Trans Himalayas Motorcycle Expedition (India)

Fourteen nights from Himachal Pradesh into Ladakh, guided, three thousand kilometres across the Trans-Himalaya on a Royal Enfield.

This is the operator’s flagship and the headline is Umling La, a sealed road built by the Indian army that tops out at 19,024 feet and is the highest motorable road in the world, high enough that the engine loses a third of its power.

Delhi and Bhuntar open it, then Shoja on mountain roads and Kalpa in Kinnaur under the Shrikhand peaks. The route then works north through the Trans-Himalaya, with Tabo Gompa, founded in 996 and holding murals to rival anything in India, and Key Gompa on its hill above the Spiti river. Lamayuru follows, a thousand-year-old monastery above a valley of eroded ridges routinely described as lunar, then Pangong Tso, among the highest salt lakes in the world at four and a half thousand metres, and Umling La itself. Off-road sections and high-altitude water crossings run throughout.

Comfortable hotels and lodged camps, a Royal Enfield Himalayan, all the fuel, an experienced English-speaking road captain and an accompanying mechanic for on-the-spot repairs are all included; the remaining inclusions were not itemised on the operator’s page and are worth confirming at booking. June to September is the season, since the passes are shut the rest of the year. Altitude is the serious matter: the route spends days above four thousand metres and anyone with a heart or lung condition should take medical advice first. Fifteen days and three thousand kilometres makes this a serious expedition rather than a holiday with riding in it.