Srinagar-Leh Highway: Dras to Lamayuru

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. Dras

   Dras is a place of extremes, and the first thing to know is that it is cold. Sitting at about 3,200 metres in the high valley below Zoji La, it is often called the second coldest inhabited place in the world, and winter temperatures can plunge to somewhere around minus forty degrees. The snow falls heavily and stays for months, and the road from Kashmir is usually closed by the pass through the winter and early spring. In summer, though, the valley turns green, with barley fields and willows beside the river and the bare brown ranges rising on either side.

   Read the complete Dras write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   Dras is where the day begins. Next is Kargil.

2. 2. Kargil

   Kargil sits at about 2,700 metres in the Suru valley in Ladakh, a town of tin roofs, apricot trees and mountains the colour of ash. Most travellers know it as a night stop on the road between Srinagar and Leh, which is about right, but it has a character of its own. Most of its people are Shia Muslims of Balti descent, and the call to prayer carries across the river valley beneath peaks that stay snowy for much of the year.

   Read the complete Kargil write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   Kargil comes up about 61 km into the recorded legs. Next is Lamayuru.

3. 3. Lamayuru

   Lamayuru looks like another planet, and the people who named the surrounding hills Moonland were not exaggerating. Wind and water have carved the pale clay slopes into a maze of ridges and spires, and on top of the largest of them sits the monastery, whitewashed and tangled, with the valley dropping away behind it. A local legend says the valley was once a lake, drained by a saint who made his way through the rock, and the geology lends some support to the idea.

   Read the complete Lamayuru 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 163 km.