Markha Valley

Biking the highest roads in the world

Soaring thousands of metres above the rush, heat and chaos of India’s plains, the Himalaya stand a world apart. Prayer flags snap in the wind on high passes and villages lie marooned amongst spectacular mountain scenery, linked by kilometers of challenging roads that have only been open to foreigners since the 1980s. From the desolate grassland plateaux of Tibet in the east to Pakistan in the west, India’s Himalaya is a fascinating meld of Buddhist, Hindu and Muslim culture. As you'd expect from the Himalaya, the climate is extremely harsh, with snowfall and arctic temperatures isolating entire valleys for up to 8 months a year. But in summer, it's the perfect destination for an adventurous touring cyclist with a couple of months to spare. The scenery is awesome, the roads are challenging, and parachute tents will refuel you with steaming glasses of chai, a bowl of 2-minute noodles (if it's an upmarket tent) and maybe a chapathi omelette. Delicious, after a hard day on the pedals. And a far cry from prawn vindaloo.

The Indian Himalaya is very different from all expectations of 'India'. For a start, there's no monsoon. Between June and September the heavy rain clouds sweep along the length of India before bumping into the Pir Pinjal range, which rises just north of Manali in Himachal Pradesh. The mountains stop the monsoon in its tracks. At 2,050m Manali lies about halfway up the Kullu Valley and on the banks of the River Beas. Hippies flocked here during the 1970s to gaze at the beautiful scenery and then set about smoking it. Two thousand years before them, the exhausted troops of Alexander the Great finally refused to follow him further, thus defining the easternmost limit of an empire which reached from the sands of the Libyan desert to the mountains of Central Asia and the Caspian Sea. Hidden amongst the Pir Pinjal range is "Rohtang Jot", or "Pile of Corpses Pass". The macabre name doesn't derive from its height - it's a tectonic teenager at just under 4,000m - but from its unpredictable weather. Beyond it is the Buddhist Lahaul Valley - rugged, dramatic and elemental. "Surely the Gods live here;" Kipling says of it in Kim, "this is no place for men."

Once over Rohtang, a narrow strip of potholed tarmac winds northwest. Opened to foreigners in 1989, this is the Manali - Leh Highway, revered by motorbikers and cyclists alike as one of the most spectacular rides in the world. It's also the second highest, and half of its 475km traverses a landscape so high and barren that there's no permanent human habitation at all. The odd parachute tent will provide seasonal sustenance, but most of the time cyclists pedal and camp in solitude, up against a gauntlet of 5,000m passes, potholed roads and altitude. The reward is the remote and starkly beautiful region of Ladakh, once an ancient mountain kingdom. Tucked up a side valley of the Indus, Leh is Ladakh's atmospheric capital and was the starting point for yak trade caravans over the Karakorams into Central Asia and China. Rising sheer above Leh is Khardung La, the world's highest road pass at 5,602m (18,380ft). To the west of Leh, an immaculate tarmac highway follows the Indus River to Srinigar, passing the pea-green Zanskar River and the famous Buddhist monasteries of Lamayuru and Alchi. Halfway along, you can turn southeast at Kargil and cycle down the rough Suru Valley, India's only region of Shi'ah Muslims. The 7,000m Nun Kun Massif presides over the road, bristling with glaciers which end mere inches from the road. The road ends at Padum, but don't turn back - hire a horse, truss up your bike and trek for 8 days along the magnificent Zanskar Valley until you hit Darcha on the Manali - Leh Highway, just an afternoon's ride from Keylong.

As impressive as the Manali-Leh Highway is, an unmetalled road leads east from Rohtang, promising even more adventure. It doesn't disappoint - this 'road' to the Spiti Valley disappears entirely in places. An even rougher track leads off the Kunzum La pass (4,550m) to the dazzling turquoise lake of Chandra Tal, lying at the base of smooth-flanked ochre mountains. Spiti was only opened up to foreigners in the 1990s and the sensitive border with Tibet still requires an Inner Line Permit. From Tibet, apple, walnut and apricot trees shade the old Hindustan-Tibet Highway, which follows the Sutlej River as it rushes west from the slopes of Mt Kailash in Tibet to its rendezvous with the Indus in Pakistan. Dropping altitude, the arid panoramas of Spiti are replaced by cows, pop music, careering autorickshaws and monkeys as the road approaches Shimla, once the summer capital of the British Raj. 4 days riding to the west is Dharamsala, home of the Dalai Lama and capital of the Tibetan Government in Exile. After months spent in Buddhist Ladakh and Spiti it's the natural spot to wind up a trip, a cool traveller hangout and only a 12hr bus ride back to Delhi.

Zanskar Valley

Spiti Valley

Suru Valley

Lahaul Valley

Manali-Leh