Day 2

Today we can prepare for the Challenge ahead. Following breakfast at our Hotel, we’ll set up our bikes ready for our ride! Today is also a great opportunity to make sure we’re well rested and beginning to adjust to the new time zone, ready for the start tomorrow. For those that wish to, there’ll also be an opportunity to explore the fascinating back lanes of Old Delhi. This evening, we’ll have one last briefing before we set off to conquer Rajasthan by bicycle!

Day 3

Following breakfast, we’ll drive for 3 or 4 hours to our start point just past Singhana. From here we cycle to Jhunjhunu, the gateway to the Shekawati Region on flat, well surfaced roads. As we cycle away from the main road the beginnings of the Great Thar Desert come in to view, interspersed with the rolling green Khertri Hills. Tonight we stay in mud-walled luxury, a modern hotel built the old fashioned way, with yoga lessons and a swimming pool on hand to relieve those aches and pains!

Cycling distance – 45km

Day 4

Today we cycle from Jhunjhunu to Mahansar, along quiet rural roads unaccustomed to heavy traffic. Once there we’ll have the chance to wander around this fascinating town, with opportunities to visit a Hindu temple, one of the best preserved of the region’s havelis and a spectacular ballroom, hugely evocative of the excesses of a bygone era. Tonight we stay in a Fawlty Towerseque, 500 room, old fort, with charming hosts, amazing food and home distilled schnapps.

Cycling distance – 50km

Day 5

Our cycling today takes us through stunning desert landscapes to Nawalgarh, stopping in Mukandgarh, one of the region’s premier fort hotels, for lunch. If time allows we can have a ride round Nawalgarh before the sun sets, taking in some of the towns many spectacular old buildings. We spend the night in luxurious mud-walled rooms on an eco farm serving home produced organic food, and owned by one of the region’s most enthusiastic cyclists!

Cycling distance – 75 km

Day 6

We push on, cycling to Danta through the biggish town of Sikar and then on through a succession of classic Rajasthani villages, well away from the established tourist routes. In Danta we stay in a completely untouched old fort in the middle of a fascinating town, once home to the Maharaja of the entire surrounding area.

Cycling distance - 80km

Day 7

Today we continue our cycling Challenge and bike to Sambhar Salt Lake, approached through the Aravalli Hills. As we approach the lake mounds of stunningly white salt will come in to view, and then the lakes from which it’s extracted, looking like paddy fields in a desert! This is one of the more remote and less inhabited areas of Rajasthan, the landscape flat all the way to the horizon, beautifully barren. Tonight we camp in the middle of a vast expanse of dry lake, at least 20 miles wide!

Cycling distance - 60 km

Day 8

Following breakfast, we don our helmets one last time and cycle to Pachhewar, a flat route on well surfaced roads. There we’ll have lunch to celebrate completing our challenge in the grounds of a beautiful fort, once home to the Maharaja of Pachhewar and now a boutique hotel before boarding our coach for the short drive to Jaipur- locally known as the pink city.

Once in Jaipur we’ll settle in to our hotel before enjoying a suitably celebratory dinner!

Cycling distance - 70km

Day 9

The morning will be free to either sightsee, shop or recover from the night before! After lunch we’ll head by coach to Bharatpur, where we should have time for a visit to the world famous bird sanctuary before the sun goes down.

Day 10

An early start to make sure we get to the incomparable Taj Mahal soon after dawn, when the light on the white marble of this extraordinary building is simply spectacular. From there, we transfer directly to Delhi Airport for our flights home.

Day 11

Arrive UK.