The highest motorable road in the world is Umling La, a mountain pass in Ladakh, India. It’s 86 kilometers long and sits at an elevation of 19,300 feet. That is nearly 6 km above sea level, to put it into perspective, more than 3 times higher than higher than Johannesburg – and a lot of people come to do elevation testing here…
Two of our mates, Jorge and Gerrie Saved up some bucks and took time away from the grindstone last year to go and ride it.. They popped in here for a coffee to tell us all about it!
What an adventure the lads had. We have featured trips that people have done before – but each time we sit and chat to riders, there’s a new perspective. These guys are dyed in the wool motorcyclists who have ridden all over SA and Namibia. They wanted something different: To ride the highest navigable road in the world and to do that, they needed two and a bit weeks.
They asked the bosses, hopped on a plane and landed in the chaos that is Delhi.
They had a day open when they arrived, so they took a trip to the Taj Mahal – and visited the motorcycle market – a giant place where vendors manufacture everything from cables to crash bars, handlebars, indicators…
The Taj Mahal is pretty spectacular, amazing! “We took a guide, it’s not expensive, the guides tell you things, you’ll never know.”
From old: “The love story behind the Taj Mahal is the tale of Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan and his beloved wife, Mumtaz Mahal, where Shah Jahan, heartbroken after Mumtaz’ death in childbirth, commissioned the construction of the Taj Mahal as a magnificent tomb to immortalize their love It is considered one of the greatest love stories in history.”
To New: “We were blown away by the bike market. It’s something that you need to go and see if you are ever in Delhi.”
Bikes are EVERYWHERE, often 3 up. It’s absolute chaos – a sensory overload. Cows rule the roads, nobody interferes with them.
The majority of the bikes that we saw were Royal Enfields, mostly small capacity – a big bike is quite simply overkill, but we also saw many other brands, including lots of KTM 390’s.
The actual tour started for them on a 22 hour bus trip… it was meant to be an 11 hour trip, but we had a landslide, so we had to pull over, then the first bus broke down, we had to wait for a replacement, you know Africa time? Well this was India time. But our tour guides sorted it all out.
We arrived at 3400 metres above sea level, where we spent a day acclimatizing.at a really cool Hotel. Acclimatising is serious business, halfway through the trip one of the people on the tour had to be evacuated and taken to hospital – a 14 hours in a little Suzuki taxi.
On day 1, we selected our bikes, the Royal Enfield Himalaya. We got to ride them for the first time – and that was interesting. The bikes are heavy and, especially at those altitudes have no power or technology compared to what we are used to. Very basic, the correct size and as tough as nails. A bigger bike would tempt you to go faster and – you’ll probably crash.
The total distance that we rode was around 2500KM’s in two and a half weeks and we’ll tell you – the terrain is so varied and we saw stuff! The roads are mostly single lane with many potholes.
Roughly 200kms a day – and that took around 8 hours a day. This is largely because of the altitude. The 400’s run out of puff and you spend most of your time in first and second gear… And very occasionally third.
Heading up some of the passes, as much as 9000 metres above sea level, you literally row between first and second and you constantly wring the bikes neck…
“We did 30 or forty percent tar, the rest was broken tar or gravel. We also rode mostly along the China, India border, so the only maintenance really is for the military. Not a lot of traffic. The mountains are constantly eroding with rockfalls and things destroying the surface.”
“Whistles”
On the road to Sangrilla. We actually hit a rockfall that had happened the evening before and were delayed by two hours. How it works is, you stop and the local people start to clear the fall. Once the blockage is cleared enough to move through, police officers are stationed on each end. A sharp blast on a whistle means that you are good to go, one by one. Half way through, Gerrie, wide open, heard multiple whistles only to hear a giant rock come crashing down behind them. Their backup vehicle ended up stranded behind them. Fun times!
Accommodation was the best. Occasionally a hotel. Often a luxury swiss tent in a town that springs up in the summer months. A basic tent with a very wobbly loo and shower using glacier water inside, so best you balance like on your bike. Interesting.
Some of the restaurants that we went to literally had a hole in the ground.
We often shared double beds – no single beds. Make sure you like the friend you are riding with (Lekker Lepel Le’).
In the highest road, there was actually sand in our blankets to keep them in place and to help seal you in and keep you warm. It was freezing at many of the stops.
Meals are mostly curry. The team kept us hydrated.
Everything is very basic, no cappuccino, lots of tea!
Oh and we ate lots of curry, breakfast, lunch and supper, and… It’s mostly vegetarian. We ate very little chicken or pork.
Breakdowns: Our tour team handled all of that. Punctures were repaired. If a bike could not be fettled on the side of the road it was swapped out for another one. There was a backup vehicle and it was seamless. Without tour guides, you’d really sukkel along
Incidentally, we swapped our motorcycles for fresh bikes half way through the ride.
“The Himalayas are just amazing, the colours, the smells, the vastness, like Switzerland in one second with massive mountains – into wide flat deserts. Hundreds of hairpin bends, something you have to see.”
The people are extremely friendly.
The trip ended in a town called Leh, which is about 3700m above sea level. There we caught a plane back down to Dehli, but in order to take off, we had a maximum bag loading capacity of 15KG’s per person. Our lot weighed an average of 28KG’s. Needless to say – we wore a LOT of clobber on that 45 min flight back to Delhi for the flight home…
“This was an epic adventure – you asked if we’d do it solo, or through a tour operator? We booked through an Indian company called Ride the Himalayas. Our guide for the trip was Raull. Amazing. A great outfit. If we were to do it again, we’d probably book with a tourguide outfit. Solo would be complicated because of local language barriers, rules and customs. Having someone to pre- book stuff and smooth the trail makes a lot of sense. Going solo, you’d struggle. The trouble also comes with the terrain. Landslides, alternative routes… A local person just knows how to react and get stuff sorted.”
The video tells the story. Have a watch and if this is something you’d like to do:
www.ridethehimalayas.com
