The Royal Rajasthan Ride

Another rest day for the Hippie Trail cyclists! After stage 12, we reached Udaipur, the Lake City, and the end to the first section of the Hippie Trail – Royal Rajasthan Ride. A lot of people are just chilling by the pool as I write, the weather is perfect and this trip couldn’t get any better than it already is.

We had one last day in the Thar Desert, and the landscape had become a little bit dull after many days riding it. But make no mistake, interesting things are always bound to happen in India. So Barrister James, during one of the (many) chai breaks, happened upon a group of his Indian peers sitting at a road-side chai stall just across a courthouse. Before we knew it, several of us were invited to tour the courthouse and the local jail!

Stage 11 brought a much needed change in landscape: finally some climbing and verdant, green hills riddled with monkeys which kept us company during lunch. We spent the night in a scenic location, Kumbhalgar, and then rode beautiful hills peppered with rice paddies, barley and sugarcane fields.

As we were having lunch, we spotted a lone cyclist on the wrong side of the road. Before we knew it he joined us: JJ made a surprise appearance unbeknownst to his family members and Emily and Jean were blown away: a great Valentine’s gift.

In Udaipur, we bid farewell to four fantastic people: Allison, Jonathan, Ronald and Sunita. You’ll be missed but we hope that someday, somewhere, our cycling paths will cross again!