Lockdown made all of us a bit lazy and extrovert personality individuals would want to venture out. This is when a trip was born where we 4 started exploring probable dates and route to explore any state of India on a Bicycle and that too a road bicycle.
After numerous discussions, we narrowed down to the state of Rajasthan and this state, the Land of Kings is weather friendly during the 4 months of winter.
Our dates freeze were 27th Nov to 05th Dec. Kiran Patel, Jaykishan Nair (JK), Swati Sablok and Santosh Subudhi were the cyclists who decided to explore Rajasthan on Bicycle covering approximately 700-800 Kms in 9 days. Before the trip JK was in Kerala, Kiran in Kutch, Swati in Ludhiana and Santosh in Mumbai. Santosh could not join the trip due to a last minute office conference in Vienna.
Pre-ride preparation:
1. Preparation of the route: We used mapmyride website to create routes with expectation of cycling 125 Kms to 150 Kms every day. We hired a local driver who would carry luggage and Bicycle rack for emergency.
2. Preparation of the trip: An ideal luggage would be carrying all items related to Bicycle, its spare, nutrition and off trip days.
3. Flight/Hotel: Air-India allows you to carry oversize luggage Bicycle Box and 25 Kgs of check in luggage and 8 Kgs of cabin luggage. Hotels chosen by us in Jaipur, Jodhpur and Pushkar were Zostel and local hotels in other towns.
27-Nov-2021 Saturday: Day 1: Settling down in Jaipur.
Kiran, Swati and JK reached Jaipur city by Saturday afternoon. We checked in Zostel and left for Lunch at the famous LMB. While returning, we saw Hawa Mahal, shopping on local streets and having the famous kesar tea. The second half of day went by in removing our Bicycle from the boxes, assembling them and doing a short 2 Kms recce to see if everything is working fine.
28-Nov-2021 Sunday: Day 2: Kick starting ride from Jaipur.
We all 3 got up early at 4.30 and got ready and were down by 5.15 am to officially start our Cycling tour. Zostel team were kind enough to keep our Bicycle boxes till we return back on 04th Dec.
We cycled 150 Kms from Jaipur to Laxmangarh via Chomu, Ringas and Sikar. The route was pretty rolling with 433m of elevation gain. The last 30 Kms of ride was quite challenging post lunch. Laxmangarh did not had good hotel options, hence we settled down in Ratangarh at Hotel Anokhi Hut.
29-Nov-2021 Monday: Day 3: Reaching Bikaner.
Following the routine, we got up early and started getting ready to cycle and reach Bikaner. JK tyre had a pinch puncture, hence replaced the tube and started cycling.
We cycled 136 Kms reaching The prince haveli hotel in Bikaner via Sri Dungargarh and the route was pretty rolling and downhill towards the end of the route. Post check in and late lunch we explored Junagarh fort and a local cafe which served world's longest french fries.
30-Nov-2021 Tuesday: Day 4: Enroute Karni Mata Temple and reaching Khimsar.
Starting from the small streets of Bikaner, we set foot to cycle towards Jodhpur and will be visiting Karni Mata Temple at Deshnok. The temple is famous for house to 1000 of rat inside the premises supposed to bloods relative of Karni Mata. Post darshan, we set foot to cycle towards the town of Nokha. This stretch was pretty undulating and we were gaining elevation. We cycled 150 Kms and stopped at Khimsar and finally settled down on the outskirts of Jodhpur city. The cover photo of this blog is also from the remote area of desert roads, most ideally to be tagged as no man's land.
01-Dec-2021 Wednesday: Day 5: Touch base in Jodhpur and exploring the Blue City
Today we got up late since we were going to explore the blue city of Jodhpur. We started late around 11 am and cycled 7 Kms to reach the narrow streets navigating and reaching Zostel Jodhpur near Toorji ka Jhalra. Day ended with special chai opposite ghanta ghar and exploring local market and cuisine.
02-Dec-2021 Thursday: Day 6: Exploring the Blue City continued.
Today we cycled early morning and explored various tourist spot on Bicycle. Swati rear tyre had a puncture and Kiran had a fall on Mehrangad climb. Overall the day was pretty well exploring Umaid bhavan, the mighty Mehrangad fort and shopping behind ghanta ghar for Jooti. We also wasted 2 hours in searching a lab for RT PCR and actually doing the test inspite of double vacciation since flying rules to Mumbai were changing every few hours.
03-Dec-2021 Friday: Day 7: Reaching Pushkar.
Today we started cycling early morning to Pushkar, however the distance was quite far and we decided to pack up before lunch so that we get adequate time to explore Pushkar.
We cycled 113 Kms from Jodhpur to Mohrae and took a final break. Enroute we had lovely local cuisines and further remote routes. Post pack up in Mohrae, we went in car to Pushkar and explored the local market and Brahma temple. Here also we had booked Zostel Pushkar.
04-Dec-2021 Saturday: Day 8: Reaching Jaipur.
No cycling day means getting up late and relaxing. Leave pushkar city by having famous Ghevar and enroute have famous parathas.
Swati left us and went to meet her relatives in Jaipur. Kiran and JK dropped the luggage and bicycles at Zostel. We left in local transport to visit Amer Fort and Jagmandir. Evening buffet at Choki Dhani. Last hours of the day went in packing up our Bicycles in boxes for flights.
05-Dec-2021 Sunday: Day 9: Reaching Mumbai.
Took a flight to Mumbai and reached home. We left early from hotel since Home Minister Mr. Amit Shah was going to travel from Jaisalmer to Jaipur and traffic restrictions would soon kick start. Overall we cycled 600 Kms and explored 50% of Rajasthan with still untouched portions of Jaisalmer, Pokhran, Udaipur, etc. Until then. Here are 2 vidoes from Jk which visualises everthing written of the 9 days tour. Link 1 and Link 2 . Hope you liked the blog.