Looking for an adrenalin punch out of your India cycling holiday? The mountainous region of Spiti in the north Indian state of Himachal Pradesh is where you ought to be headed.
For it is here, in Spiti, that you find some of the best biking trails of Himalayas. These trails, mind you, are no mean test of your physical and mental endurance. They put you on high altitudes in precarious weather, thin air, and with plenty of uphill slogs. Be prepared to cycle through an ever-changing mountainous landscape with altering elevations, treacherous inclines, sharp bends, high passes, and downhill rides that are both gentle and steep. In short, a cycling trip to Spiti packs in almost everything that an adventure junkie on mountain biking tours of India bargains for.
But first off, it’s important to know what you’re getting into before saddling up for this cycling adventure in the Himalayas.
Spiti is a cold desert valley located in the lower western Himalayas where mountains are mostly arid and vegetation is sparse. It lies along India’s border with Tibet, and its name, meaning ‘middle land’, implies its strategic location between the two countries. Harsh winters and infertile soil have discouraged large human habitations here, but towns and villages have sprung up around a number of oases that dot this region. While cycling in Spiti Valley, one comes upon these human habitations in a landscape that looks nothing short of lunar. It’s a landscape as bewitching as it is challenging. Make no mistake, it will amply put to the test your pedal power, your stamina, your attitude, and your resolve.
The secret of a successful cycling tour of Spiti lies in choosing the right route.
In the main, there are two biking routes to Spiti: one leads from Shimla in the southern part of Himachal Pradesh; the other from Manali in the north. Out of the two, the route from Shimla is more popular among cyclists, and I personally, too, recommend it for several reasons.
Firstly, the biking trail from Manali to Spiti rises abruptly to the high mountain passes of Rohtang and Kunzum at the very beginning and give you hardly any time or space to acclimatize to the high-altitude conditions of the Indian Himalayan mountains. Whereas the route from Shimla rises up gradually and lets you acclimatize well before you enter higher altitudes. On this biking route to Spiti, there’s little chance, if any, of you catching mountain sickness.
Another big plus is that the cycling route from Shimla to Spiti starts off pretty easy and gets difficult by small degrees as you press deeper into the mountains, quite unlike the route from Manali that throws up the mammoth challenge of crossing high passes from the get-go. This progressive increase in biking difficulty levels prepare you aptly for the strenuous cycling needed in the second leg of the Spiti biking tour.
The third and a very good reason for starting out from Shimla is the picturesque scenery on this route. The lush green hills and vales of the lower Himalayas, and the forests abounding with oaks, maples and conifers make for a near perfect setting to launch a biking expedition into Indian Himalayas. The sights you come upon while, say, rounding a bend or looping a pass, as good as give you pause. And the more you push into the mountains the more you see the landscape change. Lush vegetation gives way to bare mountains with layered facades and the landscape looks increasingly lunar.
This is Spiti, where the low sky seems to bear down on you and high rocky mountains lift you skywards. Surreal is the word to describe this otherworldly place.
It goes without saying that a cycling tour of Spiti in Himachal Pradesh entails a good amount of physical and mental toil. But if you plan your Spiti biking itinerary smartly, you will be able to mix tough days with the easy ones.
To begin with, you may choose to hit the road not at the crowded Shimla, but at Narkanda, 60km farther up, and start cycling towards Rampur and then to Wangtu along the banks of the river Sutlej over the course of a few days. Thereon, the ride gets tougher and you even come upon a steep incline of 835 meters over a distance of just 15 km leading up to the beautiful town of Kalpa in the Kinnaur district. Kalpa is a fine place to overnight and re-energize yourself for the next day’s biking up the Hind-Tibet road, which used to be an ancient trade route between India and Tibet. The last 8 km of the day’s ride to the town of Pooh is again a gruelling one, so you better sit tight and pedal hard.
Pooh onwards, the Spiti biking adventure gets a little edgy along a particular stretch called the Malling Nalah, which is notorious for landslides, falling stones and sharp bends. A signboard by BRO here describes it as “the world’s most treacherous road.” But there’s no need to be unnerved. If you are watchful and cautious, you can ride through this stretch without any difficulty. A lot of bikers do. This stretch is the gateway to the Spiti valley.
In Spiti, you have a lot of prospect for mountain biking. You may do a little detour to the village of Dhankar, at the height of 3894 meters, where you get stunning views of the Manirang peaks and the confluence of the Spiti and Pin rivers. You may ride to Spiti’s biggest town, Kaza, and, after a night’s rest, press on for the Key Monastery and the twin villages of Kibber and Chicham which, though close-by are separated by a very deep gorge. A suspension bridge that straddles the gorge is a great vantage for sightseeing and photography.
Moving on towards the town of Losar and beyond, you finally come upon the highest points of the Spiti biking expedition. First, you cross the Kunzum pass at the altitude of 4590 meters and then the famous Rohtang pass at 3978 meters. Most bikers take a break from cycling here and prefer to cross these high passes on motor vehicles, and once across, they saddle up again for the 45 kilometres of freewheeling downhill ride into the town of Manali, the last point on the biking tour of Himachal Pradesh.
This winding cycling trip from Shimla to Manali via Spiti has many highs and edgy moments that any adventure lover would dig. It also exposes to the biker a unique culture of the people of Spiti who are, for the most part, isolated from the urban mainstream. But then, that is material for another blog on Spiti altogether. Watch this space.
