[Tindrums]

We had to reach Manipal on or before 14th July in order for my daughter to join the B Tech course at MIT. The Volvo buses plying are quite convenient since they have a pick up point right in front of our house and the drop point at Manipal is within walking distance from the college.

However the buses were completely booked +- 2 days from the required date. The option of taking two flights, two taxi journeys, 1 hotel stay was given a quiet burial (time, cost and energy considerations) in favor of a Journey by car.

The concerned car is a Ford Ikon Flair Model 2003. The car had a low mileage (less than 50k) primarily becuase (a) my work place for last 7 years was within 3 kms from home (b) I used office cars for outstation trips.

This car was indifferently maintained and it never gave a cause for concern. I do not view my car as an extention of personality ( I have other hooks for that). However this trip proved a stress test for that car and gave us lot of concern during the journey.

I had travelled by Volvo before and knew that the bus touched Raichur (cooling towers), Hubli (at midnight), Bhatkal and Byndoor (journey breaks)

Using this as an input I made a journey route - Hyderabad - NH7 - boothpur - state highway - Mehbubnagar - Raichur - Sindhnoor - Gajendragad - Gadag - Hubli - NH63 - Ankola - NH17 - Manipal.

A site (not bhp) informed me that the route between Sindhnoor and Gajendragad was thru Tavagera, Kushtagi.

As is usual for me I made a trip chart complete with distances, names, markers (from wikimapia) every 20-30 kms.

The total distance was approximately 825 kms (my calculations). The decision was to estimate the trip duration. Should we start early (say 3 Am) and finish the trip by dinnertime or should we take a break at Hubli and cover the distance in two days time.

An earlier long distance trip (Mount Abu to Delhi) was our benchmark of a days comfortable journey. That was 700 Kms. However since time was not of great essence, we decided to start on 12th, take a halt at Hubli (12th night) and cover the balance distance on 13th reaching Manipal on 13th afternoon or evening.

[libranof1987]

Oh, seems to have been a nice trip. How is NH17? It starts getting into tatters once monsoon starts. How did you like Maravanthe (the stretch where the road is parallel to the beach for about 1km)?

Pictures would be a nice addition!

Just some info : To get to Manipal, you can also take a bus to -

1) Udupi (3km from Manipal) - there are TONS of buses/autos available every minute to and fro Udupi-Manipal
2) Mangalore (65kms from Manipal) - there are TONS of private every minute and even KSRTC low-floor Volvo buses every hour.
3) Kundapura (30kms from Manipal) - this is a major bus stand for KSRTC. so, a lot of buses originate/terminate here. You'll get buses to get to Manipal.

So, if you don't get a bus for Hyd-Manipal, you can check for the above 3 routes. You might just get some place.

[ampere]

No use to make any suggestions. He wanted it before 14th July. Since he was newbie the post got approved later.

[Tindrums]

We started off at about 9.00.

Unfortunately we could not find the insurance papers of the car. Was it at office or was it at home? Since it was not found in Home we presumed that it was in office. Luckily office was not far from ORR and I had a quick detour to the office.

As is usual, I could not find the document at office either. It was not with my secretary as well. I had renewed my insurance online so I looked at the website of the insurer and could find no link of retrieving an existing insurance document (they should incorporate this!). Luckily I have a email dump account. An account where all my emails (from multiple email ids) get automatically forwarded to. I searched in that account and found the missing pdf file.

And so off we went. Gadchibowli - ORR - NH7

The ride upto the Bhoothpur crossing was smooth and comfortable. Only problems were when trucks occupied both lanes and prevented other vehicular traffic from going through.

From Bhoothpur we turned right, went under NH7 towards Mehbubnagar. I was pensive about Mehbubnagar and wondered about the ease of finding the Raichur road. These worries were unfounded as the Raichur road was clearly marked out.

There were some enormous ditches on the road requiring careful navigation. As careful as Titanic with icebergs.

Mehbubnagar to Raichur road was comfortable but not great. However we had no complaints against it after what we were going to go through subsequently. Enormous ditches were there at Raichur bypass. I also witnessed a truck rolling over a motorcycle at a stop signal (with no human consequences).

Somewhere after Raichur we had the first incident of the trip. The stress test of the car was showing and how.

