[FuelInjector]

Originally Posted by binand

My Calicut trip for the weekend is almost confirmed. Does anyone know how big a menace fog on Kanakapura Road is? Any website where I can track the condition on the ground? I plan to start at around 3AM so that I'm at the forest crossing soon after the first rush is over, and am in a position to cross both Bathery and Kalpetta before local traffic picks up.

Drove on that route on 1st jan. Can confirm no fog menace. Great drive as always.

Originally Posted by treadmark

Sligthly out of topic, I'm planning to visit Wayanad over this weekend, stay for two nights. Can any you suggest which will be the best location among Kalpetta, Mananthavadi and Sulthan Bathery for hotel accommodation. I can go with Home stay or Hotel but should be able to visit as much as tourist spot as possible in two days. Appreciate if you one can guide me with the best location and the possible spots I can cover. Assist me if you are known more about Wayanad, thank you in advance.

There is an ambika resort on the road from panamaram to mananthavady. It comes after 5th mile. Rates were like 1200 per night without food. Where do you plan to go? That would help decide where you want to stay.

[treadmark]

Originally Posted by FuelInjector

There is an ambika resort on the road from panamaram to mananthavady. It comes after 5th mile. Rates were like 1200 per night without food. Where do you plan to go? That would help decide where you want to stay.

Thank you mate!
Have decided to stay either at Kalpetta or Bathery, inquired couple of hotels / resorts on both the locations and yet to finalize since I'm waiting to get confirmation from all the hotels I've inquired.

Cheers.

[FuelInjector]

As promised, some snaps about Nijaguna residency .
Would definitely vote for a stopover at this place.

[binand]

I posted this earlier today in another thread:

http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/route-...ml#post3342059

[binand]

Originally Posted by binand

I posted this earlier today in another thread:

http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/route-...ml#post3342059

That's the story of the outbound part of my weekend quickie to Calicut. Here's the return episode:

Started from Calicut at 4:30 AM and reached home in Bangalore at 1:30 PM. Apart from two major and several minor breaks, lost a lot of time due to think fog (visibility: < 50m) between Kalpetta and KL-KA border.

- While Gundlupet-Chamarajanagar is the bad part of the journey, I think it is facing stiff competition from the Yelandur-Uttamballi (about 15 km) section. Not just the narrow roads through the villages, but also in terms of road quality.

- Why were 20-odd Tempo Travellers stopped on top of the BETL by BTP? They were not interested in any other vehicle, so I didn't think it was a speed limit violation.

- A lot more Sabarimala pilgrims on the roads than Malayalees. The days leading up to Makaravilakku is not the right time to drive to/from Kerala. :-)

[NPV]

Some pictures of the new Kalpetta Bypass (took it on Calicut-Bangalore leg).
Starts out at Meppadi junction (when coming from Calicut, turn right at the Meppadi junction and then turn left immediately, you can see Kottaram Anand Agencies on the right side once you enter the bypass).
Total about 4km but very good, new road with some work on the sides in progress (paving work). The last section is concretised and has rocks on the sides, just before it merges with the NH 212 highway outside Kalpetta.













MODS:Had trouble uploading pictures, please merge both posts

[NPV]

Came across some new establishments during recent trip to Calicut and back:
1.Hotel Misty Rock + DeShell Restaurant opposite the Cafe Coffee Day, Gundlupet (this is on the Nanjangud-Gundlupet Road about 2Km before you turn right for Calicut so if you take Chamarajnagar-Gundlupet, at the Gundlupet junction you need to turn right and drive 2Km towards Nanjangud)
2. Vighneshwara Veg. Restaurant at Vythiri (before Upavan Resorts and Wayanad Gate Hotel). Right side when going from Bangalore to Calicut.
3.White House restaurant just after you get down the Thamarassery ghats. Left side when going from Bangalore to Calicut.

Fuel stop options, listing the larger pumps, all may not be COCO (I have a preference for Bharat Petrleum ). These are the ones on Kerala side, makes sense to fill up there as Petrol was cheaper by more than Rs.4 compared to Bangalore.
BP Meenangadi (right side when going from Blr)
BP Kalpetta (right side when going from Blr)
BP Adivaram (right side when going from Blr)
BP Thamarassery (right side when going from Blr)
BP Kunnamangalam (left side when going from Blr)

Also, good IOC and HP Petrol pumps (right side when going from Blr) at Karanthur near Kunnamagalam.

