This afternoon we returned home safely after a 5.5 days trip to Goa. For both onward and return journey we used NH4 + NH206 + NH17 route.
We started on 16th morning 5 AM and reached Madgaon on 17th noon time with multiple stops at Shimoga, Ikkeri, Jog, Ankola (stay), Karwar.
We started back our journey from Madgaon on 20th morning 9:30 AM and reached Bangalore on 21st afternoon 13:00 hours with multiple stops at Devbagh, Karwar, Shimoga (stay).
Road condition update is as below Madgaon - Canacona - Sadashivghad - Karwar - Ankola - Gokarna Cross (Madangeri) : Wonderful roads Gokarna Cross - Hiregutti - Mirjan : Full of pot holes. We hit one surprise pot hole at 100 KMPH during onward journey at 8:30 PM which resulted in slight bending of the rim edge of the front left wheel causing it to loose airpressure by next day morning. Mirjan - Kumta - Honnavar : Very good roads Honnavar - Jog : very good roads for the first 20 KMs, Extreemly bad roads for the next 40 KMs. The condition changes every 100 mtrs from washed off or rough surface to perforated edge to to pot holed to missing termac to moon crates. Adding to this bad stretch is the twist/turns + climb of the ghat. Please plan for 2 hours for this 40KMs stretch. Jog - Sagar : Decent roads with some surprise pot holes in between. Roads inside Sagar town is in terrible state. Sagar - Anandapuram- Shimoga : Wonderful roads, perfect road for a night drive. the dividing reflectors in the middle of the road especially on the turns aid the drive in the best possible manner. During the day time this is a busy stretch. Heartening to see that the drive through Anandapuram is a breeze due to recently relaid roads. Shimoga Town : the main NH206 stretch through the town/bypass is not in good condition. it is best to take the road through Vinobhanagar-Gandhinagar/Ravindranagar - Stadium - Doordarshan kendra is in best condition. During the day time plan for 15-20 minutes to cross this busy / growing town. Shimoga - Bhadravati - Birur : Roads around Birur town are in terrible state. Shimoga-Bhadravati - Bypass stretch is wonderful. Watchout for bikers suddenly crossing the bhadravati bypass from Left to Right or Right to Left at 3 locations. They just seems to be ignorant of the fact that they are blindly crossing an NH where the vehicle are being driven at 80KMPH minimum. Before Birur there are two railway gates and the roads are terrible for about 2 KMs. I have never understood why the roads near the railway crossings are always terrible. Birur - Kadur - Arsikere - Tiptur : The roads closer to these towns are in bad shape except Arsikere. Some 5-6 KMs before Arsikere the road is terrible. The whole Tiptur town seems to be dug up. Day time drive involves dust, bikers, smoking and slow truckkers, KSRTC buses which can take turn or stops at will. We hit two surprisingy deep pot holes during the return journey this morning which shook us all. Tiptur - Gubbi - Tumkur : Very good roads but watchout for suprise pot holes and some rough patches. Day time drive involves dealing with bikers and inter village traffic between Tumkur-Gubbi. Couple of KMs before Tumkur is in bad condition. Tumkur bypass on NH206 to NH4 is in terrible state. hence on both occations we drove through the town. Plan for about 15 minutes during the day time for Tumur Town. Early morning or late evening is the best possible time to drive through. Tumkur - Dobbaspet - Dodballapur - Yelahanka : Wonderful roads with some rough patches near dodballapur town towards dobbaspet.
We took this route on return journey this morning. For onward journey we took Yelahanka-Hebbal - ORR - Peenya - Nelamangala - NH4 to Tumkur.
This stretch os the only tolled stretch on this route to Goa.
Journey took approx 14 hours during the onward drive (convoy drive 48KMPH) and 10.5 hours (solo vehicle, 64KMPH) during the return journey excluding any breaks for food, sight seeing, relief breaks etc.
Total drive for me was ~ 1480 KMs. ANHC took 3 tankfuls (~36.xx Ltrs each tankful). Fuel Economy was ~ 13.5KMPH. Fueling stations were all IOCL at Yelahanka, 2x Ankola just before Yellapur-Hubli turn.
The other vehicle (3-4 months old i10) which joined us during onward drive was a new vehicle owned by my co-brother. This vehicle had 4 adults and one infant child, the other child (13 year old) joined us in our car for the onward trip. During the return trip, they started early 6 AM on 20th and reached South Bangalore by 9.45 PM. They took Madgaon-Karwar-Yellapur-Hubli-NH4-Tumkur-Dodballapur-Yelahanka (drop few people) - South Bangalore.
Last edited by StarVegabond : 21st November 2010 at 21:20.
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