Gradually we could feel that the car became warmer. It seemed that the AC was failing. I felt the windshield and the windows to test the outside temperature. The glass were not that hot for an AC failure to occur. Then I thought the AC switch had failed (again!). The Ford car has a notorious AC switch. Many a times the AC operated in a hot mode while we wanted a cool mode!

However what I forgot was my earlier experience with cabin warmth. It was not the AC. A glance at the dashboard revealed that the engine was overheating. The needle had almost touched the Red zone!

The car has experienced coolant failure before. Two months back, I had to repeatedly visit the garage to rectify the mysterious loss of coolant fluid. In those days, every day I had to top up the coolant with 2 liters of RO water. I had learnt in those days that cabin warmth means coolant failure and not AC failure. Somehow the learning was forgotten.

Luckily the condition was noticed in a habited space. I parked the car and let the engine cool off. We utilized the time for having a quick bite. I bought 4 bottles of 2 Ltr Kingfisher water. From my prior experience I knew that I would have to put in 4 liters of water.

The tricky part is opening the cap of the water reservoir (now a days we dont have radiator caps!). The trick is too unscrew the cap about a turn or so. This leaves a gap enough to dissipate the violent steam built up. Wait for some time. Unscrew a little more. Be very very careful as hot water and steam can scald. Use arms length distances. Use a thick towel etc.

The vendor had given me ice cold water. The engine was steaming. So I was under a dilemma. Can I use this ice cold water? Would the engine head crack becuase of the temperature gradient? All the metallurgical stuff I knew were at higher temperatures 600 and above. Only SS had a critical temperature zone of 300 and hence i felt that steaming temperature must be close to 100 and the thermal shock could be withstood.

The other question was that we had just started on a long trip and I wondered how many more times this will occur. God was with us however and THIS problem did not occur again. Though our eyes (me and spouse) would intermittently check the temperature gauge through out the trip.

From Raichur we turned to Sindnoor road and reached Sindhnoor via Manvi. At Sindhnoor we went on a beautiful tar road for some distance (about 8 kms). Something was not right and I stopped to ask a villager who informed me that this road was towards a place called Koppal and not towards Gajendragadh.

So we back tracked (we should not have!) and went back to the bus stand and the road that leads out of Sindhnoor towards Kishtagi and onwards to Gajendragadh.

And soon... there were potholes in the road. The potholes got bigger and bigger and after a few minutes, the road disappeared entirely!!

What followed was a nightmarish lunar surface ride of 25 kms, that took us 1 - 2 hrs to navigate. It seemed the road had deteriorated gradually and never repaired. At this rate the area would be farmed by the next couple of years. The car and the tyres took a hammering. Spouse and kid were at the point of throwing up their lunch. It seemed the nightmare would never end. The track seemed long and full of bombed out craters.

Somehow the 25 kms were covered and my wife was dreading the return journey! She declared that if I intend to take the same road back then she would prefer to fly from Mangalore (never mind the cost)

My sincere advice do not try the sindhnoor - kishtagi road. It is a nightmare.
Kishtagi to gajendragadh road was also potholed but it was heaven compared to the previous 25 kms.

The Sindhnoor-Gajendragadh section had seriously derailed our timing. We were not sure if Hubli would be reached by dusk. Tension grew in the car. The route I had chosen was Gajendragadh - Gadag - Hubli. At Gajendragadh there was a crossing which indicated left to Gadag and straight to Hubli!!

Clearly this meant that the route plan had a problem. Asking people did not help as there was a 50-50% choice of left (Gadag-Hubli) or straight (Ron-Hubli). What tipped the scale was a gentleman saying that Ron-Hubli road was much better and Gadag-Hubli was as good as what you are getting now. So we chose Ron - Hubli.

Ron-Hubli was longer but we preferred that route as we had still not recovered from the nightmare of the earlier section. The road quality was good. The road was however narrow till Navalgund (just before). The traffic was light but problematic. The narrow road and the dusk conditions meant truck headlights would burn your eyes to the back of your brain and scorch your skulls.

Just before Navalgund the road joins NH218 and from there onwards it was relatively comfortable till Hubli. We reached Hubli at 830. Our schedule was to reach by 6.

