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Thanks for the pics Jain. How is the Thrissur-Palghat stretch? Only Kuthiran section bad? Am driving on 11th August to Blore.

Planing to start at 4.30am from Cochin.

From Pattikad all the way till Chandra Nagar(Palakkad)is bad to average.There are no brilliant sections as such.

I'd suggest that you go via Shoranur-Ottapalam,would be an easy drive as opposed to the NH47.

Thanks Ranjit. Everyone suggested that route. I might take that. Waiting for my friends update. He is taking this route early next week.

Naveen, the road is BAD at some stretches BUT:

OK for day drive provided you need to be extra vigilant for hardly6-7 kms all together and most other potholes can be avoided on day light. You may keep some 10 mins extra for this stretch.

I never tried other routes suggested in this thread as I always try to do Avinashi - Trichur stretch during off peak hours through the much familiar NH47. Also being on NH47, the chances for overtaking is much better.

I will never suggest anyone to do this stretch DURING NIGHT which will be tiring and can damage your car.

Makes a lot of sense coolclouds. I took the Trichur-Shoranur-Ottappalam-Palghat route during my last trip a couple of weeks ago, I had this nagging feeling that I would probably have covered the Trichur-Palghat stretch much faster through NH-47 even if one had to drive slowly through say 5-10 kms around Kuthiraan. (It took me 2 hrs+ from Trichur to Chandranagar-Palghat whereas I used to cover the same distance in an hour or so when I used to take the NH)

Most roads in Kerala have a lot of traffic, so the maximum speed you can do on them is pretty low even though have the best of surfaces. So if you take a route that's 30 kms longer thinking the road surface is better, you might actually end up taking 45 minutes longer to cover the extra distance. And you also need to consider things like level crossings - I got stuck at the Wadakkancherry crossing for close to 20 minutes during that trip.

Is this the small ghat section after Pattikkad ? This is bad, but what I noticed in my drive a week back was "the craters were on the right lane when you drive from Thrissur - Palakkad". And this route is best traversed in day light. Make sure you keep a good distance with the vehicle in your front to see the pot holes.

When I went to CBE, I could drive nicely since the pot holes are not huge and also I was driving in the morning time. But on my return trip, I crashed into 3 craters and felt really bad about the suspension noise. It was in the night & the high beams were troublesome.

+ 1. Well put.

Completely agree with you. I also think it is better to take NH 47 during day time. In kerala, there are no roads where you can get a decent average speed during day time.

Thanks Kala and pramod. Think I shall stick with NH.
@Swiftnfurious - Yes, this is the small ghat section. Heard from many that this section is really bad. Add big trucks to that and it takes ages to pass this route. Anyways, lets see how it will be when I take this next week.

Hi Folks,

Does the below plan sound feasible?. This is during the next long weekend from 10th till the 16th or 17th.

Day1 - Drive to Mangalore (shirali actually which is near bhatkala) - via NH48 and shiradi ghat. Staying at Shirali

Day2 - Drive from Shirali - Mangalore - Calicut - NH 17 - I guess the kundapura stretch is horrible but there is no alternative anyway. Staying at calicut

Day3 - Calicut - GVR (Via NH17) - Then visit Athirapally falls (via NH47 - Chalakudy) - kalady (via NH47). Staying at kalady

Day4 - Kalady - Varkala via Alapuzza - NH47. Staying at varkala or thereabouts

Day5 - Varkala - TVM (Temples and a couple of places) - Kanyakumari. (Probably clubbing suchindram and tiruvattaru). Staying at K.Kumari or thereabouts

Day6 - Kanyakumari - Madurai - NH7 - visiting tirunelveli/ tiruchendur. Staying at Madurai or thereabouts

Day7 - Madurai - Bangalore - NH7

Which of the ones need more tuning?. I am apprehensive about Day5. Will it be too much to cover all those places?. Any suggestions based on road conditions, stay etc?.

Better to stay at Angamaly (airport hotels)/ Kochi or even Alleppy.

Did a Kodungallur-Kasaragod drive over the weekend. Started off from my home in Kodungallur at 0400 AM, and was in Kasaragod (Vidya Nagar) at 1207 PM. The distance covered was 358.8 kms.

