A 10 day trip / vacation usually starts with a lot of lookin forward to a few days ahead of time. That was the case here too, except that this morning I woke up at 9am. Not that I was planning to wake up any sooner, just saying.

Packed as much as I could in 15 minutes, scrambled out the door, and went to the bike.
Felt very unorganized for this trip. Forgot my flashlight, didn’t tank up the fuel, didn’t do any pre-flight checks on the bike.
Headed out anyway.. Went across town for some work, stopped for breakfast at a McDonalds – stocked up really hard on pancakes and sausage breakfast burgers. No plans to stop for lunch.

Stopped by a shell fuel bunk, tanked up, changed the engine oil, which was solid black from the last trip. Carried a spare 1.5 litres and started moving towards the highway. Terrible experience being a weekday and rush hour traffic and all. By the time I reached the highway today, it was past noon, and hot and humid already.

I desperately needed some rain..

The road towards kolar is a beautiful wide stretch of tarmac and I’ve done it a million times, nothing to look forward to. It’s after kolar that I’ve never seen.

In the first 15 minutes of my ride, I forgot my windows password (IT help desk to expect a call from me 10 days from now !!), the next 15 minutes made me forget the shitload of work piled up, and the next 30 minutes made me forget everything else.

Took a break in just 50 kms of starting out. Why ? Just because I could, and had no target to complete or no time to reach by at my destination for today – Nellore.

Things are a bit different this trip. Every trip is new, and you make fewer mistakes (and so you also reduce the adventure/fun) each time.

New equipment/devices this time –

1. LG smart watch for GPS + new G-shock – the G-watch is fancy – Waterproof and saves the hassle of having to undo gloves, fish out the phone, look for directions on maps.. It shows the maps on the watch dial, and vibrates 100 meters before a turn is due – enough time to slow down or change lanes. Classic recommendation for bikers in my opinion, if you need directions or go to non standard places.
Pity the gloves don’t work on the touch screen, but you get to see the map anyway. The battery isn’t great. Shut off in 10 hours of usage (I thought it to be fun to have it on ‘screen always on’ mode – hint: DON’T DO IT) . battery ran out 10 kms before my destination which was ok. My latest addition – my favorite G-Shock. A new one this time – dying to see if they ever release a solar-android-smart-gps-touch G-Shock. I’m sure they will some day!! @applewatch – haha – you can’t even handle water can you ?

2. Military grade back pack – thanks to my sis ! That thing can hold 15 shirts, 3 pairs of pants, and a million other things in a million compartments , and still have room for molle based attachments , very very happy with this latest waterproof possession !!

3. 5-port smart charger – smart variable power charger, 5 devices at the same time into one plug – ipad, G-watch, powerbank, 2 phones, (the camera will have to wait)

4. 10000 mAh sony power bank – this guy saved me today! Turns out that if you use Bluetooth, 4G, WiFi tethering, and have 2 apps accessing GPS, all at the same time, and use your phone camera often, don’t expect your phone to tickle your fancy, it will just switch off in a few hours. Enter the power bank. I used 1.5 times the 3000mah phone battery today with the power bank still halfway. Good stuff !!

5. All devices fully charged – I would be stupid if I didn’t do this.

6. The my tracks app – shows some very fancy stats about your ride. Pic attached.

Intermediate Note to Mr. Bum – I know after the last trip I promised you gel seats and air cushions , but those were not available. You also know that you aren’t in the priority list during a ride, so hang in there, you can crib all you want when I lay you down to rest this evening.

No rain yet, hit the andhra border and things changed very drastically. The highways got smaller, the roadsides got much more greener, the drivers on the road got more arrogant. Still no rain… 250 more kms to go for the day.

Data connectivity went from 4G to 3G to 2G to zero – Zilch, Nothing..

A notable change happened, Hyundai’s and fiat sights changed to S-class mercs and Q7’s.
Our neighbours are filthy rich. As they zoomed past, playing race, I humbly gave way from my WWII design 500 classic, which chugged along, not bothered about the swank passing by.

I could now smell the rain. For the next 100 kms from here, I was just missing rain on the road by a few minutes, the only rain I was getting was a spray from tyres of lorries easing out on the wet tarmac, wet from the rain 5 minutes ago. I was literally chasing the rain.

Reached tiripati. Never been here before. Had always pictured it to be somewhat like vaishnodevi – a small town at the foot of a hill, walk up a few miles to reach the temple. Was nothing like it. Adjacent to the highway was a beautiful ‘half-shaven’ mountain range – almost a cross between monument valley and grand canyon. Ok not the same, but got the feeling somehow. The highway was four lane. Big houses and apartments all around, branded shops… Didn’t take the road to the main temple, stayed on the highway and moved on.
..still chasing the rain showers a few kms behind.

About 20 kms from tirupati, I started seeing a sign board of ‘the MGM grand hotel’. Ok… Is the Vegas mgm grand aware they have a branch here ?? Took a picture and moved on.

From the last few trips, this one is different.. It will be a good 1600 kms before I see a good jungle. It better be worth it, I mean, I’m not riding my a** off (literally) to munch highway miles. Past trips have given me really good forest scenery day 2 onwards. But like I said, it better be worth waiting for those 1600 kms.

Hit a big highway again, 60 kms before nellore. Phew ! The slow traffic had already worn me out in the beginning for some time – after that it almost stopped mattering, maybe rump numbness ?

No rain still..

Most trips when you are alone, there is always a fear in your head – that of something going wrong with your machine – could be something as simple as a bulb failure or you could stall your engine. I guess that is what creates that anxiety and that adventure. Something has to happen – if you are on 2 wheels as opposed to 4 – in the middle of nowhere. Dragging a bike after dark after 300 kms of riding – the thought is enough to get you to get more conscious about your ride, and all the what-ifs running in your head. The only thing you can hold on to is hope. ‘Nuf said – the bike started to slip at the rear end. The worst fears coming true – was it a slow flat tyre ?? I had 18 more kms to go before hitting a town. Wasn’t dark yet, but nevertheless , I would rather have an electrical problem than a flat tyre ! The slips continued every now and then.

I decided not to stop – if it was indeed a tyre slowly going flat, I would rather get closer to a town than waste time pulling over, getting down and wasting precious air.
Turns out, it was nothing – was just the road surface and a paranoid moi put together.

Finally, I reached Nellore. Seems to be big enough to be called a city. And I got my 4G data back ! After 400+ kms of riding today, I was not ready to start hunting for a cheap hotel . Decided I would stay wherever I get a place. After 20 minutes of loafing in this city, found a hotel – a 3-star one, beyond my daily budget, but what the hell… I deserve it. Checked in, went out to look for some nice chilled lager. Decided to have dinner. “When in Nellore, do as the Nellorians do” – have an andhra style chicken curry – 99% chilly -1% chicken. Had it anyway. Was very tasty, but tomorrow morning cannot be good.

Finished dinner and was riding back to get some rest at the hotel before tomorrow’s ride, when a familiar and pleasant smell hit me… In a few minutes from then, I finally struck rain…..