28th February to 19th March 2026

8th January 2026

OK.

It’s about six weeks before we jet off to Delhi for the “Royal Rajasthan” rally and our preparation has begun. The lovely people in The Map Shop delivered our working map of the territory a couple of days ago and clever old Santa delivered a tourist guide so we’re sitting down to sketch out the route and fill in the info on our overnight stops.

Penny is on the wonderweb shopping for replacement suitcases as ours came back from the Namibia trip in very poor condition. They looked as though they had been dropped from very high places and then run over by the luggage delivery trucks. One even had the zipper tags cut away from the locks so we assume that someone was trying to rob us of something valuable. I actually feel sorry (not really) for the perpetrator because the bag they picked was the one full of dirty laundry.

Last weekend Penny picked up some fresh mosquito spray (non deet) and a topical treatment spot pen but yesterday we returned them because the best before dates expired last July.

Next we’ll start laying out clothes and trying to calculate what will be packed where and I’ll have to decide on what camera kit to take.

More soon……………..

Well, we’ve signed up for this huge trip to India. We have experienced “India Light” with our trip to Sri Lanka some time ago and to be honest, I’ve always considered this country with some trepidation. Friends we made on the P2P in 2007 and met again in 2010 on the Orkney & Shetland trip drove across the top of India in 1997 on Philip Young’s first P2P. Jerry recalled that he occasionally he still woke in the middle of the night with cold sweats after that experience. He described the better sections, on nice new, modern dual carriageways like this:

“Imagine a nice straightish bit of road and sharing it with all sorts of other traffic; not just trucks (something to behold from your worst nightmares), cars and motorcycles but whole families, walking, strolling or all mounted on a Honda 50 and using all the lanes, hard shoulders and central reservations. Then again, there are also the donkeys, holy cows and even elephants wandering about as well. Other traffic, well, there’s everything you can imagine, and some more, but not always going in the same direction, on both carriageways at the same time.”

This from the organisers:

“DRIVING IN INDIA
While negotiating the usual lorries and buses you need to keep a sharp eye out for camels, bullock carts, cyclists, Tuk-tuks, pedestrians, motorcycles and even elephants! It’s street life, but not as you know it!.

NEVER A DULL MOMENT
With the aim of providing time to enjoy the countryside, people and history, the rally has ample rest days to accommodate a series of superb activities such as tours of the historic sights of Delhi and other cities, time to walk the Open Air Museum that is Mandawa, a camel ride and dinner under the desert stars in Jaisalmer, a visit to the historic Mehrangarh Fort in Jodhpur and much more.

UDAIPUR
From Udaipur, the City of Lakes, you can visit the ‘Great Wall of India’, take a boat trip on Lake Pichola from your exotic Leela Palace Hotel, or visit the Crystal Gallery in the City Palace, or even inspect the classic car collection of the Maharana of Udaipur.”

I’ll update this page as we get more info.