This time I wanted no adventures. My heart was not in real India. It had an agenda and that was to get to Auroville spending as few nights as possible, preferably in trouble free Dhabas. In Puri I learned that there was a new dual carriageway all the way down to Pondicherry - Bliss! Set off at the crack of dawn. When I made it to the dual carriageway, it appeared the second lane was still to be under construction and alternated carriageways much of the time. In many stretches, they were constructing one carriageway, but they hadn't even bothered to repair the first. Towns were not bypassed.

Nonetheless I was making great progress until lunchtime of day 2 when the bike wouldn't start. A mechanic started it without a word of explanation, but it stalled again just outside a hot village That mechanic tried to overcharge me and wouldn't look me in the eyes when he assured me the problem was fixed - it seemed to be.

I decided since the road was actual dual carriageway at this spot, to have another go at night driving, then I could still get to Auroville by the third night, but just as I was looking for a dhaba, the bike fell out of gear, and wouldn't engage. I got a tow and after changing the clutch plates, a sheared drive pin was diagnosed. I was thankful to hear the guy reckoned he could fix it in the night. I couldn't believe it. That pin's only job was not to shear! How badly designed could it be?

He couldn't buy the parts till morning, so I lost over half a day. I was rushing to avoid spending filthy nights in boring dhabas, and to start my new life in Auroville as quickly as possible. The third night it rained. I was half under a palm shelter and got rather damp. Then just before dawn it rained again, and everything got soaked. I sat there smoking a despondant rolly wondering if I was to spend the whole day in that dhaba, but they found me a dry charpoi and I was on the road by 10. The road in one town I went through after the rain was so bad they were building a bridge over it. It was just rubble and craters filled with water, and all the traffic inching along not knowing how deep the craters were, splashing everything with orange slush. I wish I had a photographer present to document the state of the National Highway at points like this.

At Madras it started to rain again, but only soaked my map before I got under cover, and it stopped after lunch. Then I had an hour of traffic jams to contend to, and suddenly I was on the beach road to Pondi. This road wasn't on the map, it was two new empty lanes, for the whole remaining 130km -which just saved the day! After dark of the fourth day I arrived in Auroville - SO happy to be there.