[libranof1987]

Originally Posted by ampere

No use to make any suggestions. He wanted it before 14th July. Since he was newbie the post got approved later.

The way the post was, I actually thought it was a route query!

Realized later - but the suggestion holds good. There are many who don't it (the 3 route thingy) and have missed out on bus tickets).

Because Manipal figures only in some Mangalore and Kundapura routes - not all. So, a XX-Manipal query would end up with a handful of the total buses travelling on that route.

[ampere]

Originally Posted by libranof1987

The way the post was, I actually thought it was a route query!

Realized later - but the suggestion holds good. There are many who don't it (the 3 route thingy) and have missed out on bus tickets).

Because Manipal figures only in some Mangalore and Kundapura routes - not all. So, a XX-Manipal query would end up with a handful of the total buses travelling on that route.

There is the member himself update the route status !

@libran, Yes buses to Udupi/Mangalore are plenty.

Another point: I thought by taking the roads via Raichur/Navalgund, he is saving about 80km as against taking NH9/NH218.

But given the fact that NH218 is supposed to be a very good 2L NH, is this the best route to Manipal?

i.e. Hyd-Humnabad-Bijapur-Hubli-Ankola-Manipal?

NH9/NH218/NH63/NH17?

[Tindrums]

Mercifully we could quickly find a place to stay at Hubli. The hotel was very modest (but clean and neat), it was bang opposite the bus stand but the crucial fact was that it had a secured basement car park! Aaaah Heaven.

The next day we started at 8 AM and quickly found the Yellapur - Ankola route. In some previous posts I read about menace of mining trucks on this highway. However I did not see even ONE of them during both the journeys (to and fro). The road is a dream run. We loved the route. It was lush green and pleasing to the eye. Traffic was slight.

However we ran into another stress test. This time it was the wipers. At this time of the year, it was raining here. The rain was intermittent with short spells of heavy rain and long spells of drizzle. The former was not a problem. the Latter was..

Also the road had got wet and dirty. Any truck that would come from the opposite direction would leave a film of dirt on the windshield. If we get close by any vehicle in the same direction, the vehicle in front would spray dirty water onto the windshield.

The wiper exhibited a curious way of wiping. It would wipe everything save for a critical area right in front of my eyes. An area of about 6 sq inches would be left untouched or worse made more dirtier while the other areas were cleaned. This meant I had to either (1) sit at an odd angle and drive or (2) stop every now and then and clean the windshield externally. However providence would generally save us by sending a sharp burst of heavy shower which would make the windshield sparkling clean for a long length of time.

The woods were lovely. It was funny to see some trucks loose their way and crash into woods. There were two identical trucks carrying identical cargo (steel beams - heavy I sections). Mysteriously one had weaved off to the left and crashed into the woods while the other had weaved into the right with the same end. Towards the end of the NH63 where the ghat descends we encountered heavy fog.

A fog quality I had not seen since the days I used to frequent Delhi Airports. The fog became thick. I think it is the place where the monsoon clouds strike the hills. Some care and slower speed resulted.

NH63 joined NH17 and the drive became a city drive!. Nh17 drives thru the coastal areas. Typical coastal areas in Kerala and Karnataka do not have the village - long gap - village routine. They are more like house - another house - house routine everywhere.

The result is motorcyclye, autorickshaw, cycle everywhere on the highway. Since it rained we could see motorcycles with umbrellas! The chap or gal at the back holds up n umbrella for the driver! Overtaking became difficult. The road is good except for some patches. 100kmph speed can be maintained. Spectacular views include the maravanthe beach area. At this section the road is only some feet away from the sea. The rough monsoon sea could be seen at its full fury. We wondered about the sense of having a highway so close to violent waves.

We reached Manipal by 2 pm after having an unhurried and leisurely lunch at Kundapura. The return journey episodes next.

[MileCruncher]

I just came back from a trip to Jog Falls/ Gokarna and this was the route that was taken:
Hyderabad - MahboobNagar - Raichur - Manvi - Sindhanur - Gagawati - Koppal - Hubli - Sirsi - Jog - Honnavar - Gokarna -Ankola - Hubli -Koppal - Gangawati - Raichur - Mahboob Nagar - Hyd.

