Excellent roads, very good roads, good roads. Bad roads, worse roads, no roads at all. Seen all of that, been through all of that in my recent 5 days 1975 Kms trip to north karnataka.
We started (my wife, father and mother) @ 5:45 AM on 15th Aug. Reached Bangalore back @ 9:30 PM on 19th Aug. The route covered was bangalore-tumkur-chitradurga-haveri-hubli-naragund-bijapur-sindagi-jeratagi-ganagapur. A short trip from ganagapur-gulbarga and back.
On the return journey the route was Ganagapur-jeratagi-sindagi-bijapur-naragund-hubli-yellapur-ankola-kumta-honnavar-bhatkal-kundapur-udupi-mangalore-puttur-sullia-madikeri-mysore-ramanagar-bangalore.
15th Aug, 5:45 AM we started from bangalore in my inddie and stopped at Kamat at Dobbspet by 7:15 AM. Left Dobbspet by 7:45 AM and reached hubli by 11:45 AM. In between, took one break to stretch legs which lasted 10 mins. Had light food at Kamat Cafe @ Deshpande nagar and left Hubli by 12:45 PM and refuelled to tankfull which consumed 22.2 Ltrs (1000 Rs) and reached Bijapur by 4:15 PM. In between, took one break to stretch legs lasting about 10 minutes. Stopped at sindagi for one more 10 mins break and reached jeratagi by 5:30 PM. Made the left turn and reached Ganagapur which is 22 KMs from Jeratagi by 6:15 PM. Entire journey was with 100% AC on.
Roads were Excellent from Bangalore to Hubli, Very Good from Hubli to Navalgund, Bad in few stretches upto Naragund and Very good from Naragund to Jeratagi. Jeratagi to Ganagapur is a single road but well surfaced. Went over atleast 4 unmarked mega speed breakers at 60-80 KMPH and my inddie held up well. Blr to Hubli, easily 120 KMPH can be held consistently. Hubli to Jeratagi easily 80-100 KMPH can be maintained but the unmarked speed breakers will give you your gotcha moments.
Next day, started from Ganagapur to Gulbarga for a silly reason - the nearest ATM to withdraw cash is available only in Gulbarga. This stretch there are no roads :) It took me 1 Hr30 minutes to cover 40 KMs while going to Gulbarga but on return journey took me only 1 Hr 10 minutes as frustration took over and i did 60 KMPH on virtually no roads. I comfortably passed Boleros, Trax and NEKRTC buses :) :). Inddie's underbelly got hit once, stopped to check for damage, found none, continued with 60 KMPH.
On 17th Aug, started at 6:15 AM from Ganagapur and reached Bijapur at 8:00 AM. Went to a hotel called Royal Comforts in front of Gol gumbuz and had good breakfast. Left Bijapur at 8:30 AM and reached Hubli at 12:30 PM. Went to my brother's in-laws place had lunch and left Hubli at 2:30 PM. Reached Ankola by 4:30 PM. Stopped at Kamat for a quick tea break and started back at 4:45. The worst roads we encountered in this stretch from Ankola to Kundapur. In April End, it took me 2 Hours 15 Mins to cover the same distance, however, this time it took 4 hours to cover the same. Reached kundapur at 8:30 PM. Had dinner at a hotel just outside kundapur. Continued journey towards Sullia. Got good stretches albeit with detours after kundapur. Around 10:30 PM, when i reached NMPT panambur, the excellent 6 lane stretch started. Felt happy. This happiness lasted only 5 seconds as this "Excellent" stretch managed to do what the "No Roads" did not do. There was a mega crater, well cut using man made tools, left open with no signage, into which my inddie's left wheel landed directly at 80 KMPH. There was a swift dezire taxi ahead of me, which swerved at last moment and I could not avoid the 4'X4' square hole. The car came out of the ditch with a loud thud which woke my wife, father and mother who were sleeping blissfully, and the worst happened. The front disk bent beyond repair and the tubless tyre blow went off. The rear left tyre disc had a small dent but the tyre still held the blow. Pulled over, changed the front left wheel with the spare one and continued and did not want to take a risk of continuing beyond mangalore, stayed at mangalore. The time was 11:30 PM. Next day, 18th Aug, went to automatrix, had suspension checked up, it turns out all was ok, bought a new disk and the whole thing cost me Rs 1381/-. Cant believe, this is cheaper than maruti. The impact with which the car hit the edge of the ditch was so huge, that i was thinking that the front struts would be gone. I was super pleased with Inddie. This repair took about 4 hours as the engine guard dent due to the grounding near gulbarga was also fixed. Then continued the journey and reached sullia on 18th. Dropped my parents in sullia, took rest over night and started back to blr on 19th.
Roads from Hubli to Ankola are very good, ankola to kundapur is worst. Kundapur to sullia is good but laden with diversions and few stretches of bad roads.
