur->Kalasa->kudremukh->Udupi then hit Mangalore or you go down to mangalore direct.

I went through Kudremukh this past weekend, it was awesome. The weather was great the scenery was great.

You are in gurrapana palya, take this route out of bangalore to reach NH48.
banashankari, 100ft. outer ring road, PES college, Nayandahalli, Kengeri, turn right after Rajarajeshwari college (it comes after you pass NICE road and on the right), go through dodda allada mara, chandrappa circle, Magadi, go past Magadi towards Kunigal. You will hit NH48 10 KM before kunigal. You will avoid all the traffice at Nelamangala (NH4 road consrtuction is ON there) and you will avoid paying money to use NICE road )

Yahoo! India Maps - see this for more info

Hi Krishna,

I meant the quality of roads. There are unexpected speed breakers, loose gravel and bad patches and unmarked diversions on the NH's.

Driving at night or after 7 on these roads isn't comfortable at all and moreover your average speed comes down to a great extent and you start thinking if covering this distance now is worth the effort.

Sorry if I sounded "racist" or something

Hey guys.. Thanks for all the suggestions... i was caught up in work so couldn't update our plans here... didn't really kept a log of the trip but did clicked few pics. We went as we initially planned... except few changes... and we stayed 2 days in Calicut.. didn't go to Ooty. No pics for the last 1.5 days... I was too late to find out that my cam didn't like salty water :P

Trip was good... lot of rain as expected... 1100+ kms done... only about 350 without rain :P

Few captions added in the pics.

Thanks again for the suggestions. Maybe next time I will post a lil earlier to make use of them

Nice Picks...

Driving with a pillion for 1200 kms must have been a difficult job, but the the hotel rooms would have been much more Lively .

Thanks nirvikalp.

N riding with pillion was not easy but then it had its own advantage. Clicking pics on the move being one of them :P

We were so exhausted after reaching hotel that there was hardly any action :P