Team-BHP - The art of travelling between Bangalore

Planning to drive on Sunday morning towards Mangalore from Bangalore. Via Madikeri is the route we have in mind but planning to take Bisle ghat since maps shows the distance shorter than via Madikeri. What's do you guys recommend? We will be going in 2 cars, Bolero and Figo.

Mangalore is under weekend lockdown starting today. It may be worthwhile to check what the rules are before you start your journey. If this is a leisure trip, you may want to instead go via Chikmagalur to Udupi. You would bypass DK this way.

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Originally Posted by explorer09 (Post 5119304)

My residence is in Mangalore City so it's important to reach Mangalore. I thought Chikmagalur requires negative PCR report to enter.

Drove to Mangalore from Bangalore on 7-Aug and took Shiradi Ghat road, roads till Hasan is amazing as usual and from Hasan to Sakleshpur roads are damaged due to rains and lots of places road work is going on. From Sakleshpur they have diverted the traffic via small ghat section till Maranahalli which was very scenic, but narrow and deserted road. Also, there was no direction board in most of places where you need to take an exit to connect to the main road and with patchy GPS network, we were struggling to find the correct road. Luckily, few locals directed us towards the correct direction. Drivers who are not frequent in this road, please take note of this diversion and also mind the size of the road.
We started around 5:15 AM and reached Mangalore at 1:00 PM with very minimal breaks.

Did Mangalore - Bangalore via Charmadi (11 Aug 2021)
Very scenic! Roads were very good in the ghats. Moderate traffic. Smooth drive without any jams - (around 9 AM)
Only one big cause for major delay - You end up stopping at every turn to soak in the amazing sights and click a few pics.

JCB excavator / earth movers were standing by at some 3 places. [Assuming this is some precautionary presence to reach any landslide location ASAP]

Police was checking "papers" with motorists at multiple locations. We were never stopped. And no notice or talk of any Covid test / report anywhere.

Quote:

Originally Posted by SGK (Post 5122581)

Drove to Mangalore from Bangalore on 7-Aug and took Shiradi Ghat road

Was there any delay entering Mangalore since it was a weekend and the weekend lockdown was announced?

Anyone have any idea what the rules are about travelling during the weekend lockdown? Is it allowed or is the weekend lockdown absolute? Have to go to Mangalore next month, but will be a pain to take a day off just to travel, would rather do it on a weekend. Other option is to fly I guess, since flights are still allowed on weekends.

Quote:

Originally Posted by am1m (Post 5123123)

Was there any delay entering Mangalore since it was a weekend and the weekend lockdown was announced?

I have travelled during the lockdown and didn't find any issue, in fact no one stopped us on the entire route (Probably might be due to the first day of lockdown).
I think you are allowed to travel between 5 AM to 2 PM as local essential shops are open during this window.

PS: My stay was in Surathkal next to the highway and was not required to enter into the city.

Guys, We Took the Charmadi Route Today. Udupi To Blore.

Started from Udupi at 4:15AM, reached Charmadi at 6:00AM. Absolutely Chaotic scene, Chock-a-block traffic end to end, We initially had to wait at the check post for about 20mins as the cops were releasing the traffic in batches. Very difficult to overtake due to the constant serpentine queue of trucks.

I very frequently travel through Charmadi and had seen this kind of traffic 5 years back when Shiradi was closed for repairs. Never expected Traffic in Charmadi to be this bad. Seems like everything apart from Bullet tankers, the Private Run Buses and Rajahamsa(KSRTC) were allowed.:Frustrati

This may also be due to fact that 6:00AM is the allowed Entry time. I did not see such chaos last week(Aug 5th), when I took Charmadi at around 11:00 in the morning towards Udupi.

I have all of this recorded on my dashcam and will very soon convert it to a time-lapse and upload it to youtube.

Looking at all of this, I feel Agumbe is the best bet currently as Shiradi is already bearing the brunt of the rain gods.

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Originally Posted by srihari154 (Post 5124396)

Never expected Traffic in Charmadi to be this bad. Seems like everything apart from Bullet tankers, the Private Run Buses and Rajahamsa(KSRTC) were allowed.:Frustrati

That is why most of us are sticking to Shiradi/Bisle, where heavy vehicles are not allowed.

My parents along with my nephew took Shiradi day before to reach Bengaluru from Udupi. The traffic after Mani seems to be sparse on a weekday according to them.

There is a detour from Marebahalli police station which takes you through some excellent country sides to join Mudigere road which in turn gets you to Sakleshpura. This will be a 30 odd kms detour.

This seems to be a sensible option looking at the mad rush on Charmadi, if the bad stretches between Hassan and Sakleshpura be left out. The work on this stretch seem to be progressing at a steady pace now.

They took 9 hours to reach Gottigere from Udupi with a breakfast and lunch stop enroute.

We are planning (actually contemplating due to evolving situation) for a trip to Kundapura from 19 to 22 August. Google map is showing Agumbe route. Looking at some previous posts, it seems Agumbe route should be fine.

My wife and I are fully vaccinated and we have two kids. Looks like at this point of time Udupi is not under restriction, apart from night curfew. Any Covid related protocol we need to keep in mind while travelling from Bengaluru to Kundapura? If weekend curfew is imposed, we can extend the trip by a day or two.

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Originally Posted by airbus (Post 5124677)

We are planning (actually contemplating due to evolving situation) for a trip to Kundapura from 19 to 22 August.

Right now there is no restriction. But the rules for 15th onwards is not yet declared. It is all fluid right now. Even I am awaiting to hear about new restrictions before planning my next drive.

Quote:

Originally Posted by srihari154 (Post 5124396)

.....constant serpentine queue of trucks.

..... This may also be due to fact that 6:00AM is the allowed Entry time. I did not see such chaos last week(Aug 5th), when I took Charmadi at around 11:00 in the morning towards Udupi.
.....

Just what I heard too. Early AM when the gates to Charmadi are opened it takes some time for the overnight pile up to clear. Mainly trucks. Best time these days seems to be after 10am, to enter the ghats.