Just back after a
Bangalore-Tirur-Calicut-Bangalore drive
Initially my brother in law and family were also joining us and they had to go to Thrissur. So planned to take the usual route via Salem Palakkad and then via Ottapalam-Shornur from where they would divert to Thrissur and we would go to Tirur via Patambi-Valanchery
They had to drop at the last minute. Initially thought of changing the route to my usual one via
gudalur-Nilambur-Manjeri-Malappuram-Tirur. Then heard that the nadugani ghat section was in bad shape and there was a chance of traffic being blocked. So did not want to risk that route.
From updates here, the Wayanad route was also not in great shape so decided to stick to the Salem route. I had never gone that way and I had just got my SX4. So was eager to try it out on the Bangalore CBE NH. Distance I calculated would be roughly 70-80Km more than the Wayanad route which I thought was ok.
Left Bangalore at
5.15 and reached outskirts of Avinashi around 9.30. Lovely road and a great morning drive
Avinashi-LT Bypass- Kerala Border: Lot of construction work and diversions. The stretch from L&T to Walayar was pretty bad. Traffic in most of this stretch was a nightmare. Need to be extremely alert and hope for the best. Watch out for complete disregard for signals on the L&T bypass. Walayar to Palakkad was pretty ok. By the time I reached Palakkad it was 12.30 (including a half hour stop)
Palakkad-Ottapalam-Shornur-Pattambi: This stretch is still great. Nice wide roads and no potholes. Was in Pattambi by 1.30
Pattambi-Valanchery-Tirur: This was a nightmare. Totally broken roads and large pot holes. Was happy to have the SX4. I think this stretch was around 40km. It took 2 whole hours to get home.
Return:
Return was from Calicut. So decided to stick to the Wayanad route. Planned to leave by 5.30. Woke up to torrential rains. So left only by 6.30. Mavoor road was flooded and took some time to leave the city even at that time of the morning.
Calicut-Thamaraserry-Adivaram: Starting from outskirts of Thamarassery lots of bad patches. This was such a smooth road a year back.
Wayanad Churam(Ghats): Started the climb around 7.30. Terrible roads and heavy traffic. I was praying that we climb without getting blocked. No such luck. Had just climbed one hair pin when I ran into a long line of vehicles. Blocks here are becoming a daily occurance and had recently read in paper about a 10-12 hr block. It was raining heavily and visibility was minimal due to mist. I was really worried. Managed to click the one picture below

Luckily, there were policemen and locals managing things and we started moving in around 20 min. Progress was very slow with minor bottlenecks at various points. By the time we finished the climb it was nearly 9am.
Vythiri-Muthanga: Roads till somewhere past Vythiri is still very good. From there to almost the border at Muthanga there are lots of bad patches. And some patches are really bad. You cannot really increase speed confidently as you never know when the next patch will hit.
The
Muthanga-Gundalpet-Mysore road is very good except for some bad patches once you leave the forest area.
Last time I got lost inside Mysore City. So for a change decided to take the long bypass. Bad decision. Lot of 4 laning work going on and pretty heavy traffic. Took close to 1 hr.
By the time I reached home it was 5pm. 10.5 hour journey (including 1hr 15 min of stops).
In my opinion the bad stretches have added at least an hours driving time between Bangalore and Calicut. In addition the Wayanad churam is a lottery. If you are lucky you'll get through without getting stuck.