Shimla to Manali through the Kinnaur and Spiti Valleys

We left Shimla early on the 15th headed for Rampur and the 'Epic All-Weather Hindustan-Tibet Highway'. Apart from a brief soaking (which we were fairly used to by then) the trip was fairly uneventful and sunny and we arrived in Rampur ready to kick back and enjoy a refreshing beverage. Unfortunately, it was Indian Independence day so Rampur was dry. However, using our charms we managed to find a place that would sell us some beer and relaxed for the rest of the day.

We moved on the next morning towards Recong Peo. The scenery had started to change from a sort of Alpine 'mountainous England' set up to more of a mountainous desert. It was still fairly dramatic, as I'm sure you'll see from the photos. We got a bit of work done on the bike and applied for our Inner Line permits, which we needed to embark upon the Epic All-Weather Hindustan Tibet Highway. Then we spent the rest of the evening enjoying Zingaro beer (with the strength of a hundred horses according to the label).

The next day was spent in Kalpa, about half an hour away from Recong Peo, whilst David recovered from beer induced sickness. He couldn't have chosen a prettier place to recover, however, and we had access to a movie channel so we could enjoy Home Alone 2: Lost in New York while supping some masala chai.

Once fully recovered we headed on to Nako, slightly worried about talk of a major landslide at Malling (the site of a huge landslide in 2001, which effectively closed the road for 2 years) but we remained optimistic. When we arrived at Nako, through more desert, it turned out that the road was closed but due to open the next day. We went for a walk up a hill, despite Tasha's reservations about too much exercise, and spent the rest of the evening eating in a little restaurant run by an Indian Gary Rhodes.

Early the next morning we were off again across the infamous Malling Nallah (landslide) towards the Spiti Valley and it's administrative hub Kaza. The scenery started to change again as we rode along the valley floor surrounded by big craggy rocks. We stopped for a surprisingly good pasta lunch in Tabo and went to look at the monastery, which turned out to be none too exciting. Then we were off again through blazing sunshine to Kaza, which offered us a pretty nice meal and some cake from a German bakery!

Yesterday (20th) saw our most epic journey so far. We were already a little worried about the 200k journey in front of us but set off in high spirits. After a brief detour to look at the Ki monastery, which was pretty beautiful, we rode on to Losar for some breakfast before tackling the 4551m Kunzum pass and the road on to Manali. Between Losar and Grampho, the stretch which included the Kunzum pass, was totally unsealed and our speed was restricted at times to walking pace as we tackled the rough terrain and forded rivers (videos of which we've put up). Therefore, the 80k took us around 6 hours, leaving us less than 3 hours to cover the remaining 64k to Manali before nightfall, after which driving on Indian roads isn't such a good idea. Not only that, but we had a 3900m pass to cross in between (the Rohtang) and we were driving into yet more rain. Though a little hairy at times, we finally got into Manali at about half 7, exhausted and desperate for pizza and beer, which we promptly went in search of.

Today we're having a relax (and breakfast in bed) whilst a bit more work is done to the bike (a blown head gasket for one) and probably heading off either tomorrow or the day after for Leh and more high passes. On departing for Leh we will probably be out of touch until we reach Srinagar. We expect this to take 4 or 5 days so don't worry about us. We'll keep you posted when we're leaving as we still may need a bit of time to recover.