Raid in Andean Land (Argentina)

Twelve nights and around 1,491 miles from Salta on a Royal Enfield Himalayan 450, high in the Argentine Andes, on a route that spends day after day above 3,000 metres and carries an oxygen bottle in the support vehicle.

Salta opens it in the foothills, then Iruya through the Quebrada de Humahuaca, a UNESCO listed valley where the rock strata run in bands of ochre, red and green, reached on a remote mountain track. Cusi Cusi follows, with condors about at dawn and the Valle de la Luna at 3,800 metres near the Bolivian border.

Humahuaca comes next on Ruta 40 with a picnic at 4,200 metres above a hidden lagoon, then Purmamarca and the Mirador del Hornocal at 4,350 metres, looking across at the mountain of fourteen colours, which is a genuine geological formation rather than a marketing exaggeration.

San Antonio de los Cobres follows across a plateau above 4,000 metres and the Salinas Grandes, where a thin film of water on the salt produces the sensation of riding across the sky. Cachi comes next by way of the Quebrada del Toro down to 1,000 metres and the Cuesta del Obispo back up to 3,700, with a rest day for the village, its pre-Inca museum and the local vineyards. Cafayate follows past the Laguna de Brealito and wind-cut rock spires, then Andalgala by way of the Quilmes ruins and the Capillitas mine, the source of most of the world’s rhodochrosite. Bike rental is included and the price is quoted per person.