[strawhat]

So it was time for my quarterly spiritual getaway, Ramana Ashram -Tiruvannamalai. Usually I take a train after breaking at Katpadi or a direct bus. This time though I really wanted to bring the Reincarnator (my 2 month old Ecosport) with me. Immersed myself in this thread to get as much information as I can about the route conditions. In the end we completed the trip using the below routes. The first one on our onward journey and the second on return.

1. https://goo.gl/maps/te8YLJ1H2R92
2. https://goo.gl/maps/iQCiCjNrHnm

Route 1: Very easy to miss the service road that departs the Chennai highway after Krishnagiri if you are cruising. Excellent undivided road after Bargur exit till Tirupattur. The BT road looked new and is well marked. Tirupattur town suburb was a nuisance to drive in with two wheelers and transport autos having a field day. Was glad when we hopped on to Singarapettai road without entering the town. The initial stretch on this route was rough and bothersome. The rest was alright to drive on until we reached Singarapettai Y junction. Autos and buses crowded the road here causing a 10 minute bottleneck. It was dark by the time we were on Singarapettai-Chengam-Tiruvannamali road. The road is wide with smooth tarmac mostly. At a few places it becomes narrow with long bad patches. A few hair raising incidents made us very cautious until the Girivalam road merged few kilometers off Tiruvannamali.

Route 2: Original plan before we left Ramana Ashram was to return by Harur, Morappur, Kariamangalam, Krishnagiri route. Instead we were already halfway through to Chengam when I realised the mistake. So we were left with two options; retrace our steps (via. Tirupattur) or the minefield (via. Uthangarai, Mathur). Chose the second option with a detour after Uthangarai towards Kariamangalam. Experienced some of the worst patches of roads I had ever encountered between Singarapettai and Utharangai. Frequent narrow sections with crater deep potholes. Gosh! we were so relieved when we exited this minefield before Samalpatti railway station. Backed by smooth and secluded road, we really enjoyed the drive thereafter amidst lush green farmlands and rugged mountains. We entered and exited Tirupattur-Dharmapuri road before we joined NH44.

Finally, some moments of our trip.

Tea break at Singarapettai towards Tiruvannamalai



The Reincarnator gets a clear view of Arunagiri


Tiruvannamalai to Chengam


Somewhere between Chengam and Singarapettai - narrow and rough patch


One of the innumerable bad patches on the minefield between Singarapettai and Uthangarai


Great to drive village side roads enroute




Approaching Salem-Bangalore highway at Kariamangalam

[ravib]

Completed Bangalore-Thiruvannamalai-Melmalayanur-Bangalore trip last Friday and Saturday.
For onward journey, took the highly recommended Bangalore-Krishnagiri-Bargur-Tirupattur-Singarapettai-Chengam-Thiruvannamalai route.
In Return journey, took almost same route but just to experiment and maximize the NH distance, instead of Bargur, from Tirupattur proceeded towards Natraampalli to join NH sooner and shorter distance. However, i won't recommend this route compared to Bargur route. Not because it is longer, but due to narrow roads for 15 kms between Tirupattur to Natraampalli. Bargur route is far better and very good and best to take it.

In both ways, the total driving time is about 4 hours or even less. Overall good roads, except for 10 kms between Singarapettai to Chengam road where there are horrible potholes and craters damaging your car.

Even with EcoSport it is just manageable and the car could take such worst craters. Even buses and trucks were quite cautious in day time to cross them. I just wonder how bad the roads will be between Singarapettai-Uthangarai-Krishnagiri and how a hatchback and sedans can manage.

To sum up, just avoid Krishnagiri-Uthangarai-Singarapettai roads completely. For those who are traveling for first time, don't get misled by the right exit board direction towards Tiruvannamalai after you take left towards Chennai road. Just proceed further and stick to Bargur route.