The route taken was: Pullut (3 kms from Kodungallur) - Kodungallur - Chavakkad - Guruvayur - Kunnamkulam - Kuttipuram - Ramanattukara bypass - West Hill - Quilandy - Vadakara - Thalassery - Kannur - Payyannur - Kanhangad bypass - Chattamchal - Cherkala - Vidya Nagar (kasaragode).

The road condition was:

Kodungallur-Chettuva is in good shape - not much potholes. Typical Kerala highway. Chettuva-Chavakkad is horrible (It is always so). Chavakkad-Guruvayur is narrow, but the surface is good.

Guruvayur-Kunnamkulam is narrow, scarce potholes, but well paved and marked.

Kunnamkulam-Kuttipuram is mind-blowing. Wide highway - the carriageway is almost 4 lanes wide, well marked and demarcated. The lane markings have reflectors. The surface is in good shape, and the curves are done well.

Kuttipuram-Valanchery-Kottakkal is average - some good sections, so potholed sections. Traffic was very heavy, and there was an accident as well (A jeep hit a rick - no casualties though).

Kottakkal to Kozhikode bypass: It poured down heavily - but I did not hit any big potholes. So guess the road was good ;)

Kozhikode bypass is in good shape.

West Hill to Quilandy - HORRIBLE. Horrible is actually a light word - the road basically resembles the surface of the moon.

Quilandy - Vadakara - Mahe is average. Mahe-Thalassery is inexistent - to add to my woes, I was traveling on the "Karkidaka Vavu" day. People were around the sea-shore for the rites, and this chocked the road badly. It took over an hour to cover about 5kms! Bad roads plus the traffic made life miserable!

We stopped at Kannur for breakfast - Kannur is again a big mess. Kannur to Valapattanam Bridge is awful. Valapattanam to Taliparamba is okay. Taliparamba to Payyannur is average - some sections are excellent, while road is inexistent in some places.

Payyannur to Kanhangad is decent - good roads in most places.

From Kanhangad, I took the old route - the one via Poinachi, Chattamchal. This is a longer route, and there is one good ghat section. But the road was in great shape - very little traffic as well. Chattamchal to Cherkala was poor, but the road is being resurfaced. Cherkala to Vidya nagar was excellent.

The timelog was:

Kodungallur departure at 03:59, Kannur arrival 9:13 dep 9:42. Kasaragod arrival at 12:07.

Kannur halt was for breakfast. Interestingly, Kodungallur to Kannur was nonstop: a good 5:14 hrs without any breaks! (There was a small break: about two minutes - a leak break near Chemancheri Rly. Stn.).

In the return direction, the story was entirely different. Started off from Kasaragod at 7:14 AM yesterday (August 1, 2011). I reached home only at 18:55!! We had a 1:15 hrs break at a place called "Panniyur" - off the highway at Taliparamba.

The was heavy traffic snarls at Kannur and Thalassery - which upset my planning badly. Refueled at Mahe on my way back - diesel was a good Rs. 2 cheaper than in Kerala!

Very true. But having been driving in Kerala for the past two years, I did not feel the road was worse than hell. May be since I am used to this kind of roads.

I am planning to drive to Calicut this weekend via Waynad ghat route. Can anyone of you help me with the latest condition of the roads?
I am doing this exactly after a year and last time when I drove, the waynad ghats were in the most deplorable states and had a real tough time maneuvering the ANHC over the non-existent roads, specially at the hairpin bends.
I wouldn't mind a detour provided the road is good.

The Roads till Kerala border is fine. It gets OK till about 10kms after Bathery, after which it gets bad. And the Ghats too are in a bad state.

Thanks Dhanush. So the state of affairs isn't any different then. Any alternative routes you suggest. My ultimate destination will be north of Caliclut (Kappad).

I have gone to Lakkidi twice in June and about 4-5 times to calicut in the last 1 year. Other that the land slides and the trees obstructing the road in places due to heavy rain, I dint find anything to warrant looking for an alternate route.

The one pain part is the wayanad-calicut ghat and the horrible (unpredictible) traffic. You could get stuck for eternity if you are out of luck.

I have done this route on a Bullet, Zen and Scorpio and found nothing out of the ordinary in terms of road conditions. not to say that they were magic carpet rides or something but defintiely not as bad as other kerala roads.