Category Archives: 2009 Indian Himalayas Cycle Trip

The Indian Himalayas are indeed a spectacle, each day has been filled with impossibly beautiful landscapes that always seemed to get better.  We covered just over 2500km crossing 12 passes, 4 of which were over 5000m. In their enormity they … Continue reading →

Zanskar valley, one of the more isolated and remote areas of Ladakh that has retained much of the Ladakhi (Zanskari) tradition. We cycled amoungst the giants of the Indian Himalayas – Nun and Kun (over 7000m) and alongside the snouts … Continue reading →

  The amazing salt water Pang gong Tso (lake) is around 20km long and 4km wide and is shared at by India and Tibet at an icey 4200m. We stayed with Chongchuk and Tsering at their modest little house in the … Continue reading →

Imposingly the Leh Palace is built on a crag overlooking the town, above it a little gompa (monastry) is perched, almost lonely against the vast blu, cloud-puffed sky. Below the old city, densely built, slowy crumbles and decays. The main … Continue reading →

After an extraordinary  2 weeks that took us out of the incredible Spiti Valley to rejoin the main route to Ladakh, the Manali Leh highway. We have crossed passes over 5300m, slept in roadside dhabbas (truck-stop tents), missed a shower … Continue reading →

From Spiti we crossed our first high pass, the Kunzum-la (4600m) and enjoyed the change from high altitude desert to cascading waterfalls, grassy slopes and snow peaks in the distance. The wild Chandra river and precipitous drop-offs kept us on … Continue reading →

The Spiti valley lies close to the Tibetan border following the Tibetan Hindustan Highway. It  is an amazing landscape in its strange starkness. Scree slopes, narrow gorges, raw rock and the raging Sutlej River below in a desert like dry … Continue reading →