Team-BHP - The art of travelling between Bangalore

Quote:

Originally Posted by procrj (Post 4070975)

Do check

RJ, if Bisle was any good and an alternate for each one of us, am sure the news would spread like wildfire.

Since years now the road has been that way. The terrain is treacherous and tricky mainly because there are virtually no roads at many sections here and the drive via Bisile is more of an adventure than a commute or a drive itself.

I wish it remains that way when we have Shiradi for the "aam Junta" and that shuts down, alternates are available anyway based on the destination :).

Ghost of Shiradi ghat closure is back!!

As per news published in online portal, Shiradi ghat will be closed for traffic starting October 15th. http://www.daijiworld.com/news/news_...sp?n_id=417390

So folks whoever was taking Charmadi ghat as preferred route towards Udupi-Manipal, you may need to rethink now as Charmadi ghat will be the first to witness the Shiradi bound traffic and I am sure many will remember the chaos during previous closure.

Quote:

Originally Posted by smartcat (Post 4071044)

but unlike Charmadi or Bisle ghat, there is no uncertainty involved.

The unlikeliness with Bisle is totally different to that of Charmadi.

On a normal day, Charmadi is just like another road, some find it narrow(er) but then the "feeling" of ghat ends in under 45 minutes. The issue with Charmadi will be when most of them will start taking this when Shiradi closes. Else there is absolutely no such predicament that one should have with this option. And no, I am not selling Charmadi here but only trying to say that this works out as an option but not on a weekend when Shiradi is closed.

Bisle is a different ball game altogether. The road was never meant to be a normal one while Charmadi is the one that sees regular KSRTC buses 'et al for those wanting to reach here from Chikmagalur or North KA Side.

Shiradi is fast, Wide but never ending and sees a lot of traffic on regular day. Charmadi has very less traffic and if you complain that you get stuck behind a bus/truck for a long time, you are duly given way at the next section where road widens unless you keep honking like mad. That has been a typical trend on all narrow roads around here and you will know it better too :).
The bottomline is that Charmadi is an equally good option but not when Shiradi closes. I would totally advise against Charmadi mainly due to snarls causes by reckless drivers and sorry to say, most of them from Bangalore.

Charmadi Ghats: Questions? Queries? Concerns?

How is the condition of Charmadi Ghat?
How bad are the sections?
How narrow is the road
Is it that bad as perceived by many?
Is that any good at all?
Does the road have any traffic at all?
What about fog? Do we face it all through the ghat?
Do buses and trucks use this road?
Are we allowed to overtake or the drivers Bully you?

Watch this video that gives you a glimpse of the entire Ghat right from Charmadi to Kottigehara (~25 Kms) on weekday night. To shorten the actual length, I have increased the playback speed by 1.75 times and uploaded.

Since the entire recording is at night, you can focus only on the roads and not the scenery around :)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mbK66PYxKdQ

Quote:

Originally Posted by Samurai (Post 4071673)

Shanivarsante to Subramanya means you are going through the dreaded Bisle ghat. It was discussed in the previous page.

Thanks. I had read about Bisle ghat. But probably missed the point that it was between Shanivarsanthe and Subramanya. So looks I would need to got to Somawarpete from Shanivarsanthe or just stick to plain old Shiradi ghat route

Quote:

Originally Posted by procrj (Post 4071700)

You could do CR Patna - Arkalgud - Shanivarasanthe - Somwarpete - Madikeri - Sullia - Puttu. Good 2 lane roads but tomorrow is anybody's guess as its a long weekend.

I noticed some ground work is underway to widen road between Arkalgud to Ramanathpur/Konanur.

I see that maps suggest two routes betweek Arkalgud, Konanur. Which one is advisable ? I always took via Ramanathpur

Quote:

Originally Posted by paragsachania (Post 4070830)

Driving solo – Bliss. On a Weekday – Fantastic!

Bangalore – Hassan – Belur – Gendehalli – Mudigere – Kottigehara – Javali – Kalasa – Kuduremukha – SK Border – Bajagoli – Naravi - Guruvayanakere – Belthangady – Ujire – Charmadi – Mudigere – Belur – Hassan – Kunigal – Bangalore

~710 Kms done in exactly 12 hours as I returned back home the same night. When driving solo, the breaks are indeed very less. In my case, I stopped for 20 minutes at Kottigehara and another 20 minutes at CR Patna on return, 5 minutes at Belur for refueling.

I travelled to Udupi from Bengaluru over the long weekend (Sep 07 - Sep 10) , unfortunately did not read this post, since it was a last minute decision and took the Shiradi route. And boy! That was one frustrating ride.
Getting out of Bangalore took a few hours and the Shiradi Ghat is undergoing patch work, there are still quite some broken, potholed stretches making for an unpleasant ride.
Even after the Ghat (beyond Gundya), the drive to Mangalore was not a fun drive, mainly because of a mix of slow moving trucks and the twitchy drivers who jockey around for pole postion.

For the return journey, I had almost decided to take the Charmadi route, then I saw this post.
I must say, that we had the most blissful ride since some time, especially the part from the Forest Check post till Kalasa via Kuduremukha. The roads were excellent on this stretch.
Thankfully, did not encounter any 'rally' drivers on this stretch.
However, from the Kottigehara->Belur, we met quite a few speed demons.

Thanks to @paragsachania 's post, I had a fun journey. Though I took a leisurely 9 hours to complete the journey including a detour to Horanadu for darshan and temple food.

Did some experimentation with the route to Bangalore from Manipal this weekend. Set out on Ampere's route (430km), but a friend at Thirthahalli suggested to avoid going through the towns that festive weekend.

So the actual route we took was: Manipal - Agumbe - Thirthahalli - Shivamogga - Channagiri - Chitradurga - Bengaluru (451km)

And what roads they were clap:
- Manipal to Parkala : bad single lane stretch
- Parkala to 50% of Agumbe ghats: good single lane stretch
- remaining 50% of the ghats : broken concrete
- Agumbe to Shivamogga : high speed, single lane stretch with a few twisties thrown in for good measure
- Shivamogga to Channagiri : a mix of narrow and wide single lane stretches for 40 km. Road is under construction, so there is a break of about 10-20 metres in the fresh tarmac every kilometre. This is the slowest part of the journey.
- Channagiri to Chitradurga : very wide single lane stretch of straight, long, beautiful and deserted roads. Could easily maintain speeds of 100-110.
- Chitradurga to Bangalore : 201 km of the blissful Golden Quadrilateral. But started getting bogged down by traffic at about 50-40 before bangalore.

I would suggest this route to anyone travelling with people having back problems.

Quote:

Originally Posted by samaspire (Post 4073389)

- Shivamogga to Channagiri : a mix of narrow and wide single lane stretches for 40 km. Road is under construction, so there is a break of about 10-20 metres in the fresh tarmac every kilometre. This is the slowest part of the journey.
- Channagiri to Chitradurga : very wide single lane stretch of straight, long, beautiful and deserted roads. Could easily maintain speeds of 100-110.

So the above in quotes are the big updates. What are the expected timelines for the full update for this stretch? Once done should be a good option.

Anyway many people have been already using this route and had been reporting Chitradurga-Shimoga to be the weak link. Hope this gets done soon.