Uttar Pradesh: from a once-in-a-generation festival to tiger tracking in an ancient forest

Soak up the state's rich culture on one of Explorations Company's specially curated tours

A bearded man in an orange turban and orange robes sitting cross-legged in India
(Image credit: Nicole Lovett)

There's really only one way to arrive at the largest religious gathering on planet earth: on the back of a motorcycle.

Our mode of transport wasn't a matter of arriving in style (although there was a cinematic feel to it) but pure necessity. Some 660 million pilgrims journeyed to the banks of the River Ganges over 44 days during Kumbh Mela, the religious Hindu festival we had come to witness – although as we moved with the swirling currents of an almost endless sea of ox carts, motorcycles and pilgrims on foot, it seemed like everyone had arrived all at once.

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 Sorcha Bradley is a writer at The Week and a regular on “The Week Unwrapped” podcast. She worked at The Week magazine for a year and a half before taking up her current role with the digital team, where she mostly covers UK current affairs and politics. Before joining The Week, Sorcha worked at slow-news start-up Tortoise Media. She has also written for Sky News, The Sunday Times, the London Evening Standard and Grazia magazine, among other publications. She has a master’s in newspaper journalism from City, University of London, where she specialised in political journalism.