Spiti Valley Circuit: Reckong Peo to Kaza

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. Reckong Peo

   Reckong Peo is the district headquarters of Kinnaur, in the Indian state of Himachal Pradesh, and it sits on the old Hindustan-Tibet Road, a route that clings to the walls of the Sutlej gorge. The town is at roughly 2,700 metres, among apple orchards and pine, and the peak that dominates the view is Kinner Kailash, a rocky, glittering mountain of about 6,000 metres that is sacred to Hindus and Buddhists. On a clear morning the first light on its flanks is something to see.

   Read the complete Reckong Peo write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Reckong Peo is where the day begins. Next is Nako.

2. 2. Nako

   Nako is a village you reach after a day of mountain road, and you feel the effort as soon as you arrive. It lies at about 3,600 metres in the Hangrang valley of Kinnaur, in Himachal Pradesh, close to the border with Tibet. The village is built of stone and timber and clings to a hillside above a small lake, with willow and poplar trees around its edge and the great peak of Reo Purgyil standing in the distance, more than 6,700 metres high.

   Read the complete Nako write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Nako comes up about 101 km into the recorded legs. Next is Kaza.

3. 3. Kaza

   Spiti means the middle land, the place between India and Tibet, and Kaza is its capital in the way that a cluster of low whitewashed buildings in a very large landscape can be a capital. It lies at about thirty-eight hundred metres on the bank of the Spiti river, in a wide valley of grey and ochre mountains with almost no trees, where the sky is a hard dark blue and the air is thin and dry. The climate is cold desert, with snow in winter and little rain in summer, and the people live by barley, peas and yak herding, and by the monasteries that have shaped life here for a thousand years.

   Read the complete Kaza write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   The route ends here after 211 km.