Spiti Valley Circuit

Scenic road chapters

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. Shimla

   Shimla is where the British came to escape the heat of the plains, and it still has the look of a Surrey town that took a wrong turn into the Himalaya. Built along a ridge at roughly twenty-two hundred metres, with pine and cedar trees and rows of red-roofed houses, it served as the summer capital of British India, and decisions affecting hundreds of millions of people were made here between May and October. The Ridge, an open promenade in the centre, is lined with Christ Church, a pale yellow neo-Gothic building of the 1850s, and the Mall, a long shopping street, runs alongside. Vehicles are restricted on the Mall and the Ridge, so you will park below and walk up.

   Read the complete Shimla write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

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

2. 2. 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 comes up about 222 km into the recorded legs. Next is Nako.

3. 3. 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

   about 333 km into the recorded legs you reach Nako. Next is Kaza.

4. 4. 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

   Kaza, about halfway. Next is Kunzum Pass.

5. 5. Kunzum Pass

   At 4,551 metres, Kunzum Pass is the gate between two worlds. On one side lies Lahaul, with the Chandra river and the green fringes of the Himalayan monsoon. On the other side lies Spiti, a high, dry cold desert where the mountains are bare and brown, the sky is absurdly blue, and villages sit in oases on the valley floor. The pass is the only road link between the two valleys, and it is closed by snow for much of the year, usually opening around June and shutting again by October or earlier.

   Read the complete Kunzum Pass write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   Kunzum Pass sits at 388 km, late in the day. Nothing on this route is higher. Next is Manali, mostly downhill.

6. 6. Manāli

   Manāli is where the plains give up and the Himalaya begins in earnest. The town sits in the Kullu valley in Himachal Pradesh, on the banks of the Beas, among deodar forests and apple orchards, with snow peaks rising behind. Old Manali, across the river, is the quieter half, a tangle of lanes, wooden houses and cafes, and in the cedar woods above the town stands the Hadimba temple, a pagoda-like wooden shrine built in the sixteenth century and dedicated to a figure from the Mahabharata. The valley has long been a stopping place for traders, travellers and, more recently, backpackers and motorcyclists.

   Read the complete Manali 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 626 km.