Watching birds isn't really my thing but the Keoladeo National Park is reputed to be one of the best bird sanctuaries in the World: it seemed worth a day's exploration. It's a very good place to escape the masses of people in the big cities (Agra, Delhi) and to be able to wander around, or cycle, is just wonderful.

Today we spent eight hours, with a guide, spotting birds and looking for a nice big Indian Rock Python to take a photo of.  We found one quite soon after feeding turtles and Macaque monkeys are the Hindu temple in the park.

If you listen to what people say about the place you HAVE to get there very early to see any activity at all. We arrived at 10am and thought we'd only last a couple of hours but the heat wasn't too bad as there was a lovely breeze cooling us down. We saw bird after bird after bird including Ibis(es?), Storks, Owls, Eagles and many, many more. Our guide was very good at spotting and brought along a pair of binoculars and a spotting scope on a tripod for us to use.

Now yesterday at the Taj Mahal I managed to hold myself back and only took 100 photos, but today, I just couldn't help myself and shot a few hundred - they're probably all rubbish but I MUST have got at least one good one. Thanks to the guys in my team at work I took virtually all the photos using my new monopod that they bought me this last Christmas; it was brilliant and I couldn't have done without it.

Unfortunately the Rainbow Cyber Cafe here in sleepy old Bharatpur has done a good job of hiding ths USB slots on the PC so I can't upload any of the images without risking thumbling in the dark and switching the PC off! But keep any eye on the Winchcombe Gallery at www.winchcombe.org/gallery.aspx for some India photos: I'll upload when I can.

We're staying at the Hotel Sunbird, which is really nice albeit quite simple. Food is pretty good at 90 rupees (£1.30) for a nice curry; naans come in at a hefty Rs30 (£0.45).

Tomorrow we're off to Jaipur (3.5 hours by car) to see the Amber Fort and hopefully we'll get to ride an elephant.

Today, after a single night in Delhi, recovering after the flight, we started our trip properly and headed off to Agra, the home of the Taj Mahal.

Agra is often regarded as a place you visit only to see the Taj Mahal and get the hell out. But it's steeped in history (and dirt) and played a major part in the Mughal empire. There's wonderful moments to see here; The Agra Fort; Itmad-Ud-Daulah (affectionately known as the Baby Taj); Akbar's Tomb at Sikandra and more more.

We're travelling in a Tata Sumo, a seven seater 4x4, provided by Namaste India Tours who are also sorting out the hotels for tonight and the next 8 saving us the hassle of having to find one when arriving in unfamiliar surroundings.

After four hours in our car dodging autorickshaws, very large trucks, camels and cows we arrived at our hotel (for the next 18 hours). Then straight out to visit the Agra Fort - which for me is possibly the best fort I've ever visited: if the fort wasn't good enough the view down the river Yamuna of the Taj Mahal is simply stunning.

Tomorrow will be an early start so we can catch the Taj Mahal during sunrise which is 06:11am (eek!) so I guess we'll need to get up at 5am to get there, get tickets and get through security in time to watch the world's most beautiful monument bask in the early rays of sunshine.

With less than a week to go things are getting pretty exciting in this house - as if they weren't already: the planning for this trip has been going on for ages.

I've just finished the Where In The World page on the blog with options to view a static or animated version of the route and also(by default) you can see where we are. Each city/place we're stopping at has a map marker which you can click on get more information including links to Wikipedia, Flickr, the weather and (if I ever get to upload any pictures) my gallery.

Today is the only day available for getting things together and loosely packing up the suitcases/rucsacks. The obvious plan was to travel light but things like this never seem to happen and it's mainly my fault; what with the two cameras, three lenses, monopod, camcorder, chargers, DSs, flash readers. The medical kit also outweighs both kids by 2 to 1. Luckily though our concern about the kids getting ill has meant that Dioralyte and Imodium WILL survive the credit crunch.

Tonight, without phoning a friend or asking the audience I'll be watching Slumdog Millionaire for the third time. Oh no, of course, I can't do that, it's not out on DVD yet.

Luckily, England has a fascination of India and this extends into our television programmes, including documentaries about cities/wildlife/travel/religion/gardens and children's educational programmes.

So armed with a Windows Media Center that will record any programme containing (in it's title or description) the words 'India', 'Rajasthan', 'Tiger' and 'Maha'*, we've ended up with loads to watch over the last nine months or so. Some of this is very good stuff for the kids, others not.

• Firstly, there's a wealth of regular programmes that have 10 minutes on India. Usually not very informative, they're still worth watching. This include holiday programmes like Holiday Showdown and other holiday shows, one-off wildlife documentaries.
• Primary Geography is a series of 10-15 minute children's educational programmes all about kids in India. There's an overview programme, one about Kerala, one about Rajasthan and many more. The Rajasthan one included footage of a boy who lived in the area near Sam/Khuri desert and another part featuring the niece of the current Maharaja of Jodphur.
• Paul Merton In India was quite a good series where Paul saw some of the more unusual/eccentric elements of the country. I thought it was done quite well as at he always promoted the activities with an open eye, daunted at first, respectful at the end.
• Tiger, Spy In The Jungle was a series following tigers within Pench Tiger Reserve in Maharastra. As with all BBC and Sir David Attenborough the quality and content are superb.
• India with Sanjeev Bhaskar. For me the jury is out on this one and it's interesting that the first site I found (linked in on the left) felt the same way. I like Sanjeev as a comedian but as a documentary lead I just found him a bit too up himself. Unlike, Merton, he didn't seem to want to get too close to the locals, apart from when he was retracing his ancestry to Pakistan. Still, there's great footage includingn interesting time spotting tigers, in Pench, where it took him two weeks to find a tiger. Funnily enough this series was shown on TV at the same time as Tiger Spy In The Jungle, so perhaps Sanjeev should have followed Sir David around, he may have had better luck.
• Michael Wood The Story Of India. A bit too old for the kids but we showed them the more interesting parts.

The BBC has a list of India & Pakistan related shows, most of which are finished but are bound to be repeated.

I thoroughly enjoyed most of the TV shows listed above too, but I was on a roll with the title 'Preparing The Kids' so I couldn't rename it halfyway through!!!

* keyword of Maha was included just in case Mahabharata ever turned up again on telly. Having read the book in 1996 it's never been back on TV.

If truth be told, step 2 started way before step 1. If  it didn't how would you ever know where to fly to? When I mean way before, step 2 probably started 12 months before the trip start date, step 1 was some six months later.

Picking a region of India is difficult but for first time travellers it oftens falls to either Goa, Kerala or Rajasthan. I certainly don't class myself as a traveller and I've been to all three first-timer options but that was back in 1996 and 1997 and now...I'll be travelling with kids in tow.

Although I'd seen Jaipur, Agra and Delhi before - and Jane had done Udaipur, Jodhpur and Jaisalmer in 1989 - we decided that Rajasthan would be the destination. We worked out that 25 days was the most that a family with a part-time teacher could get away for at Easter time and we set about deciding which places to see.

The list of places is shown on the Where In The World page and it leaves us with only one regret: Jaisalmer isn't on the list. Unfortunately there's only so much time available and although we could have easily fitted in Jaisalmer we would have had to skimp on other places and travel further. With the kids we decided that we'd keep the travelling down to an acceptable number of hours (4 or 5) a day.