Leh to Leh Zanskar Circuit via Shinku La

Leh airport sits at 3,500m and you will have gained all of that in about ninety minutes of flying. Day one is deliberately empty: no riding, no sightseeing, no walking up to the stupa. Bikes are allocated in the afternoon and the briefing covers what this route actually demands — four days with no fuel station, no mechanic and almost no phone signal.

A short local loop down the Indus to get the bikes set up under you and to keep acclimatising by riding gently rather than resting flat. Sangam where the Indus and Zanskar rivers meet, the Magnetic Hill optical illusion, and the 11th-century wall paintings at Alchi. Back in Leh by mid-afternoon. Anyone still feeling the altitude says so tonight, not on day four.

West along the Indus, then up over Fotu La and Namika La into Lamayuru, where erosion has left a basin of pale folded rock and a monastery on the ridge above it. Good tarmac the whole way and the last easy riding day for a while. Kargil is a working town rather than a sight — the point tonight is a hot shower and a full tank.

South out of Kargil and the landscape turns green, which after three days of high desert is genuinely startling. Nun and Kun stand over the road through Panikhar and Parkachik, both above 7,000m, with a glacier snout coming almost down to the tarmac. Surface degrades steadily past Parkachik. Rangdum is a handful of houses and a fortified monastery on a mound in the middle of a wide empty plain — no signal, no shops, and one of the best night skies on any route we run.

Up to Pensi La (4,400m), which opens directly onto the Drang-Drung glacier — a long tongue of ice running off the Zanskar range, and the single best view of the trip. Down the far side into the Zanskar valley proper and along to Padum. Rough surface in patches, water crossings fed by melt that runs higher through the afternoon, so we start early.

A deliberate rest day in the middle of the route. Short rides out to Karsha, the largest monastery in Zanskar and stacked up a cliff face, and to Stongdey and Sani if the group wants them. The mechanic goes over every bike properly today: the Suru and Pensi La side chews chains and brake pads, and the next two days are the least forgiving place on the route to find a problem.

Down the valley to Purne, then the bikes stay parked. Phugtal cannot be ridden to — it is a two-hour walk each way along a river gorge to a monastery built into the mouth of a cave, home to around seventy monks and reachable no other way. It is the single most remarkable thing on this itinerary and the only part of it you do without the bike.

The technical day, and the one the whole route is built around. Up the Tsarap to the foot of Shinku La, then a loose, rutted, unpaved climb to 5,054m / 16,580 ft crossed by glacier melt that rises through the day, which is why we ride it in the morning. Over the top the road drops to Darcha and back onto the tarmac of the Manali-Leh highway. Roughly seven hours moving for the distance.

The long one, and the payoff for closing the loop rather than doubling back. North over Baralacha La, across the Sarchu plain, up the Gata Loops and over Nakee La and Lachulung La, then the More Plains — forty flat kilometres at 15,000 ft that feel like nowhere on earth. Tanglang La (5,328m / 17,480 ft) is the last pass, and after it the road drops into the Indus valley and runs home to Leh.

Transfer to the airport. Leh flights are almost all early morning before the valley wind gets up, so this is a pre-dawn start. Luggage storage and onward help if you are staying on in Ladakh.