Paadooru is my native village situated near Kaup, Udupi District of Karnataka. The blog is dedicated to beautiful landscape of KAUP Beach and my village Paadooru
Here are some highway landscapes shot during our drive back from Bangalore to Kaup. The roads are well paved from Nelamangala to Ballupet and the beautiful curvy, snaky roads tempted me to grab some pictures. These pictures were taken while driving and don't expect depth of field. Due to movement, to have steady shot, 1/200s or higher was required and hence DOF restricted to f/8.0. Unfortunately, the new highway numbering has been done only in re-constructed stretches. The 2 lane stretch from Hassan to Bantwal still carries the old name NH-48. There is plan to four lane this stretch even! There is proposal to linearize Shiraadi ghat road on similar lines as Mumbai-Pune highway by carving out tunnels along western ghats. Although, the stretch from Hassan to Bantwal seems to be tough ask for four laning, some construction companies have come forward to take up the work. The work may not commence in near future though ;-).
KUNIGAL BYPASS
YEDIYUR
My main attraction was to capture some footages from brand new Channarayapattana bypass. Surprisingly, the bypass road is only 2-laned. My initial guess was that land acquisition would have hit roadblock for constructing 4-laned bypass. However, the guard rails are already erected and restricted to two lane boundary. Also there was no sign of furthermore work progressing along the bypass road. Eventually its 2 laned highway and not 4 laned which may not be scalable for future. Since the interior road which passes through Channarayapattana town is 4 laned, NHAI would have restricted bypass road to 2 lane, just to facilitate truck traffic (or cost?). Nevertheless, the highway is evenly laid and can have smooth journey all along. Barring few stretches, the section is upgraded as per NHAI standards. The work is on in remaining sections (even at night) to finish the patch works so that tolls could be collected sooner!
THE NEW STRETCH STARTS!
HIRISAAVE TOLL GATE! AS OF NOW FREE ;-)
SNAKY NATIONAL HIGHWAY-75
A MILLION MILES BEHIND
BRAND NEW CR PATNA BYPASS BUT ONLY 2 LANE
WELL PAVED NH-75
VIEW TO THE FUTURE!
ALMOST HASSAN!
A BILLION MILES BEHIND :-)
The stretch from Nelamangala junction to Hassan is very good for driving ;-) except for toll booths! Everything comes at price ;-). Get ready to cough up 90 bucks if you wish to drive along the highway ;-). Also brand new toll gates are erected near Hirisaave & Hassan junctions and survey is on to fix up toll rates ;-). So the total bucks may ascend all the way upto 180 :D. Despite the toll rates, it is really worth driving along the stretch. Since my father was driving, I could grab many pictures and videos :D. Almost 10GB of data ;-). Will share small video if possible with good music :-). As of now, enjoy the short video of driving along brand new Channarayapattana bypass!
Back to caption :D. When looking at the horizon along the highway, it is difficult to judge distance beyond it. So as per calculus, road at the horizon is tending to infinity ;-). Instead of infinity, I say it as 'Million miles away' ;-). Speaking of million miles away, I remember the beautiful travel music by German musician Ulrich Schnauss "A Million Miles Away". My all time favorite travel music from past many years ;-). The music was featured in GT4 for PS2 gaming consoles and hence I am sharing same link. Hear, enjoy the ambiance and chill of music and experience brilliance of Ulrich Schnauss
This video was shot during the up-hilling of Kuduremukh ghats on our way to Shringeri. In middle of ghat section, we had small break near one of the water springs and later my father offered to drive the car. It's time for me to grab some video of driving through lush green western ghats ;-). I took many videos but compiled them to fit one of my favorite music :-). The road was very beautiful and well paved but narrow from Kerekatte cross to Shringeri (about 30kms). It takes lot of time to drive through these sections due to up-hilling, steep curves and blind spots. One needs to honk at each and every curve as a measure of safety. Also the road edges are high from ground level which makes it impossible to slip down the road. Except for well paved road, the stretch looks like village road despite being National Highway. Nevertheless, if you are watchful, everything is smooth. Our journey was really smooth mainly due to the powerful pull of CRDi engines and well paved roads (we easily could negotiate uphill in 3rd gear). Watch out for rushing tankers and gas laden trucks along curves. There was heavy rains too during return journey. At that time, I was driving and hence no videos of the same. Enjoy the virtual drive through gorgeous western ghats.
With full respect to beautiful music "Minded Constellation" from German musician Dirk Hoffman codenamed Goaschuld, here is the drive video.
Great chill music and perfect for monsoon drives ;-).
