Leh to Srinagar via Zanskar & the Suru Valley

Leh is at 3,500m and you arrive there in about ninety minutes from Delhi. Day one is rest by design. Bikes are allocated in the afternoon and the briefing covers the shape of the route, the two days with no fuel and the fact that this trip ends 420 km from where it starts.

A gentle local loop down the Indus to set the bikes up and keep acclimatising. The Sangam confluence, the Magnetic Hill, and the 11th-century wall paintings at Alchi, which are the oldest surviving in Ladakh. Back by mid-afternoon.

West along the Indus, over Fotu La and Namika La, and down into Lamayuru — a basin of pale eroded rock the guidebooks call Moonland, with an 11th-century monastery on the ridge above it. Tarmac all the way and the easiest full riding day of the trip.

South into the Suru valley, which turns green as you drop, with Nun and Kun — both above 7,000m — standing over the road through Panikhar and Parkachik. The Parkachik glacier comes down almost to the roadside. Surface breaks up past there. Rangdum is a few houses and a fortified monastery alone on a plain, with no phone signal and a night sky that justifies the cold.

Over Pensi La (4,400m) with the Drang-Drung glacier opening up directly below — a long tongue of ice off the Zanskar range and the best single view of the route. Down into the Zanskar valley and along to Padum. Broken surface in places and glacier-fed crossings that run higher after midday, so it is an early start.

A full day in Zanskar without a transfer. Karsha, the largest monastery in the valley, is stacked up a cliff above the fields; Sani is the oldest, and sits on flat ground beside a pond. Bikes get a proper going-over from the mechanic — the Suru and Pensi La surfaces are hard on chains and pads.

The one repeated stretch of the route, and it rides completely differently in this direction — Pensi La from the Zanskar side puts the glacier ahead of you rather than behind, and the Suru valley opens out instead of closing in. Long day, mixed surface for the first half, tarmac from Parkachik.

West past Drass — the second coldest inhabited place on earth — and the war memorial there, then the climb to Zoji La. Zoji La is not high by Ladakhi standards at 3,528m but it is the most exposed road on the trip: unsurfaced in stretches, cut into a cliff, and often wet. Over the top the landscape changes completely into the pine and meadow of Sonamarg, and the run down to Srinagar finishes on Dal Lake.

Bikes are handed back and the support vehicle takes them home to Leh. Transfer to Srinagar airport, which has direct flights to Delhi and onward. If you have the morning, a shikara on Dal Lake is the traditional way to finish.