Valley of the Gods

Ten nights from Delhi to Leh, guided, on Royal Enfields, taking the long way round through Spiti and Lahaul.

Delhi is the start, with an optional extra day for the Taj Mahal, then the climb into the Spiti Valley, which sits among the Kinnaur, Kullu, Lahaul and Tibetan ranges and is high desert rather than mountain forest, with monasteries on the ridges and villages built of mud brick.

Nako comes next, an old village beside a lake at around 3,600 metres, with camping on the shore, and a gompa nearby that has stood for a thousand years and holds wall paintings of the same age. The Lahaul Valley follows, where the roads share their route with the rivers and are rebuilt most years after the melt, then the world’s highest motorable village and the post office in it, which posts letters from above 15,000 feet, before the run into Leh.

Bike hire is included, on a Royal Enfield Himalayan 450, with a discount for anyone bringing their own. Eleven days gaining this much altitude needs the pace it gets, and the Spiti leg is the part that catches people: thin air, cold nights and a long way from a hospital. The passes are open from roughly June to September. Camping is part of the arrangement rather than a hardship, since there is nothing else at Nako, and Leh at the end is an old Silk Road trading city worth a day. This is the route to pick for anyone who wants Spiti as well as Ladakh rather than choosing between them.