This year end shutdown 2012 I had planned to visit nearby places. Consequently ended up in Murudeshwara and Idagunji. The journey was just for a day. It is hardly 2:30hrs journey from our place. We started at 8:30 AM and reached 11:30 AM. The heavy traffic between Kaup and Kundapur put breaks on our smooth journey. Since father was recovering from illness only me and mother traveled. This time it is Maruti Ritz VDi which was our transport :-). One never get strained driving this car and experience with CRDi engines is really awesome!
As always I mention in my previous posts, the travel between Mangalore and Karwar is real heaven with beautiful landscape, rivers, konkan railway tunnels, western ghats and sometimes beaches. As usual we stopped in Maravanthe beach for some time before proceeding further. The day was bit hazy so not the best time for photography unless you have ND or CPL filters. Still I captured some pictures of Souparnika River and Arabian Sea. There are some marine drive videos too ;-). I will upload sometimes later. Here are some pictures!
SOUPARNIKA RIVER NEAR MARAVANTHE BEACH
Around 11:30AM we reached Murudeshwara. We could get darshan of Lord Murudeshwara and had lunch in temple itself. Lunch was very good. Later we went to see Lord Shiva statue atop of hill. Also we went to beach. The sea was pretty much rough. There was huge crowd too! I wanted to have boat ride along sea but we did not have backup clothes. One had to walk for certain distance in sea water to have boat ride. We stayed till 4PM before leaving to Idagunji. Idagunji is only 20 minute drive from Murudeshwara. We had darshan and left from there. It was only 30 minute stay. I wanted to visit Honnavar to have look at majestic Sharavati river basin. However due to lack of time we dropped that plan. Here are pictures from Murudeshwara and Idagunji.
MURUDESHWARA TEMPLE
VIEW FROM ENTRANCE
VIEW FROM TEMPLE PREMISES - 1
VIEW FROM TEMPLE PREMISES -2
THE 117 FEET HIGH PINNACLE
THE MURUDESHWARA BEACH
SHIVA STATUE ATOP HILL
OM NAMO BHAGAVATHE RUDRAYA!
SHIVALINGA INSIDE HILL TEMPLE
MAJESTIC SHIVA FACING PINNACLE
IDAGUNJI VINAYAKA TEMPLE
TASTY CUCUMBER FOR HUMID WEATHER
We started around 5PM from Idagunji and again stopped at Maravanthe beach. There was really beautiful sky waiting for us there :-). I captured photos and video of the sky. Around 8:30PM we reached Kaup again. Here is one snap of evening sky in Maravanthe Beach
BEAUTIFUL SKY, MARAVANTHE BEACH
We chose Murudeshwara specifically for long time stay since we could not spend time during our last visits. Uttara Kannada district is the beautiful district in Karnataka in my opinion. During Monsoon, the district is simply awesome place to visit! I can never forget 4km scenic journey from Manki to Idagunji.
The videos!
Here I am back with boring videos ;). Please watch and comment for improvements. The video editor is the KDENLIVE under Linux, magnificent open source software. Watch the video of Murudeshwara and beautiful sky of Maravanthe beach!
One more long drive! This time it is me alone in Maruti Ritz diesel. It is fantastic car and you will never feel strained by driving for many distance. It was around 415kms of drive with me driving alone. This was first time I was driving alone for such a long distance (Earlier was 260kms from Sirsi to Kaup). I was really excited :-) since the pickup was too good (190NM of torque @2000rpm was superb). The torque could be felt especially from Sakaleshpur to Mangalore where the geography is almost hilly with too many curves and blind spots. The worst thing was ordinary KSRTC buses were overtaking despite vehicle's presence in opposite direction. I encountered four to five times. I had to slip down the road or stop at the middle of highway to avoid them. They do not have pick up even then adamant to overtake resulting in accidents. Switch on headlights and start overtaking. Apart from this bitter experience everything was perfect and really enjoyed drive.
Since it was Monsoon season, I enjoyed some of the moments in Shiraadi Ghat. The Ghat road was OK however is about to get damaged (could see parched area in many places). It was drizzling in Ghat and fantastic to cherish. The streams were flowing however with not much vigor since Monsoon has not yet reached peak. In mid of journey I stopped at many places to take photographs. This time no videos since I was alone driving.
Watch the journey photo collection with wonderful music.
Music: ASP Project - See the Sun
Video Editor: KDENLIVE under Linux Mint Maya
Camera: Canon SX 210IS
One more drive! This time its through jungles from Kukke to Dharmastala spanning for 52kms. The speciality is dense jungles and many streams in between. The drive from Kukke to Gundya forest gate is fantastic and has lot of curves. From Gundya forest gate till the 'Dharmastala deviation' is NH-75 which runs from Bangalore to Mangalore. From the deviation till Dharmastala is of semi-ghat type with some steep curves and narrow roads. Through out the journey there are lots of blind spots which one has to be careful about. Watch out for nasty vehicles overtaking at the curves. Since it was bharath bundh, the road was almost clear. However there were some tourist vehicles plying along the way. The places are not densely populated and hence no mob created trouble. However small group of people questioned us in gundya forest gate (which is the best place to catch hold of people since it is busy junction). We told them that our visit pre-planned and God will curse us if we do not do so. Those people let us go after brief discourse. I was about to take up state tax which was high in country but did not dare fearing retaliation in terms of violence [may burn our car :-)]. One of the person warned us that people will pelt stones en-route but nothing such happened.
