In the middle of yet another restless night (sleep and India clearly don’t get along for me…), I look up at a jaw-dropping starry sky at 4,300 meters. With zero light pollution, the Milky Way, the Big Dipper, and all their celestial buddies are putting on a full show.
Morning arrives at a gentler pace. The sun quickly cranks the temperature from a brisk 5°C to T-shirt weather. Breakfast is served in front of Georg’s tent—every plate and every little cup brought out one by one by the young crew, who are already tuning their Bidis with additional spices. We finally roll out at 10.
In Sarchu, we hit two army checkpoints (one for Himachal Pradesh, and another for the Ladakh district we’re now entering). An Israeli biker passes by with a guitar strapped to his Enfield—epic look, sadly wrong direction. But he does share intel on Hanle and the Umling La.
Around midday we reach the Gata Loops, a series of switchbacks dragging us 500 vertical meters up a scree wall. From here on, “wide road” is just a memory. Trucks groan and belch black smoke as they inch past each other, engines howling forward and back until they finally squeeze through. Stones crickle down from above every now and then. Silver lining: once the convoy clears, silence is bliss.
A few hairpins higher I spot two fellow cyclists. We wave, and half an hour later stop for a quick chat. Antoine and Saskia from Geneva are on a months-long adventure, heavily loaded down for trekking as well.
Georg gets a proper endorphin high at Nakee La (almost 5,000m!). But then it’s back down a few hundred meters to Whiskey Nala, home to a massive, noisy road construction camp and plenty of dhabas feeding weary riders. From there, the climb kicks in again, past yet more roadworks, up to the 5,060m Lachalung La. By then Georg’s GoPro and phone batteries are dead, and my legs are running strictly on emergency power. Thankfully, a tailwind saves the day.
Anyway—once on top, we’ve got every reason to pat ourselves on the back. A few Indian tourists ask for photos and happily try out our bikes. Turns out they’re cyclists too back home.
Then comes the grand finale: a 20 km descent through pure scenery overload—flat-topped mountains, sandstone mushrooms, and canyons that look straight out of an Indiana Jones set. Somewhere along the way Georg convinces a group of road workers to dance with him to Bollywood beats blasting from a truck.
We finally roll into Pang around 6 p.m.—a “village” made up of dhabas, some with rooms, some without. After browsing a few options, we take the first one Georg likes. Naturally, it’s the priciest, but also the nicest. I manage to strike an all-inclusive deal, and dinner is served in the (!!heated!!) living room with the family. Electricity only when the generator runs, internet only if the hotspot feels generous, and like everyone here, the family packs up and moves to Leh for the winter.
Anyway—just one more pass and two more cycling days to Leh!
Distance: ca. 80km, ca 1800 elevation meters