I drove to the famous temple at Kukke Subramanya this weekend. In spite of apprehensions about the road quality, I took the Shiradi Ghat route. Here's the summary:
Car: Hyundai i10 AT
Driving Aid: Garmin Nuvi 215W with MapMyIndia v4.0
Average Fuel Efficiency: 16.6 kmpl
Fellow passengers: Mom and aunt
Total Distance: 620 km
Total Driving Time: BLR to KKS 4:50 hours; KKS to BLR 5:40 hours
Average Driving Speed: BLR to KKS 64 kmph; KKS to BLR 55 kmph
Peak Speed achieved: 137 kmph (as per my Garmin) - achieved on NICE road
Route: Bangalore (BTM Layout) - NICE road - Magadi - Kunigal - Hassan - Sakleshpura - Gundya - Kukke Subramanya
Started from home at 10:15 PM, reached Kukke Subramanya at 3:05 AM. No breaks.
Return journey - started from Subramanya at 10:30 AM, reached home at 4:10 PM. One break near Magadi to buy vegetables
I was afraid I would get stuck in the middle of all the coast-bound buses on the onward journey, but by some luck I missed them all. Encountered a veritable procession of buses of all shapes and sizes coming in the opposite direction, though.
Magadi Road (from NICE) looks like its been recently relaid and is in superb condition, except for a small stretch through Tavarekere. The road gets horrible through Magadi town, but returns to its good self till Kunigal.
NH-48 is having road widening works up to a little beyond Adichunchunagiri Medical College, which around 40km before Channarayanapatna. The road surface is good, but watch out for near-invisible speed-breakers on this stretch.
The Hassan bypass also looks newly relaid, and this was a huge relief because I have had a torrid time on this stretch in the past. Generally, NH-48 right from Kunigal until Sakleshpur is in very good condition and I could easily keep the needle between 80-100 kmph in spite of the procession of buses coming in the opposite direction.
Now for the crunch. Shiradi Ghat road is in the best condition I have seen it for a long while (just relatively speaking). It is by no means as good as it was say in 2002-03, but at least the surface is by and large smooth. A lot of corners are showing wear though, and I am pretty sure the road's going to disappear when the monsoon starts in earnest. Even so, the road got worse as I went on and the last 6-7 km before Gundya were just about average. There are a few big potholes, especially before and after culverts and bridges. The surface resembles a golf ball in some short stretches. I doubt if I can risk my i10 on this road come late July or August.
On the return, I toyed with the idea of driving via Sulya - Madikeri - Srirangapatna, but I stuck to the NH-48 route. As it was a Saturday, there were village markets setup all through the route (with many dozens of cows crossing the road at one place); so my average speed was cut down.
In summary - an excellent drive and an excellent darshan at the temple. I enquired about the five-headed snake that was reported in the papers, but no one could give me better than vague ideas.
Oh yeah. The traffic. There were many LPG tanker-trucks on the return journey, but no great volume of traffic. The ore trucks seem to be on vacation, which is awesome news. KSRTC bus drivers were mindless as usual. Except for a curiously overturned autorickshaw near Kunigal on the return journey, there were no accidents to gape at or hamper the average speed.