My motorcycle diaries - The missing NH205

Balan and Nirmal's combined threats to leave me behind if I rode the motorcycle to Goa made me abandon the plan. Although Balan had consented to travelling to Pondicherry on our bikes, he has never had the time since he started to prepare for his k-interviews. Nirmal has vowed never to ask for travel plans ever since I told him that we should ride upto Rameshwaram on a weekend.

The best I could possibly think of to get my bike on to the highway was to sneak out without anyone's knowledge. I managed to do that this good friday. I decided to ride to Kone falls, which is on the way to Tirupati. A 2 minute search on google maps revealed that the falls is in Andhra Pradesh and is about 150 kms from my apartment. My apartment - Mount Road - North Madras - NH5 - NH205 - Kone Falls.

It was more than 25 kms before I crossed Chennai. The 4 laned NH5 is a fantastic road to ride. I could consistently keep the speedometer locked at 90kmph. It is however good to keep an alert foot over the brake as many truck drivers seemed like former pizza delivery boys. They just won't stick to one lane. Lack of trees on the highway also meant that it was very windy for a comfortable ride in some sections.

Unlike Karnataka, the signboards were in English. Infact it was hard to find jelabis. However, the signboards were few and very hard to find. The NH205 never came and I realised at one point that I was travelling quite close to Nellore.

I thanked myself for having honed my 'objective' language skills during the trip to Goa and Hampi. "Tirupati". "Kone Falls". "Falls". All fingers pointed to the direction I had driven from. All fingers pointed to Tada. I did not know that there existed a place called Tada and I did not know there was a falls in Tada. It was the Ubbalamadugu falls - around 20 kms off the highway through mud roads and boulders; plus a trek up the mountains.



I skipped the trek. I had not eaten since the night before and a 5 km trek on a man-less jungle didn't seem the right thing to do. The stream that trickled from the falls was good enough for a splash.


The journey back home was much quicker until I was close to Chennai and when it began to rain. It was supposedly the heaviest rain in many Aprils. I was wet to the skin and the raincoat didn't help at all.

Back at home, I skipped gym for the day, hogged 2 days' meals in one go and headed to bed; wondering how I missed the 205.