Day 01–02 · Leh · 3,500 m
Breathe first. Ride later.
Two slow days in the old town while your blood learns the altitude. Bike allotment and briefing at our Fort Road garage, an evening walk up to Shanti Stupa, thukpa and butter tea in Changspa. The mountains can wait — acclimatisation cannot.
Bike briefingSpO₂ check ×2Shanti Stupa dusk
Day 03 · Khardung La · 5,359 m
Five thousand metres of thin air.
Forty switchbacks out of Leh and the tarmac turns to sky. At the top: a wall of prayer flags, snow in July, and air with half the oxygen you woke up with. Photos in ten minutes, chai in five — this is a pass, not a picnic.
40 switchbacks−2°C at noonHighest chai stall on earth
Day 04–05 · Nubra Valley · 3,048 m
Sand dunes at ten thousand feet.
Down the far side into a valley that shouldn't exist — silver dunes at Hunder, double-humped Bactrian camels, and the 32-metre Maitreya Buddha watching over Diskit. Camp under the poplars, dinner beside the Shyok.
Hunder dunesDiskit monasteryRiverside camp
Day 06–07 · Pangong Tso · 4,225 m
A lake that steals the sky.
A hundred and thirty-four kilometres of impossible blue stretched into Tibet. We reach the shore by late afternoon, watch the water turn from turquoise to ink, and sleep under more stars than you have ever seen. Home via Chang La on day seven.
134 km of blueLakeside campMilky Way, guaranteed