Why a cycling river cruise is the best way to explore incredible India

Mine starts in Kolkata, where I meet the group to spend an afternoon discovering the city’s colonial legacy on a walking tour among grandiose buildings dating from India’s period under the British Raj, before our 90-minute flight to Jorhat the following morning.

Racking up the miles

From here we join our rustic floating home, the 20-passenger riverboat Charaidew, and are soon acquainted with shiny new bikes which, over the next week, we ride through tea plantations and across paddy fields, under the shadow of the Himalayan mountains on the distant horizon.

In total, we cover nearly 100 miles, pumping pedals along tarmac roads and bone-shakingly bumpy dirt tracks, setting off early to capitalise on the Indian winter’s cool February mornings that remind me of an English spring day, with temperatures warming up nicely by the time we stop for lunch.

Our two-wheeled outings become immersive adventures as we ride on dusty roads through villages where locals, who have never encountered Western tourists, emerge from their houses to stare in some bemusement at us, but smile and respond in kind when we call out the Assamese greeting “namaskar”. 

There are cycle rides on five of the seven days covering up to 25 miles, with two welcome rest days when I ease my aching muscles. Unlike my companions, two American couples and a 69-year-old from New Mexico, I’m not a cycling regular though am thankfully fit enough to be able to keep up – just.

This is clearly not a trip for anyone who isn’t in reasonable shape, though there is a handy support vehicle where riders can hitch a lift if it all becomes too much, and it’s definitely worth investing in padded cycling shorts to avoid becoming agonisingly saddle-sore.

Local colour

Our non-cycling days are spent relaxing on the river, which in some places is so wide it resembles a lake, the muddy waters interspersed with vast, sand islands that vanish under the Brahmaputra’s famous floods when the summer monsoon season takes hold.

Our guide, Swaleh, takes us onto one of the islands to meet the 1,000-strong community of Muslim families, descended from Bangladeshi settlers, who’ve made their homes here despite the somewhat precarious existence.

Trips into nearby towns bring the lure of local markets where I snap up ridiculously cheap silk scarves and dresses, while an absorbing game drive through the Pobitora Wildlife Sanctuary adds thrills when we spy rare one-horned rhinos and grazing elephants.

But it’s the Brahmaputra that is the lifeblood of this adventure, and our daily routine on Charaidew is informal and relaxed, revolving around mealtimes which our large, shared table ensures are sociable occasions.

With hearty appetites from biking, we devour the tasty line-up of Assamese curries (toned down for Western tastes) and lentil dals served morning, noon and night. Admittedly, after a week of the same diet, I’m hankering for a change, although this doesn’t apply to the cycling where every ride brings incredible new sights: scampering monkeys, colourful lines of saris strung out to dry and ladies painstakingly weaving threads on long handlooms.

But more than that, it lifts the curtain on a way of life so far removed from my own it becomes utterly mesmerising.

Book it: Ponders Travel offers a 10-night package with Grasshopper Adventures, departing 30 January 2023, based on Air India flights via New Delhi and costing from £4,727pp. The price also includes the one-week sailing from Jorhat to Guwahati, an overnight stay in Kolkata pre-cruise and domestic flight to Jorhat; ponderstravel.co.uk