[Rajeevraj]

Cross posting the update of my trip from the 'All Routes to Kerala' Thread

http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/route-...ml#post3384205

[binand]

Originally Posted by Rajeevraj

[...]
Felt that Gundlepet-Chnagar has become more patchy with sharp edges

I am off this weekend for my bi-monthly Calicut trip. I will update on this stretch - I hope it has seen some election-induced upgrade by now. :-)

[coolclouds]

Max speed limit for vehicles in Kerala revised after 15 years. For cars, its 90 kmph on four lane roads and 85 kmph on two lane with immediate effect.

[NPV]

Originally Posted by coolclouds

Max speed limit for vehicles in Kerala revised after 15 years. For cars, its 90 kmph on four lane roads and 85 kmph on two lane with immediate effect.

Thanks for this piece of information, can you also mention the source ?

Hope this also means it applies on the stretches where speed cameras are already installed and limit was 70kmph earlier.

*EDIT:Found your other post in the All Roads to Kerala thread with the details of the source.

[coolclouds]

Originally Posted by NPV

Thanks for this piece of information, can you also mention the source ?

Hope this also means it applies on the stretches where speed cameras are already installed and limit was 70kmph earlier.

*EDIT:Found your other post in the All Roads to Kerala thread with the details of the source.

We have a dedicated thread for this:

http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/street...s-revised.html

[binand]

Returned this afternoon from a quick weekender to Calicut.

Outbound was on Saturday morning. Started at 6:30 AM from home. Took the ORR beyond Silk Board and then turned left onto Kanakapura Road at the end of JP Nagar. There was a bit of traffic leading out of Bangalore, likely due to the 3-day weekend for some. The only point worthy of note is that during and after entering Kerala, I was stopped, documents checked and vehicle searched several times - possibly due to the election. The final 45 km from Adivaram took more than 1.5 hours for me - such is the traffic here.

Return was this morning at 4:30 AM. Was at the CCD at Lakkidi by 5:45 AM, but it was not open. So stopped for tea at a small wayside place at Bathery. I had seen the report on the forest fire in Mathrubhumi's website before travelling, so I was approaching Muthanga with some trepidation. The chaiwalla assured me that the excitement had all died down on Sunday itself, and that the road is open for traffic now.

[This is the only English article I could find about the fires. There is extensive coverage in the Malayalam press, of course]

So anyway, by 8:30 AM or so I was at Ch. Nagar and was thinking of breakfast, but I did not want to go to Nijaguna who's food I don't like. Pressed on till Kollegal where I stopped at Nandini Restaurant which is bang opposite the bus stand. The food was passable but most importantly, the service was quick and the men's loo was sufficiently clean (it is Indian style though). Was out of the place in 20 minutes and then onwards to Bangalore. I was at the NICE Road junction at around 11:15 or so. Took BETL/Silk Board/ORR and reached home by 12:30 PM.

I wonder what benchmark do they use for setting the toll amount on the NICE Road? Now it is 60 bucks for the 14-odd km stretch from Kanakapura Road to Hosur Road - more than Rs. 4 per km. Even on the GQ stretches I frequent toll does not go beyond Re. 1 to Rs. 1.50 per km. This is nothing short of daylight robbery I would say.

PS: Forgot to mention, the local agitation against the bar at Thamarassery has been settled on Sunday after prolonged negotiations - the bar will stay closed. This means that the rasta-roko etc. that has been happening in the area has stopped for now (the bar was torched a few months back too).

[arjithin]

Originally Posted by binand

So anyway, by 8:30 AM or so I was at Ch. Nagar .

How is the Ch. Nagar - Gundlupet section? I will be taking this route on April 11th and expecting to reach this section around 730pm.

[mpksuhas]

Originally Posted by arjithin

I will be taking this route on April 11th and expecting to reach this section around 730pm.

Had done this route on way to Ooty last month. Some sections of the road are bad forcing you to crawl. Since 11 th is a Friday I am guessing you may be traveling towards Calicut, in that case would be better if you can plan for reaching bit earlier to avoid getting stuck at forest checklist.