It is wonderful to drive along such routes especially I love to drive under such conditions [provided roads are good :-)]. Towards Dharmastala roads are only patched but not relayed. So the roads are uneven. The patches may turn into pot-holes during monsoon. There are small pot-holes too. Watch out for them. They can create problems in narrow road.
Watch the video with Ulrich Schnauss Monday Paracetamol music.
Watch my other videos: http://www.youtube.com/user/nakumar85/videos
This is one of the older videos however composed recently. We went to kaup from bangalore at night on 04 Oct 2011. This is the first time I traveled at night in a private vehicle. I was awake till Gundya and later on could not resist sleep. So the video contains clips till gundya and later on no videos were shot. It was really amazing drive. The car was swift diesel and this was first time I really felt torque of diesel cars. The car was also very smooth and you never feel even if you are driving around 100kmph. We could easily cover the journey in 8hrs despite the horrible shiraadi ghat road and one hour break near kunigal where we had dinner. Hope you will enjoy the video!
Of-course video is bit noisy since it was shot at night. It is quite lengthy video too. I kept it lengthy to cover entire journey in a single video. The car is owned by my colleague's friend and he drove along entire journey. Please watch for entire duration when you get time. I have used three music for the video.
1) Ulrich Schnauss - A million miles away
2) Ulrich Schnauss - Monday Paracetamol
3) Linkin Park - In the End
I know I have been using first two are being used repeatedly in my videos. However I do not find alternatives even. Suggest me if you have good travel tune.
The video was edited and composed using KDENLIVE under XUBUNTU. Wonderful open source tool for video editing and composing.
Watch my other videos too: http://www.youtube.com/user/nakumar85/videos
This video was taken during peak monsoon season of 2011 (around july). We went for some work to udupi and while returning to Kaup it started pouring down. This was taken along NH-17 (Now NH-66) near Udupi. Finally my father agreed to hold the camera while I was driving. I wanted to feel the monsoon drive :-). So requested father to hold camera for sometime. Here is the video. Watch and share if you like :-).
This was the time when we shifted back to Kaup from Bangalore prior to my father's retirement. The videos are pretty much old, however composed now. The clarity is not so good since most of them were shot inside the car. The video is maintained for memory. We started at around 11:00 AM from Bangalore and reached Kaup only by 11:00PM at night. We had to start late since we had to fit carrier for our car to accommodate excess baggage. We spent around 2hrs in bangalore city due to traffic mess. It was around 1:00 PM we reached Yeshwantpur. From then we took only 10hrs to Kaup inspite of taking 30minutes break for dinner at Uppinangady and deadly stretch of Shiraadi ghat. At that time, Shiraadi ghat road was tortured so much that we could hardly notice bitumen on the stretch. Adding to that, our car headlight lacked distance and hence we had to drive carefully. It always happens that the stretch between Ballupet and Gundya gets destroyed during every monsoon and repaired only by march. This is the story every year and no permanent solution is on the cards. Bangalore-Mangalore section is one of the beautiful tracks to drive due to the fact it covers plains, malnad, ghat and coastal areas. If the shiraadi ghat section is well maintained, this stretch is heaven for enthusiastic drivers.
The video is composed using KDENLIVE under UBUNTU. Help and support free software. The video is dedicated to free and open source community as well as people who love to drive along MLORE-BLORE stretch.
This is my first youtube video upload. We traveled on 20th November 2011 to Bangalore from Udupi along NH-75 (previously NH-48). This is fifth time we are driving in this section. The video is composition of the travel we had in our Maruti-ALTO. Myself and father shared the drive. Apart from 25kms of dreadful ghat section route, remaining part of the highway was smooth enough for driving. My favorite route is driving from Mangalore till Sakaleshpur which covers hilly, curvy and ghat roads with lot of ups and downs involving many bridges and rivers. Of-course we took 2 hours to cross Shiraadi ghat section. Driving from Kunigal till Bangalore along newly layed four lane highway is mind blowing. I picked Ulrich Schnauss "A Million Miles Away" tune for the video. It is very good travel music and I like it very much. The way Ulrich Schnauss composes such tunes is mesmerizing. On return we traveled via Sampaje ghat along SH-88 via Madikeri. The second video needs time for composition :). Hope you will enjoy the video.
