Srinagar-Leh Highway: Kargil to Leh

Scenic road chapters

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. 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 is where the day begins. Next is Lamayuru.

2. 2. 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

   Lamayuru comes up about 103 km into the recorded legs. Next is Fotu La.

3. 3. Fotu La

   Fotu La is the highest point on the road between Srinagar and Leh, at 4,108 metres, and it is higher than the better-known Namika La further west. It is a broad, windswept saddle with prayer flags snapping in the wind, a few signs from the Border Roads Organisation and a feeling of enormous space. The altitude is real, so do not be surprised if a short walk makes you breathless; take your time and drink plenty of water.

   Read the complete Fotu La write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   about 113 km into the recorded legs you reach Fotu La. Nothing on this route is higher. Next is Leh, mostly downhill.

4. 4. Leh

   Leh sits in the high desert of Ladakh at about 3,500 metres, in the broad valley of the Indus, with the Karakoram on one side and the Zanskar range on the other, and it is the end of the Manali-Leh highway, one of the great road journeys in the world. The last stage of that road is the best: you cross the Tanglang La, among the highest passes in the world, then drop to the Indus plain, through villages with whitewashed chortens and prayer flags, and the town appears below a hill crowned by the old Leh Palace, a nine-storey building of mud and wood modelled on the Potala in Lhasa. Behind it, the Namgyal Tsemo monastery and a ruined fort hang on the ridge.

   Read the complete Leh write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   Leh closes the day.