Thanks yaar.. I went through the same road & the roads were fine though in couple of places it was under construction. Could maintain pretty good speed. As you said the hotel stuff is something that is lacking. We had to go into the kollegal town to find hotels as nothing was there on the way.

Hi all,

Went for another ride on Sunday (just exploring the roads). The route 'Bangalore - Tumkur - Chitradurga - Davangere - back to Chitradurga - Shimoga - Badravathi - Arsikere - Tiptur - Tumkur and back to Bangalore. Attached a pic I took on my ph.

The GQ is undergoing repairs etc so there's minor diversion to the shoulder roads in places. Nothing to be bothered about. NH368 and SH13 connecting Chitradurga through Channagiri to Shimoga are brilliant, superb road surface and no humps (loved riding this part) very scenic too. NH69 from Shimoga through Arsikere to Tumkur again had excellent road surface and surprisingly no road humps. Nice to see Karnataka roads in good shape.


Kollegal town has some real thin roads. How are the roads between Kollegal and Germalam?

Cheers all.

The roads are narrower as we reach germalam.
We stayed in Wild Valley Farm.
Wild Valley Farm
There is a bit off-roading of 1.5km to enter into the farm.

hyd - medak

hi all

been on a trip to medak jst a couple of days back. started from kompally in hyd and travelled on the NH 7 towards Nagpur direction. NH is very good and is 6 laned in parts........ beyond Medchal traffic is also quite less. Petrol bunks are in abundance atleast until 30 km beyond hyd. Took a turn to Chegunta from the NH....... roads are 2 laned but look to be recently laid. The road from Chegunta to Medak is also very good but there are patches in which it is only single laned.

Trip Route Query?

Hi guys,

We are planning a trip which goes as follows:
Day 1 : Blore to Kumily, Thekkady : 510Km :
Day 2 : Kumily to Vagamon : 60km: local site seeing, visit to Periyar lake and reach Vagamon by evening.
Day3 : Vagamon to Kochi : 110km : roam around in Vagamon during the day and reach Kochi by evening.
Day4 : Local site seeing in Kochi, Cherai Beach
Day5 : Kochi to Blore : 550Km : Start early and reach early.

Guys, is this plan good for August 15 (date mentioned because of rains in Kerela). Also, how are the road conditions for this stretch? thanks for inputs. Also, if you have any suggestions to make it a better trip, please share.

Thanks,
Ashutosh

Try to include Athirapilly waterfalls in the schedule. Its an awesome spot on the way to thrissur around 90km from kochi. I feel your are spending too much time in vagamon. Ofcourse its a beautiful place. But kumily & vagamon can be covered in one day. Like say day2 visit thekkadi, periyar lake, pine valley etc. But all depends on the climate. Its rainy season during that time, say seconds phase of rainy season. Normally it used to be lighter than phase one. But this time first phase itself didn't find much rain. So expect the unexpected & change plans accordingly. The current road conditions I'm not pretty sure, but what I know is as the sabarimala season nears they will start road construction/patch works which will cost you time.

Thanks a ton buddy! That is a lot of helpful information!!!!

Road Conditions Update

Here is a summary of road conditions for some stretches around Bangalore. I visited these in the past 30 days.

Bangalore - kanakpura - Mekedhatu: Road conditions- very good (pothole free, mostly two laned)

Bangalore - Bandipuar - Ooty; Road conditions -excellent (pothole free)

Bangalore - Tumkur - Shimoga - Jog Falls : Road Conditions : Excellent (newly tarred roads all along, except for a small stretch before Shimoga)

Road conditions update as on 14-August-2012

Bengaluru-Shimoga via Arasikere-Excellent two lane road.
Shimoga-Thirthalli via Shettihalli WLS-Good two lane road.
Thirthalli-Sringeri via Koppa & Hariharapura-Excellent two lane road.

Sringeri-Agumbe-Someshwara-Vandse-Jadkal-Kollur: Sringeri-Agumbe stretch is full of pot-holes. Agumbe Someshwara is narrow, pot-holed ghat section. Someshwara-Vandse again narrow (1.5 car width at max in most places with no burm) and pot-holed. Vandse-Kollur: Manageable

Kollur-Nagara-Hosanagara-Sagara-Talavata: Till Sagara the roads are bad with no burms. Sagara-Talavata has good two lane road.

