As the world learns to live with coronavirus, we at India Cycling Tours are upping our game to bring you a Covid-safe Biking Tour of Rajasthan.
The pandemic has been hard on everyone, not least the travellers and adventurers for whom staying put in their houses for months might have felt nothing short of serving a sentence. But just as absence makes the heart grow fonder, the lack of travel, for sure, must have whetted your hunger to go out, wander, and explore. What’s more, this hunger is now spiked with a newfound appreciation for life that a long period of crises usually begets, making it the right time to step out and hit the roads less travelled.
Our newly-designed Rajasthan biking tour answers that call of the adventure buff in you. While ticking all the boxes of the Covid-safety measures, it takes you on the rarely explored Cycling trails of Rajasthan so that you get to appreciate the beauty of this land of royals from a fresh perspective.
Why Rajasthan, you may ask? The answers are many. Rajasthan tops the wishlist of national as well as international tourists. Also, it has a terrain that – for the most part – makes for easy cycling, but a few uphill slogs surely put your biking mettle to the test. Moreover, Rajasthan gives you a cultural experience of India like no other state does. It has any number of ancient royal forts and palaces, museums and temples, historic towns and villages.
Put briefly, cycling in Rajasthan is more than just a biking expedition. It’s a cultural holiday too.
The landscape is bewitching, to say the least. The Aravalli mountain range, which is older than the mighty Himalayas, cuts Rajasthan diagonally from north to south, creating a sort of rain shadow region to its west, where one finds the Great Thar Desert and vast arid plains. The land to the east of the Aravalli range is fertile and watered each year with the monsoon rains. In the south, dozens of beautiful and interconnected lakes make Udaipur the veritable Venice of India. Not far, the hill station of Mount Abu is a big draw for vacationers. Up in the north, the cities of Jaipur and Jodhpur boast historical monuments and colourful residential houses. With so much to explore, you can bike across Rajasthan without ever having a dull moment.
Before the coronavirus pandemic put the tourism industry on a slippery slope, our Rajasthan biking tours used to touch all the important travel hotspots and biking trails of the region. Now, in light of the pandemic and social-distancing requirements, we have tweaked our itinerary to strike off crowded cities and towns from our Short cycling trips of Rajasthan. What we rather focus on is the vast countryside with its quiet villages and remote biking trails that wind through a gorgeous landscape. These hamlets and settlements are a window to the simple lives of traditional people who live within their meagre means, but are so full of joie de vivre.
Unless we deem it absolutely safe from the Covid point of view, we will avoid the city of Udaipur, which was previously the starting point of our Rural Rajasthan cycling trip. At the most, we will overnight there and then hit the road to Kumbhalgarh, famous for its hilltop fort. It is here, on the road approaching the fort, you get the first experience of the challenges that Rajasthan biking trails throw at you. The ride up is steep and lasts several kilometres, but it is the best workout your legs get on this tour.
Social distancing shouldn’t be a problem at the Kumbhalgarh Fort, and after overnighting at a nearby hotel we leave in the morning for the town of Ranakpur, famous for its Jain Temple with exquisite marble carvings and statuary. The temple visit will depend on the crowds there, but even from a distance you can appreciate the aesthetic beauty of its sculptures and stonemasonry. Ranakpur onwards, our Cycling tour of Ranakpur Rajasthan cuts into the rural heartland
We first cycle into the village of Korta whose inhabitants belong to the age-old Rabari sect. The men of the sect are camel herders and they often wander away from the village in search of greener pastures. The women wear distinctive black headscarves and heavy brass earrings. After a night’s stay at Korta, we head to Bhenswara, a quiet village on the northern bank of the Jawai river. Another 65-km bike ride on the following day takes us to Bhadrajun, a village with a folklore that dates back to the days of The Mahabharata. This rural settlement is surrounded on three sides by hills, and can be approached and exited from one side only.
At this juncture of our Rajasthan biking adventure, we are close to the city of Jodhpur and may overnight in its suburbs or in a less crowded part of the city. We may even go out sightseeing some of the landmarks where social distancing can be maintained. Our next destination from Jodhpur is Jaipur, some 350 km away, of which we cover 60 km on our bikes and the rest by a cab. Jaipur, like Jodhpur, is a sprawling city necessitating great caution on our part. In normal times, it’s a bustling tourist hotspot and we may visit some of its attractions, only if things look favourable, else we move on to Ranthambore for close encounters with wildlife at the Ranthambore National Park. Tiger safaris at this park have been a hit with our clients and we may even sneak in an extra day’s stay here if you fancy birdwatching.
We end our cycling tour of Rajasthan with a visit to the Taj Mahal in the neighbouring state of Uttar Pradesh. After being shut down for months because of the coronavirus pandemic, the historic monument is now open to tourists, and the good news is that the number of daily visitors is kept to a minimum for the reasons of social distancing. With a thin crowd, watching this monument of love, one of the seven modern wonders of the world, should be a special treat.
All through your Rajasthan biking holiday, we take Covid-safety measures with unfailing punctiliousness. Your bikes are disinfected twice daily. The routes we choose have little traffic to bother you. The hotels we stay in follow strict hygiene standards. Social distancing is never compromised with, be it on the road or in the hotels.
In short, our Rajasthan cycling tour is a safe bet for you to come out of isolation and explore the world anew.
