Indian fort

The best period to visit the Indian subcontinent lies roughly between October and February, when the weather is at its coolest and driest. Thereafter it starts to hot up to oppressive levels. By June the monsoon arrives, sweeping from the south western coast and heading northwards by late July. The monsoon brings angry skies and short but heavy bursts of rain, flooding and muddifying the streets, but it does at least temporarily alleviate the extreme heat of the season.

The monsoon dries up in October, when the country as a whole starts to cool off for the “Indian winter”. Northernmost parts during December and January can become surprisingly cool, and the edge is taken off the tropical heat of the south.

My plan – or rather, lack of it – is for me to head off in April, nigh-on the peak of the unrelenting heat of the Indian summer. I’ll then try to loop around some of the southern part – especially the beaches – and then flee the monsoon before it gets a grip on the area, heading north. At some point the monsoon will catch me up, but seeing as I’m from Britain, it won’t bother me too much. I’m used to rain.