A true dirt road

Behind the pass, most people turn left to go to Leh in Ladakh on a paved road. We turned right to continue to Spiti - and the adventure began immediately. Some oncoming motorbikers warned us of the rising water levels. A few kilometers later we found ourselves within the icy waters of the first waterfall we had to cross, many more with knee-deep water followed and it somehow raised our fun factor to see how much more cars and even motorbikes were struggling than us.

Actually you can’t call the ‘connection’ between Rohtang Pass and Kunzum La Pass (4550m) a road. It’s the only way, only open from June to September, and it’s just a horrible path. The little villages are abandoned most time of the year. Due to the icy crossings, the high altitude and the debris, our effort to move on was enormous, we needed a week to cycle the 100km. Sometimes the road turns into a river, sometimes it felt like bobbing from one rock to another.

But we actually knew this before and we wanted this challenge, we knew that the area we’re going in is one of the most remote and disaster prone in the world, there is no network, not much food, no infrastructure at all. Shooting stones and landslides are daily fare. We were quite lucky when the ‘path’ became impassable after a massive landslide, just the day after we reached the last village before Kunzum La where many travelers got stuck then.

After these few days, the beauty of the landscape, the remoteness, the silence, the starry sky, the thrill had already paid out in full. And there was a lot more to come up...impressions will follow :)Read more