The best route from Hyderabad to Manipal can be found here http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/route-...h-17-a.htmlBut then again the route that's suitable for my Bolero/Getaway may not be suitable for a low GC sedan.

@Tindrums: The cabin becomes warm in case of your vehicle overheating is because of the compressor switching off. All ECM featured cars come with this option. Also no travelogue is complete without pictures. So please post some pictures.

[Tindrums]

After reaching manipal, we checked into hostel no 17 and took rest till 5.
When we went out to explore the campus, the first thing we noticed was that our car had a flat tyre.

In order to simplify things let me denote the tyres on the car as a,b (on front wheels), x,y (on back wheels) and z the spare one.
Tyres a,b were new (6 months old). Tyres x,y,z were the ones that came in with the car 8 years ago! ( did I not mention indifferently maintained car? )

Tyre x was flat. And in the blistering rain I changed the tyres with the result now I had tyres a,b in front and z,y in the back and tyre x as spare (after a visit to the local puncturewala)

There is a method into the madness of labeling the tyres. This is to understand the saga yet to come.


Since the same route for the return trip was out of question, I invested 3 hours in a local browsing center. The options that were emerged were -
route 1 hubli - nh 63 - gadag - koppal - gangavati - sindhnoor
route 2 hubli - bijapur - nh218 - gulbarga - humnabad - nh9 - hyderabad

In one of the posts at BHP, it was mentioned that there is a 25km bad stretch near gangavati... that ruled out route no 1.

for the second route, comments were made about heavy traffic on nh9 and it was inadvisable to use the same. That was a no brainer for me. Exta kms extra traffic were welcome than lunar topography as an excuse for roads. And so route 2 it was.. nh17 - nh218 -nh9.

we started early morning from manipal after saying bye to the kid at 530 (the fact that she woke up at that time itself was remarkable) and were soon buzzing along nh17. After a short distance of travel, I noticed a strange vibration afflicting the car when the speed touched 100. Below 100, it would be quiet. I reasoned that this was probably due to the spare tyre z now in use. Maybe tyres x and y were more compatible than z and y.

I would cruise at 90 and overtake at 100. The vibration got real bad if I exceeded 100. After crossing Bhatkal, I noticed a fine sound coming from the tyres. It was as if something had got stuck in the tyre. The same sound that comes when a branch or a twig gets stuck in the tyre and gives a rhythmic fine sound (swish swish type).

I decided to investigate. It was tyre y. Closer inspection revealed that some fine steel wires were protruding from the tyre. The question now was - were the steel wires external (meaning wires lying on road getting embedded into the tyre) or internal (steel belts of radials getting exposed). I could not see any major chipping of the tread.

In order to be prudent, I pulled over at the next tyre chap and asked him for his opinion. He said the steel wires were internal (shucks!) and it happens when tyre gets old. As per his reckoning it was not a major problem. He cut the exposed wires. Checked tyre pressures (vibration was due to low tyre pressure according to him) and off we went.

The car behaved a little better. Vibration was still evident but was noticeably less. We cruised the NH17 and entered NH63 at Ankola (balegulli crossing).

The ghats were crossed and we were cruising at a comfortable speed when suddenly the fine swish swish noise became an ominous thump thump noise. I stopped the car and noticed that the tread had come off in a particular section. A portion of the tread was sticking out and hitting the tyre guards / car undercarriage causing the rhythmic thumping noise.

There was a small forest road up ahead. I pulled into that and changed the car tyre. Now I had tyres x and z in the back. Tyre y was dead (life was over) but was in the boot. The condition was precarious since a puncture would now mean that we were stranded in the forest.

Hubli was reached at 3 without cause for concern. Wife was pestering me to buy a new tyre. The tyre shop which I found had a tyre but could not fit it since there was no power for last 5 hours. Since we had 4 more daylight hours, I decided to head for Bijapur. Take a night halt there and get a new tyre.

We took a little time navigating the Hubli one ways and by the time we were on to the Bijapur road it was 4 pm. We must have proceeded about 4 kms when wife said that her intuition says not to go further. She said we will halt at Hubli. That means a long Bijapur - gulbarga - humnabad - hyderabad stretch for next day. I became grumpy but agreed.

