This turned out to be a 2,357 km. Ride with 22 days in the saddle and it was hot, heatwave conditions at around 42 degrees Celsius in the daytime. Immediately after entering Uttar Pradesh from Nepal I went on smaller roads as much as I could for the subsequent couple of weeks (until Maharashtra) and it was most rewarding.
My experience is probably very familiar to any long distance cycle tourist and it goes like this: “Where are you from,?, where are you coming from, where are you going? Or some variation of the above, and in my case, “how old are you?” Of course everyone is amazed at 74. Seems normal to me…..
Of course sometimes conversations are more interesting and sometimes people ask what is fir me the most interesting but difficult question- why are you doing this? To make it simple I usually reply something involving “sports”, which it in some ways is.
Has the selfie craze passed? I am the first to report it. In rural U.P. And M.P. It seems to be over……or hasn’t it reached yet? In any case it seemed like I wasn’t as constantly asked if i could stop for selfie. Maybe I’m not desireable enough to be on a selfie… i hope so…
I chose my route down from Nepal, through the flat but beautiful Gangetic plain into the Vindhyachal range and Bundelkhand, a beautiful part of India that I had only passed through years ago in a car.
For me this trip was a huge challenge and I guess that is in part because of my age (74) but also because it is a tough long distance. I have 2 major advantages- one is fluency in Hindi/Urdu and the other is my Maharashtran driver’s license.
I literally spoke only Hindi my entire trip and I am glad that English seems to have disappeared in the Hindi heartland.
The Maharashtran driver’s license was impotant because with that I did not have to show my passport which sometimes can cause a problem with the cursed “C” form.
My kind of cycle touring is minimalist. I like being able to ride my gravel bike not in racing mode, but sporting mode.
I have been a “Warmshowers” host for the past couple of years and have had many long distance cycling guests.
Their travel has been different from mine and my respect for them is unbounded. They, generally, and often Germans or Swiss carry a huge amount of kit, and of course the camping/cooking gear. They have also usually crossed Europe, the Caucuses, Iran, Pakistan with variations.- and i have utmost respect for their journeys which often also involves camping, cooking, and cold weather provisions.
I met one other long distance cyclist and that was Vijay Ghichare in Nagpur who has done 35,000 kms. on his bicycle. 
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