Manali to Leh via Zanskar & Shinku La

Arrive in Manali under your own steam. Bikes are allocated in the afternoon, saddlebags fitted, and we run a short test ride up the Solang valley to set up levers and mirrors. The evening briefing is longer than on our highway tours, because this route is different: between Darcha and Padum there is no petrol pump, no mechanic and almost no mobile signal, so we go through fuel planning, water crossings and what the support vehicle can and cannot reach.

An early start to clear the Solang traffic, then through the 9.02 km Atal Tunnel into the dry Chandra river basin at Gramphu. We follow tarmac through Tandi — the last petrol pump for a long way, and we fill everything including the jerricans — and settle at Jispa on the Bhaga river. Deliberately a short day: the altitude gain matters more than the distance.

The day the trip changes character. Tarmac ends past Darcha and the climb to Shinku La (5,054m / 16,580 ft) is loose, rutted and crossed by glacier melt that runs higher through the afternoon, which is why we ride it early. Over the top the road drops into the upper Zanskar and follows the Tsarap river to Purne. Slow going, roughly seven hours in the saddle for the distance, and the most technical day of the ride.

Bikes stay parked for the morning. 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, housing around seventy monks and reachable no other way. Back to the bikes for lunch, then an easier afternoon run down the valley to Padum, the administrative centre of Zanskar and the first place in three days with a shop worth the name.

A deliberate rest day at 3,657m before the second half. We ride the short loop to Karsha, the largest monastery in Zanskar, stacked up a cliff face above the valley, and to Stongdey and Sani if the group has the appetite. The mechanic goes over every bike properly today — chains, brake pads and tyres take a beating on the Shinku La side, and the next stretch is no place to discover a problem.

North-west up the valley and over Pensi La (4,400m), which opens directly onto the Drang-Drung glacier — a long tongue of ice running down off the Zanskar range and the single best view on the route. Down the far side to Rangdum, a hamlet of a few houses and a fortified monastery on a mound in the middle of a wide, empty plain. No phone signal, and the night sky is worth staying up for.

Out through the Suru valley, which turns green as the altitude drops, with Nun and Kun — both over 7,000m — standing over the road for most of the morning. Past Panikhar and Sankoo the surface improves and the riding gets fast for the first time since Manali. Kargil is a working town rather than a sight, and after four nights in Zanskar the hot water and a phone signal are the point.

The long tarmac day, and an easy one after the valley. Over Namika La and Fotu La, then down into Lamayuru, where erosion has left a basin of pale, folded rock the guidebooks call Moonland and the monastery above it dates to the 11th century. From there the road follows the Indus past Alchi and the Magnetic Hill into Leh. Bikes get handed over to the workshop for a check on arrival.

A flexible day. Most groups ride up to Khardung La (5,359m / 17,582 ft) and back, which is a half-day out and the highest tarmac of the trip. The alternative is not riding at all: Leh old town, the Shanti Stupa, the Hall of Fame and the Sunday market are all walkable, and nine days in you may prefer them. Farewell dinner in town either way.

Transfer to Kushok Bakula Rimpochee airport for your flight out. Leh departures are almost all early morning, before the valley wind picks up, so this is a pre-dawn start. If you are staying on in Ladakh we will store luggage and help with onward plans.