2 days, 900 kms, and 20 hours of driving

Planning

About a month ago, Ashwani posted pictures from his trip to the coastal region of Karnataka. When I saw them, I thought "if the roads are good, this should be a fun trip". I mentioned this to my family and they were eager to do it if I could manage to get out of my home office!!

Then, events transpired over the last two weeks and triggered the trip. My mother wanted to visit Udupi, a long weekend was looming for the kids, and I had just gotten routine maintenance done on my car. So, on Thurday night, we decided to head out to Udupi on Saturday morning (via Hassan and Mangalore) and head back to Bangalore by Sunday evening.

With due diligence, we searched for hotels on the beach. Braving against the negative comments on TripAdvisor about the resort, we booked a room at Paradise Isle Beach Resort at Malpe (home for the finest beaches and fishes in coastal Karnataka). The booking was confirmed on Friday morning. So, in the evening, we topped up the car with gas, loaded up the iPods/USBs with songs, bought some fruits and snacks, packed our bags, printed route maps, and hit the bed.

As we slept, little did we know that our plan would only remain so, a plan.

9 hours of driving

On Saturday, we started out at 7:30AM. After traveling 90 km east on the smooth NH-48 road, we stopped at "Swati Delicacy" for breakfast. While we enjoyed good Masala Dosas, Idlis, and Vadas, we were treated to a large group of bikers exiting the restaurant. The group rode on classic motor bikes such as Rajdoot-350 to new motor bikes such as Kawasaki Ninja and Harley-Davidson. It was treat to watch the group split into small packs and take over the highway. Their patience to wait for the oncoming traffic to give way for them to enter the highway was only matched by their eagerness to throttle and zip on the highway. A biker's treat.

Finishing our breakfast, we continued towards Hassan. A pleasant drive on rather smooth and obstacle free national highway. We made it past Hassan by 12PM and entered the stretch of the highway lined by coffee estates, lush greenery, climbing roads, and hard curves --- a drive that I was looking forward to.  

While the start of the stretch was good, it went bad pretty quickly. Once we went past Sakleshpur and into Shiradi ghat section, it felt like I was dirt biking in my sedan. At hard curves, monsoon rains had washed away the asphalt on the road and exposed large patches of bumps/potholes that were easily 6 to 10 inches height/deep. So, driving across such patches amounted to playing a video game (or being Indiana Jones) in which you drive your car such that the wheels would move from one bump to the next bump without lodging into a pothole until the car clears the patch.  

As for the question "what happens if you miss a bump?" Well, you will hear a loud thud, you close your eyes and wish for your car to not stall, and try to drive the car out of the patch.

Once we were thru this stretch at around 2:00PM, we realized that I had "thudded" my car thrice and luckily my car managed to survive on a stretch where finding immediate assistance is impossible. Also, we realized that we entered this stretch of approximately 30 km at around 12:30PM and exited it at around 2PM. So, we had traveled 60 km in 120 minutes while we had traveled close to 180 km in 180 minutes from Bangalore to Hassan.  How's that for speed?

Past this horrible section, we reached Mangalore by 3:45PM and we headed North towards Udupi. This was a pleasant drive on well paved roads flanked by thin tall grass.  An experience that reminded me of the roads in Goa, another beach city in India.

Finally, after 9 hours of driving, we arrived at the beach resort at 16:45PM. We checked into a room with a scenic view of the beach. Since we had not stopped for lunch and survived on the fruits and snacks that my Mom had packed (an example of when experience saves the day), we were starving. So, we ordered a few sandwiches and munched on them while watching the sun set over the sea.

Lamps of Udupi

As I had driven a manual car through bad roads, I did not want to drive anymore for the day. So, at 6:30PM, we took a cab from Malpe to Udupi to visit Udupi Sri Krishna Matta. Lucky for us, it was a special night at Udupi.

Deepavali (Diwali) is a big festival in Udupi. For fourteen days after Deepavali, there are special ceremonies in Udupi. And, most of these ceremonies occur during the evenings. The festivities culminate on the fourteenth day with the patrons simultaneously lighting up 100,000 oil lamps in and around the Matta.

Interestingly, we were in Udupi on the thirteenth day and the lamp lighting custom had begun in small number. So, girls and ladies in my family joined the crowd and lit lamps. It was a wonderful sight.

