Hi Friends,
My friend and I are planning to go on a ride this weekend. It will be a 7 day ride.
We are planning to take the route: Bangy-Ooty-Munnar-Rameshwaram(Dhanuskodi)-Thanjavur-Pondy-Bangy.
Any suggestions for the route that we should take? Or any other option for the places that we could visit?

Road conditions on the following route :Bangalore-kunigal-Hassan-Belu-Chikmagalur-Mullayangiri Bababudangiri-Chikmagalur-Vastare-Aldur-Koppa-Thirthalli-Nagara-Sampekatte-Sagar-Jog Falls-Honnavar-Bhatkal-Kundapur-Marvanthe-Malpe-manipal-Karkala-Ujire-Charmadi-Mudigere-Belur-Hassan-Bangalore

Bangalore- Hassan-Belur: Very good four lanes till bellur cross( a bit further rather).Post bellur cross single lanes till Hassan. Road widening in progress, so have to be careful

Belur-Chikmagalur-Mullayangiri-Bababudangiri-Chikmagalur: Very good roads till Belur, post belur u are likely to find few potholes and Mini reservoirs Simply superb. But have to be doubly careful on corners, u will not realize that a fast moving Jeep is turning and heading right at you. Few kilometers before bababudangiri have taken a bit of toll due to recent rains.

Chikmagalur-Vastare-Aldur-Koppa-Thirthalli-Nagara-Sampekatte: You can find some fantastic stretches of Tarmac and also few patches which has take a toll due to incessant rains. Around Sampekatte,as told by the people where we stayed, it’s been raining continuously for past 3 months, so considering that ,the road conditions were much better than what it looked like

Sampekatte-Sagar-Jog falls-Honnavar-Bhatkal-Kundapur-Marvanthe-Malpe: Sampekatte to Ferry pick up point(about 13-14 kms ) are good. On the sagar side of the linganamakki backwaters, the roads are not in the best of its shape for a few kilometers, post that bad stretch, its natures own racetrack. Sagar-Jog Falls is comparatively inferior to the previous route , but very much rideable and maintain speeds of 70-80 at most stretches. This is due to the increased tourist activity on this road. Jog –Honnavar will tempt you for the first 5-6 kms and then the bun burner ride starts and continues for the next 30 odd Kms. Once you start getting closer to Honnavar , Nature gifts us with one more race track .Road quality is brilliant. Highlight of this stretch are the two corners just 2kms before Honnavar. Honnavar – Bhatkal traffic starts increasing, roads are good. Once you enter NH17 , misery starts here.You are likely to get a very good stretch of tarmac and suddenly a one foot pothole covered with water(during the rains of course). It’s even more worse if it is done at night. Traffic increases exponentially.The road beside Marvanthe beach is super fantastic with the view of the beach on the right. Things started getting worse when there were processions due to Ganesha Chaturthi.Slight relief comes around Saligrama, from where the four lane work is in progress, with one of the fully asphalted side is open for traffic.

Malpe-manipal-Karkala-Ujire-charmadi-Mudigere-Belur-Hassan-Kunigal-Nelamangala-Bangalore: Malpe-Manipal-karkala stretch is nice, with few patches of worn out roads. One has to be very careful about the bus drivers who drive at their will. Karkala-Ujire-Charmadi nice single lanes, againg with few worn out patches.Charmadi-Mudigere till you climb down the ghats and a few kilometers ahead is good tarmac, post that its very bad till few kilometers till Belur. Belur-Bangalore, as mentioned above

Any useful info on Chennai-Bangalore?
Planning to go this weekend

Have you travelled through this route..? What is the condition of roads from Gundulpet to B'lore...??

Recently I visited Ooty via Mysore. You can go to Gundlupet via same route, the roads were good and smooth.

Ok, thanks, but its miserable road till gundulpet...

I had gone from Bangalore to Mysore to Angadipuram in the beginning of this month, though I took in Bandipur and Madumalai, and went onto Angadipuram from Gundaloor... the roads weren't bad, but they weren't butter smooth either. The descent from Gundaloor was pretty messy, especially at night.

any Idea about the road conditions for the following routes:

1. Mangalore-Kochi
2. Kanyakumari-Madurai
3. Madurai-Pondicherry
4. Pondicherry-Bangalore
5-Hampi-Hyderabad
6-hyderabad-Gwalior

???

I guess coming up would take me to more of the northern part. Also, how about the weather conditions during October at there places??? Will I encounter heavy rains at any of the destinations???

Any help appreciated

From calicut to kochi the roads are awesome except for a few kms here and there.
No idea about Mangalore to kannur.

From kannur to calicut (nh17), the roads are PATHETIC (had gone through this route last week)

how much time is it gonna take from Calicut-Kochii (pathetic roads) on a C5???

Mangalore-Kochi is still manageable in one day, right?

3 and a half hrs or maximum 4 hrs depending on road blocks..

One of our fellow Xbhpian did Udupi-Mangalore-Kasargod-Kozhikode-Palakkad-Coimbatore and it took him 5 - 5.5 hours to do Mangalore to probably somewhere near kannur(About 140-150kms). So you can imagine state of affairs there

Calicut-Kochi roads are awesome. Can be done in 2-2.5 hours

Its Kannur-Calicut roads that are totally pathetic. This stretch alone (~90km) would need 2-3 hours.


yes

[QUOTE=Its Kannur-Calicut roads that are totally pathetic. This stretch alone (~90km) would need 2-3 hours.



yes [/QUOTE]

Thats a moral booster :P

how much time should it take btw? considering I'm a fast rider and a "photography enthusiast" :P

I've no idea about the mangalore-kannur stretch. The previous post says it took someone around 5 hours. From kannur to kochi it'd take another 5-6 hours.
Forget being a fast rider. Its monsoon and sometimes it rains for days non-stop
And if you stop for photos... oh well.. I'm not sure if you'll be able to do it in a day