Cycling in Indian Himalayas is not for the faint of heart or sinews, but it rewards you with an adventure you won’t forget in a lifetime.
Let’s say you’re an intrepid cyclist on the lookout for the best biking tour in the world. Let’s say you’ve been to places and scorched the popular cycling trails in Peru, China, and Europe. You know well the bargain of cycling in high-altitude conditions and the toil of pushing up the steep vertiginous inclines. You care as much for the thrills and spills of the road as for the breath-knocking sights that come along the way. And now, you’re planning on an Indian cycling holiday.
Just hold your breath for a moment and picture this: you are on the Manali to Leh cycling tour in North India and pushing deep into the mightiest mountain range in the world, the Himalayas. The high mountains around you seem to breach the sky. The air is thin with oxygen, and the road ahead winds up to a sharp hairpin bend. There is no human habitation in sight for as far as the eye sees. You are gasping for breath and your calf muscles throb as you slip into the easy gear. The thought of quitting and hopping into the backup cab trailing you on this Indian mountain biking trip has crossed your head but you wanna press on and keep going because a) you don’t wanna be a quitter; b) the landscape seems to draw you in.
Actually, it is more of the latter. The landscape on the 12-day cycling trip from Himachal to Ladakh is like a genial witch who casts her spell gently and lulls you into a hypnosis you can’t and don’t want to snap out of for all the raw and immaculate beauty of nature it makes you see.
The lush green hills and valleys of Manali amongst which you start the Himalayan biking tour gradually give way to a sparsely vegetated and eventually a barren mountainous landscape as you cross the Rohtang Pass (literally meaning the pass of corpses after all those who perished crossing it in old times) and push northward to the small sleepy town of Keylong and the nearby camp of Jispa. That you are approaching the end of human habitation on this Indian mountain cycling vacation becomes apparent from the roadside signboard that reads: ‘Ahead, the last petrol pump for the next 380 km. Better fill it in’.
Each successive day of mountain biking in Himalayas takes you deeper into a desolate territory where the harsh climate and the unrelenting elements seem to have rubbed off the flora and fauna from the face of the earth. High barren mountains with intricate and colourful patterns woven into their rock faces greet you, intrigue you, and wow you every step of the way. Now and then you come upon a small stream, a distant waterfall, or a placid lake.
And then there are the high passes to contend with on this Leh-Manali biking trip. The heights just boggle the mind. The Baralachla Pass, at the height of 4891 meters is among the first ascents to test your pluck. If you manage to tame it without giving in to the temptation of jumping into the backup cab, you’re rewarded with an easy breezy downhill ride into the Martian landscape of Sarchu Plains.
Thanks to its ideal location (flat terrain surrounded by mountains to keep off the buffeting cold winds), Sarchu has turned into an big camping ground for adventurers, bikers, cyclists, trekkers, travelers, landscape lovers, photographers, and trippers on adventure tours of India. Here you get to meet and connect with many a kindred spirit and regain energy for the dizzying Gatta Loops, a series of 21 hairpin bends, that you cycle through on the steep climb to the Nakeela Pass at the altitude of 4739 meters. Once you’re at the top, it is quite a sight to look down at the zigzag asphalt road looping spectacularly up to the pass.
The respite of the downhill ride from the pass is short, for no sooner do you catch your breath than you begin the ascent for the still higher climb to Lachungla Pass that takes you as high as 5100 meters. Thereon, the route of the Himalayan cycling trip weaves into a still stranger landscape best described as lunar. Huge rocky outcrops that look like anthills from afar dot the faces of high mountains. The road turns gravelly and is sentineled with giant boulders from landslides. The rough ride continues till Pang, which is a cluster of shanty eateries in the middle of nowhere.
For many bikers on Ladakh cycling tours, Pang is a fine place to crash out and recharge themselves over night before the 7km long steep ride to Morey Plains which is a surreal high-altitude flatland with shadows of low-floating clouds roving all over it. Here, you come upon the most captivating stretch of the Himalayan mountain biking adventure: 40 km of flat and smooth metaled road in a landscape straight out of a watercolour painting by a synesthete.
This otherworldly terrain ends with a relatively short ascent to the highest pass in the cycling tour from Manali to Leh, namely Taglang La at the elevation of 5328 meters. Touted as the second highest motorable pass in the world, Taglang La affords a stunning 360 degree view of the Himalayas, with the Zanskar range to the southeast and the Ladakh range to the north.
Descending from Taglang La, you pass by curiously shaped ochre-coloured cliffs and come upon small farmlands, herds of sheep and finally a village. You are back into human habitation. Soon you meet the river Indus and cycle along it for the most part of the way to Leh on the final stretch of your Ladakh holiday trip.
And if there is still more fire left in you after you’ve rested, relaxed and re-energized in Leh, you may take on the greater challenge of cycling up to Khardung La, the highest motorable pass in the world located at the dizzying height of 5359 meters. The pass is just 40 km from Leh and marks the most befitting ending to your Himalayan holiday in India.
It is the perfect climax to the mountain cycling tour that takes you over five high passes and into the most immaculate and intriguing Himalayan landscapes.
And it is not until you’ve done it, rather than just imagining it through blogs, that you realize that this trip is perhaps the best cycling gig in the world.