While we waited to enter the inner shrine of the Matta, we were privy to watch Thepoothsava, a special ceremony in which the main diety Krishna is carried around a little pond on a boat. After visiting the inner shrine, we watched the Rathothsava, a ceremony in which the main diety is carried around a city block on a chariot. The ceremony was marked by fire torches and fireworks.

After witnessing the ceremonies and my daughters charming their grandmother to buy goodies at local stores, we headed back to the resort. Along the way, I described to Vishwanath, our cab driver, the state of roads on our way to Udupi and asked if he knew of an alternate route back to Bangalore. He suggested two alternatives; both nowhere close to the map that I had printed.

Upon arrival at the resort, we dashed to the restaurant for a tasty and sumptuous North-Indian dinner. Later on, the rest of the family made plans to hit the beach in the morning while I slept like a log.

11 hours of driving

I woke up at 8:30AM when my family rushed into our room soaked in sea water and sand from the beach. After the chaos of getting the kids bathed and dressed, we all headed for a quick breakfast and then got on the road at 10:30AM.

For the return journey, as described by Vishwanath, we had two options both starting at Manipal. The first option was to drive North to Shimago via Hiriadka, Agumbe, and Thirthahalli and then drive down South-East to Bangalore via Bhadravathi, Tarikere, Arsikere, Tiptur, and Tumkur. The second option was to drive South-East to Hassan but via Karkala, Kudremukh, Kalasa, Mudigere, and Chikmagalur. Both routes were around 20 km longer than the direct route we took on our way to Udupi. However, both routes promised relatively better roads, hassle-free driving, and scenic drives to coffee/tea estates and forest.

We decided to take the first route. However, before we reached Manipal from Udupi, we were swayed by inputs from extended family members who had recently traveled the area and we decided to take the second route.

So, we started from Manipal at 11AM and headed towards Karkala on a state highway. Incidentally, the state highway was in much better shape than the national highway that we encountered from Sakleshpur to Uppinangadi. However, the road signs were pretty bad on state highways. So, at every junction, we had to stop and ask if we were turn left, turn right, or go straight to reach our destination.

Driving for a while, we reached the Kudremukh National Park area. After getting the pass to go thru the park, we started ascending the hills in Kudremukh National Park (at around 12:15PM). While the roads are small, they are really well paved. Further, they are steep with lots of curves. To top it all, the roads wind through thick forest. Green, green, green. Parts of the roads are covered in green like a canopy. It is a nature loving driving enthusiast's dream come true.

After a slow and scenic drive, we reached the ghost town of Kudremukh and then descended to Kalasa just after exiting the National Park area. At this point, little did we know that the curving steep roads will still continue for quite some distance through Kootigehara and the lush green coffee and tea plantations of Chikmaglur district.

Interestingly, the road seemed to thread thru most towns and villages in the region. So, while threading thru the estates, we picked up fresh coffee and tea produces from the local stores run by estate owners; these shops offered to ship fresh produces to our addresses if we desired so.

Finally, after ascending and descending for hours on small roads, we reached Mudigere close to 5PM --- over 4 hours of driving in the winding roads of Chikmaglur. From here on, we sped to Hassan via Belur as the road was even and less curvy.

Since we had yet again skipped lunch and survived on fruits and snacks, we stopped again at "Swathi Delicacy" for an early dinner at 7:40PM. After a slow dinner topped off with "Gud bud" ice cream, we started the final leg towards Bangalore at 9PM. 

With everyone sleeping in the back of the car, my wife and I chatted as we zipped on NH48 and the NICE road to reach our home around 11:15PM.

Looking back

On this trip, I intentionally left my camera at home. So, all I did was experience the moments as opposed to capturing them. It was a welcome change. Something I recommend others to try.

Also, you would have observed that the blog post is void of pictures. While a picture is worth a thousand words, one needs to have lots of pictures to describe an entire journey. So, this time, I decided to word my view of the journey as a blog. Something I haven't tried before, but I am sorta liking as I write up the blog post.

As for the trip, it was unexpected, lightly planned, and started out badly. However, it was one of the most memorable trips of my life that ended with spectacular drives. In addition, everyone enjoyed the scenery, the beach, and the lamps of Udupi. So, it was a success :) Yeah!!

Now that I'm writing this blog post, I am tempted to try out the first of the two return journey routes. Possibly, even try out a variation of the second route that threads through Karkala-Moodbidri-Belthangady or Karkala-Bajegoli-Belthangdy and Charmadi on the way from Karkala to Mudigere.

So, until next time....