Complete journey was with AC on and the mileage i got was 18 KMPH.
- Aravind
We started (my wife, father and mother) @ 5:45 AM on 15th Aug. Reached Bangalore back @ 9:30 PM on 19th Aug. The route covered was bangalore-tumkur-chitradurga-haveri-hubli-naragund-bijapur-sindagi-jeratagi-ganagapur. A short trip from ganagapur-gulbarga and back.
On the return journey the route was Ganagapur-jeratagi-sindagi-bijapur-naragund-hubli-yellapur-ankola-kumta-honnavar-bhatkal-kundapur-udupi-mangalore-puttur-sullia-madikeri-mysore-ramanagar-bangalore.
15th Aug, 5:45 AM we started from bangalore in my inddie and stopped at Kamat at Dobbspet by 7:15 AM. Left Dobbspet by 7:45 AM and reached hubli by 11:45 AM. In between, took one break to stretch legs which lasted 10 mins. Had light food at Kamat Cafe @ Deshpande nagar and left Hubli by 12:45 PM and refuelled to tankfull which consumed 22.2 Ltrs (1000 Rs) and reached Bijapur by 4:15 PM. In between, took one break to stretch legs lasting about 10 minutes. Stopped at sindagi for one more 10 mins break and reached jeratagi by 5:30 PM. Made the left turn and reached Ganagapur which is 22 KMs from Jeratagi by 6:15 PM. Entire journey was with 100% AC on.
Roads were Excellent from Bangalore to Hubli, Very Good from Hubli to Navalgund, Bad in few stretches upto Naragund and Very good from Naragund to Jeratagi. Jeratagi to Ganagapur is a single road but well surfaced. Went over atleast 4 unmarked mega speed breakers at 60-80 KMPH and my inddie held up well. Blr to Hubli, easily 120 KMPH can be held consistently. Hubli to Jeratagi easily 80-100 KMPH can be maintained but the unmarked speed breakers will give you your gotcha moments.
Next day, started from Ganagapur to Gulbarga for a silly reason - the nearest ATM to withdraw cash is available only in Gulbarga. This stretch there are no roads :) It took me 1 Hr30 minutes to cover 40 KMs while going to Gulbarga but on return journey took me only 1 Hr 10 minutes as frustration took over and i did 60 KMPH on virtually no roads. I comfortably passed Boleros, Trax and NEKRTC buses :) :). Inddie's underbelly got hit once, stopped to check for damage, found none, continued with 60 KMPH.
On 17th Aug, started at 6:15 AM from Ganagapur and reached Bijapur at 8:00 AM. Went to a hotel called Royal Comforts in front of Gol gumbuz and had good breakfast. Left Bijapur at 8:30 AM and reached Hubli at 12:30 PM. Went to my brother's in-laws place had lunch and left Hubli at 2:30 PM. Reached Ankola by 4:30 PM. Stopped at Kamat for a quick tea break and started back at 4:45. The worst roads we encountered in this stretch from Ankola to Kundapur. In April End, it took me 2 Hours 15 Mins to cover the same distance, however, this time it took 4 hours to cover the same. Reached kundapur at 8:30 PM. Had dinner at a hotel just outside kundapur. Continued journey towards Sullia. Got good stretches albeit with detours after kundapur. Around 10:30 PM, when i reached NMPT panambur, the excellent 6 lane stretch started. Felt happy. This happiness lasted only 5 seconds as this "Excellent" stretch managed to do what the "No Roads" did not do. There was a mega crater, well cut using man made tools, left open with no signage, into which my inddie's left wheel landed directly at 80 KMPH. There was a swift dezire taxi ahead of me, which swerved at last moment and I could not avoid the 4'X4' square hole. The car came out of the ditch with a loud thud which woke my wife, father and mother who were sleeping blissfully, and the worst happened. The front disk bent beyond repair and the tubless tyre blow went off. The rear left tyre disc had a small dent but the tyre still held the blow. Pulled over, changed the front left wheel with the spare one and continued and did not want to take a risk of continuing beyond mangalore, stayed at mangalore. The time was 11:30 PM. Next day, 18th Aug, went to automatrix, had suspension checked up, it turns out all was ok, bought a new disk and the whole thing cost me Rs 1381/-. Cant believe, this is cheaper than maruti. The impact with which the car hit the edge of the ditch was so huge, that i was thinking that the front struts would be gone. I was super pleased with Inddie. This repair took about 4 hours as the engine guard dent due to the grounding near gulbarga was also fixed. Then continued the journey and reached sullia on 18th. Dropped my parents in sullia, took rest over night and started back to blr on 19th.
Roads from Hubli to Ankola are very good, ankola to kundapur is worst. Kundapur to sullia is good but laden with diversions and few stretches of bad roads.
Complete journey was with AC on and the mileage i got was 18 KMPH.
- Aravind