We checked in at the same place (got the last available room). The tyre shop was also nearby and we got a new Bridgestone tyre for 3950. I asked the chap to put the new tyre on to the spare wheel.

We started next day early (0500) and hit the Bijapur road. The road was excellent, traffic was sparse and the car has going a merry 120 between villages. In villages, we had to negotiate, himalaya mountain ranges disguised as speed breakers.

10 kms after crossing Navalgund, the car noise became very ominous and I realised I had a tyre problem again. Tyre x was shredded and the last few meters were run on metal strength. Steam was fuming from the wheel.

Another tyre change meant that now I had tyres a,b in front, new tyre j and vintage tyre z on back wheels. Tyre x was dead. Bijapur was 100+ kms ahead and I did not have a spare. We were back to the same situation as yesterday. And I thanked my stars that i yielded to feminine intuition yesterday.

The car became very smooth to run and soon I was clipping 120 regularly. Our plan was to reach Bijapur by 930 have breakfast till 1030 and get another tyre when shops open at that time. However since I had increased the speed, we reached earlier. There was town bypass and before we knew it we had skipped the town and were on the way to Gulbarga (another 150 kms). A flat now would render us immobile but it was broad daylight and morning hours. So the risk was taken and we proceeded to Gulbarga at good speed.

We reached Gulbarga at 12. There was a computerized wheel balance and tyre shop on the ring road and we could locate it after mild difficulty. Another 3950 changed hands. This time I asked the new tyre to be installed at the back wheel instead of old tyre z. SO now I had new tyres a,b in front and brand new tyres j,k in the back, Tyre z was made the spare wheel.

The talkative owner said tyre life is 4 years (in shop) and 4 years (in running). Tyres x,y,z were actually 8 years old. No wonder they had their last journey.

Gulbarga - humnabad - hyderabad just flew. Instead of reaching hyderabad at 7 as estimated we reached at 4 and surprised our son.

Hyderabad to Hubli is a dream run on nh7 - humnabad - nh218 - gulbarga - bijapur - hubli. Excellent roads and sparse traffic on nh 218. traffic on nh7 is tolerable and will not dent your speed. I could see a BMW clipping 150 on that section.

pictures after i retrieve from my camera.

[Night_Hawk]

Originally Posted by Tindrums

pictures after i retrieve from my camera.

Thrilling Narration. Awaiting pictures.

Couple of months back i had driven thorugh Gangawati - Raichur- Mahbubnagar- Jadcherla - Hyderabad route. Road surface between Gangawati and Raichur was good. Raichur - Mahbubnagar - Jadcherla was also fine.

[sgiitk]

@Tindrums; Fortunately you have the new tyres in the rear as it should be. Also, just for your information tyres should be changed before their sixth birthday. I always keep a battery powered pump in the back, and will advise you to do the same. We are all guilty of not checking the spare regularly.

You may be wondering what is this Kanpurite doing here - my son has been in Manipal since 1997 and daughter-in-law is from Manipal. I have averaged well over a trip a year since 1997, so know the place pretty well!

[gajadonga]

The route from Hyderabad that I usually take to Goa is via Sindanur-Gangawathi-Koppal-Gadag-Hubli-Ankola this route has good roads.
On the way back you have taken the Hubli - Bijapur route how were the road condition

[Technocrat]

Nice travelogue Tindrums, thanks for sharing

Originally Posted by ampere

No use to make any suggestions. He wanted it before 14th July. Since he was newbie the post got approved later.

Hi the post was made on 18th, the timestamp shown next to the post is the date on which a post was made. Time of approval does not alter post date. Hope this clears

I believe Tindrums was building up the story from the day of planing

Originally Posted by sgiitk

@Tindrums; Fortunately you have the new tyres in the rear as it should be.

I thought it was the other way round specially on front wheel drive cars.

[Tindrums]

Gajjadonga...

Hubli-Bijapur-Gulbarga-humnbad-hyderabad is High Q road. One lane each for either direction but excellent road surface.
You can easily drive at 120 except thru villages of karnataka which have multiple breakers.

[sgiitk]

Originally Posted by Technocrat

I thought it was the other way round specially on front wheel drive cars.

I also thought the same till I came across this from Michelin

‪otototncd's Channel‬‏ - YouTube

They do not want oversteer at any cost.