Quote:
Originally Posted by itwasntme Off to TPT this week - will update conditions once back. Plan is as follows:
1. Leave my Yelahanka residence around 1400;
2. Take the usual ORR route to hit NH 75;
3. Straight to TPT via Kolar and Chittoor bypass;
4. Stay overnight and do SED the next day at 0900;
5. Leave directly from TML by ~1100, and
6. Arrive back to BLR in time to beat the evening rush from KR Puram to Yelahanka. |
ONWARD:
BLR:
Plan went off smoothly except it took a hellish amount of time to navigate the ORR and KR Puram. Nothing specific really, just slow moving traffic hogging multiple lanes. Bottomed out the engine sump on an ugly and deceptively deep pothole near Manyata. This was the only one on the entire trip :-).
Hoskote-Kolar
Traffic thinned out somewhat beyond Hoskote, but was always messy with 2W & small LCVs veering all over the road. Clearly, whatever COVID-19 has increased among people, common sense and brains are not in that list. Scenery was superbly green and a visual feast. Medians were awash with flowers especially the yellow ones. One downside a large number of flying insects committing suicide on the windshield, thereby needing copious washes to quickly remove the messy stains.
Kolar-Mulbagal-Chittoor:
Cannot help but make a strong point that the newly concretized stretches of Mulbagal - Chittoor is atrocious in the execution, quality and road markings. In fact, i would rate it as the worst I've driven on. Criminal that such a new piece of road was so badly laid, especially when the Chittoor bypass tarmac portion is a masterpiece. High GC vehicles need to be very vey careful as there are deceptively smooth stretches followed by ghastly sudden dips/undulations, which can seriously imbalance a speeding vehicle. Being white concrete, these undulations are almost impossible to spot early on. Again, some of the flyovers are reasonably paved only in the middle lane and the rest (shoulder, left & fast lane) are atrociously finished. Be careful of sharp edges and ample road debris lying around. Did not notice expected cats-eyes either but may have missed them as we drove during broad daylight. Road signages are decent.
Chittoor Bypass:
An amazing
![Love It](https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/images/smilies/loveit.png)
piece of tarmac with 2+(3+3)+2 lanes, fenced off and with minimal traffic as of now. Very easy to get to ridiculous speeds here even if you didn't mean to. I would rank it to be the best portion I have travelled in for many years now. Be careful though as there are a couple of diversions onto the messy old highway.
Tirupati & Tirumala:
Overall, total journey time was an amazing 3.5 hours from Yelahanka till Tirupati. Tirupati to Tirumala was a breeze with time-based speed controls as usual. We really enjoyed the drive up with the sunroof open and feeling more and more pious as we got closer.
Darshan:
Special Entry Darshan was very smooth with good social distancing (well, mostly), and we were out in 1.5 hours flat. Got slightly held up by the Aarti for 40 minutes else would have been a total breeze. Had a lovely darshan of the Lord for a good 45 seconds as they were still clearing up (after the Aarti), and there was no hurrying along.
Funny thing was that many devotees slid down their masks immediately after the darshan as if moksha had been obtained! Avoided them totally, quickly collected the laddoos and started off.
There was no time stamping on the way down, so had a little fun on the hairpins.
RETURN:
Started off from Alipiri directly and Maps routed me through the Kalur Cross Road which had a delightful rough stretch.
No issues and it shaved off a good amount of time from the city traffic.
Took the identical route back till Hoskote. Avoided the KR Puram route and took the Budigere Road towards Yelahanka. Google Maps again duly routed me through a (personally known) shortcut with some surprises. A video speaks a thousand words:
Overall an excellent drive with a lovely darshan! Pictures and videos from my new DDPAI Mola N3 dashcam.