-Ravi

[strawhat]

Just back from a two day trip to Tiruvannamalai. Took, the now usual, Bargur-Tirupattur-Singarapettai route on both sides.

I was a bit skeptical initially as to the road condition post monsoon. Assuming the roads would have deteriorated, I was expecting broken patches throughout, a la Mathur-Utharangai route. Surprisingly the surface is as good as how I found more than 3 months back. Being a weekday the traffic was sparse. Just a few bikes and that rare SETC bus. The scenic beauty on display with towering hills and replenished fields on either sides, especially between Tirupattur and Chengam, was immense and it added to the refreshing experience.

Similarly the grey areas also have remained grey. Gravel roads in Tirupattur are very annoying and littered with unnecessary speed breakers. Between Bargur and Kandili the road is dug up unevenly at several places to make culverts, so its a bit of stop-go. The horrendous potholes between Singarapettai and Tiruvannamalai make you want to throw up. Thankfully they are all concentrated and far between.

Overall this route remains the best option to Tiruvannamalai and further. I was tempted to try Jagadevi-Mathur-Utharangai route just out of curiosity. But recollection of broken roads last time out killed the idea. May be some daring soul within us will come up with good news one day.

[kavensri]

My friend is planning to drive to Thiruvannamalai this Wednesday. What is the best route that he can take? Is it via Mathur-Uttangarai or Bargur-Tirupattur? If he happens to take the latter, does he need to pass Natrampalli?
His car is Skoda Rapid, if that helps to make a decision.

[ravib]

Originally Posted by kavensri

My friend is planning to drive to Thiruvannamalai this Wednesday. What is the best route that he can take? Is it via Mathur-Uttangarai or Bargur-Tirupattur? If he happens to take the latter, does he need to pass Natrampalli?
His car is Skoda Rapid, if that helps to make a decision.

Hi,

Hope you would have gone through this thread and recent updates. The recommended route is latter via Bargur. I don't think its necessary to go till Natrampalli.

Skoda Rapid will have no issues if you go via Bargur route.

-Ravi

[suresh_gs]

Originally Posted by kavensri

My friend is planning to drive to Thiruvannamalai this Wednesday. What is the best route that he can take? Is it via Mathur-Uttangarai or Bargur-Tirupattur? If he happens to take the latter, does he need to pass Natrampalli?
His car is Skoda Rapid, if that helps to make a decision.

Best route would be via Krishnagiri-Bargur-Tirupattur-Singarapettai-Chengam to T V Malai.

[kavensri]

Originally Posted by ravib

Hi,

Hope you would have gone through this thread and recent updates. The recommended route is latter via Bargur. I don't think its necessary to go till Natrampalli.

Skoda Rapid will have no issues if you go via Bargur route.

-Ravi

Originally Posted by suresh_gs

Best route would be via Krishnagiri-Bargur-Tirupattur-Singarapettai-Chengam to T V Malai.

Thank you guys for your feedback. He has read your responses and all set for tomorrow's trip. I will ask him and update here the status of the road, after he comes back from his trip.

[condor]

For Tirupattur - Singarapettai: do we take 18A or 18 ?

Alternately, how is Dharmapuri - TV Malai ?
Basically need a clean road, and I dont mind an additional 40 odd km distance.

Originally Posted by strawhat

Route 2: Original plan before we left Ramana Ashram was to return by Harur, Morappur, Kariamangalam, Krishnagiri route.

@Strawhat, I am thinking of this route both ways. Any reason why you wanted to do this route instead of the regular route ?

[strawhat]

Originally Posted by condor

@Strawhat, I am thinking of this route both ways. Any reason why you wanted to do this route instead of the regular route ?

I wanted to try new and different routes both ways. Krishnagiri-Bargur-Tirupattur-Singarapettai route (Route 1) was covered during onward journey. Decided to try Harur-Morappur-Kariamangalam-Krishnagiri (Route 2) on return. Route 2 was also recommended in previous posts. But I totally screwed up the plan by unintentionally taking the Chengam route. Made a small modification to the plan and exited Utharangai-Mathur road at Samalapatti and entered NH44 at Kariamangalam. Utharangai-Mathur was horrible. Samalapatti-Kariamangalam was decent.