Jog-Siddapura-Sirsi-Yellapur-Magodu Falls: Very good two lane roads till Yellapur. Jog Siddapur has couple of stretches of pot-holes but they are nothing to worry about. Yellapur Magodu Falls gets progressively worse and the last ~5kms are 1 car width AWD territory. The last one kilometre you just have to sit on your vehicle and pray. Tyres WILL not grip.

Sirsi-Aminahalli-Ummchagi-Unchalli Falls: Excellent two lane road. Ummchagi-Unchalli gets progressively narrower but there is hardly any traffic here.

Unchalli-Siddapura- Excellent two lane roads.

Road conditions as on 30th September 2012

Bengaluru-Mysuru-Hunsur-Madikeri-Bhagamandala-TalaKaveri

SH 17 till Mysuru is known stuff. Beyond that it is SH88 till Madikeri. Excellent four lane road with median. Madikeri-Bhagamandala is ~35kms. Two car width throughout with sparse traffic. However, the road quality is inconsistent and gets particularly bad between 22nd-17th kms (total 5kms stretch). Took me one hour by car. Bhagamandala-TalaKaveri is 8kms and its good two lane road with twisties.

Bhagamandala-Nelji-Kakkabe-NalknadPalace-Chelavara Falls

Very inconsistent road width. In some places only one small car can pass at a time. Gets progressively worse and after Kakkabe its just offroading. Frankly, not worth riding/driving this strecth.

Bhagamandala-Madikeri-Kushalnagara-Koodige-Arakalagoodu-Holenarasipura-C.R Patna-Bengaluru

Bhagamandala-Madikeri stretch I've already mentioned above. Madikeri Kushalnagara is SH88 and it is excellent. Kushalnagara-Koodige-Konanooru-Arakalagoodu is a NIGHTMARE! There are NO ROADS and it is very tiring. Take this route ONLY if SH17 and NH209 is blocked/facing issues. Holenarasipura to C.R Patna is decent two lane road. C.R Patna to Bengaluru is the regular NH. .

hi friends
recently i have been to anantapur (AP) from Solapur (MH) @470Kms
Solapur to Bijapur 100 kms - good 2lane road - traffic heavy

bijapur to hospeth - 193 kms - freshly laid 4 lane - traffic moderate but need to be alert for oncoming vehicles or bullockcart

hospeth to ballari -60 kms - average road , bad road near jindal's factory - traffic: less

ballari to guntakal & to gooty- 90 kms road good with lots of & bigger speedbrakers traffic : less

gooty to anantapur- 60 kms , 4 lane , traffic: moderate

Hi Guys,
Has anyone been to Bisle Ghat lately?? How is the road condition?? As I remember, tar was last laid on this road some 10 Years back....
I would be riding bike Pulsar 200 NS...
Any suggestions would be appreciated!

Route 1: Bangalore - Hassan - Sakleshpur - Bisle - Kukke Subramanya - Sakleshpur - Hassan - Bangalore
Total Distance: 581 KMS
Route 2: Bangalore - Mysore - Kushalnagar - Shanivarsanthe - Bisle - Kukke Subramanya - Sakleshpur - Hassan - Bangalore
Total Distance: 611 KMS

I prefer route 2(more places covered)... Whats your pick?

This is not to scare you,but police combing operation is going on in Bisle ghat area for suspected naxals and is not safe to ride alone,you can continue on highway till Gundya checkpost and take left to reach Subramanya and return back same way. Gundya -Subramanya road is good and Sakleshpur to Gundya is bad.

Can somebody please provide feedback on road conditions on the following routes:-

Chitradurga->Jagalur->Kottur->Mundargi->Ron->Badami
Chitradurga->Hospet->Koppal->Gadag->Ron-Badami

Route 1 is the shortest as per Google maps but I am told that it is not in good condition. If anybody has travelled on these routes or know of someone who did, please share your feedback.

Hello,

Could someone please provide feedback on the following route? This is my first time to either of the places.

Bangalore - Madikeri - Bekal Fort - Chikmagalur - Sakleshpur - Bangalore

I plan to spread the ride across 4 days.
Searched around for some similar thread, but couldn't find anything specific. Also, any help with regard to pointers to accomodation, food and must-see attractions would be awesome!!

Thanks