Don't know the present status of route 2/my tweaked version but I did route 1 again last month (see my last post). It was still in superb condition. I would totally recommend this route.

Originally Posted by condor

For Tirupattur - Singarapettai: do we take 18A or 18 ?

We preferred 18A. Look up the entire route here.

[condor]

Originally Posted by strawhat

Don't know the present status of route 2/my tweaked version but I did route 1 again last month (see my last post). It was still in superb condition. I would totally recommend this route.

Thanks, Strawhat. The reason to ask you again there was this point by @ravib:

Overall good roads, except for 10 kms between Singarapettai to Chengam road where there are horrible potholes and craters damaging your car.

Even with EcoSport it is just manageable and the car could take such worst craters. Even buses and trucks were quite cautious in day time to cross them

It's not so much about my car. One of the person I would be going with has a bad back, and I have travelled with him before. Dont want to take any chances, even with such short stretches of bad roads. Hence trying to figure out the best route. (I have even checked the routing via Vellore for this!)

[strawhat]

Originally Posted by condor

It's not so much about my car. One of the person I would be going with has a bad back

There were certain spots between Singarapettai and Tiruvannamalai that have big broken patches, each of these stretches lasted about a few meters. Some were extremely damaged and we were forced to bend into the other side to negotiate/avoid them. We encountered around 5 bad stretches in the entire length. You might have to exercise caution on this entire section otherwise the bad portions can surprise you.

I've also travelled on Vellore-Polur-Tiruvannamalai route recently (5-6 months back). At a lot of places there was construction activity going on. IIRC, it was worse than those stretches between Singarapettai-Tiruvannamalai. The approx. 100km distance from Vellore took 2 and half hours to cover.

[venkyhere]

Originally Posted by condor

It's not so much about my car. One of the person I would be going with has a bad back, and I have travelled with him before. Dont want to take any chances, even with such short stretches of bad roads. Hence trying to figure out the best route. (I have even checked the routing via Vellore for this!)

Try bangalore-krishnagiri-karimangalam-harur-theerthamalai-thanipadi-tiruvannamalai. I have been taking this route for many years and the SH roads are very decent from karimangalam to tiruvannamalai (with a tiny ghat section in between). Pothole patches are few and almost all of them can be side/cross stepped if you are not too fast. None of the back breaking stuff thats around chengam.

[deadguy25]

Team,

I am planning to drive to Thiruvannamalai tomorrow.

Read through the posts and still unable to decide which route is the best.

Although I have been to the temple innumerable times, (Bangalore -> Krishnagiri -> Uthangarai -> Chengam -> TV Malai), now the road conditions are kind of disturbing.

I drive a 2011 fluidic verna, which has very low ground clearance; hence my main concern is about the craters on the road.

Please suggest a best route.

Thanks.

[deadguy25]

Originally Posted by deadguy25

Team,

I am planning to drive to Thiruvannamalai tomorrow.

Read through the posts and still unable to decide which route is the best.

Although I have been to the temple innumerable times, (Bangalore -> Krishnagiri -> Uthangarai -> Chengam -> TV Malai), now the road conditions are kind of disturbing.

I drive a 2011 fluidic verna, which has very low ground clearance; hence my main concern is about the craters on the road.

Please suggest a best route.

Thanks.

Not sure if this will be useful to anyone, but, an update:
I went through the usual route - Krishnagiri -> Uthangarai -> Chengam -> TVmalai; and it was OK. Need to be cautious and not to over-speed as there are potholes after every good stretch. Not a scratch on the underbelly.

[condor]

Folks, any suggestions for hotels in Tiruvannamalai ?

( have checked Ramakirshna & Akash Inn).