Royal Mountain Travel Magazine Royal Mountain Travel Magazine Issue 3 | Page 13

Cycling in Ladakh:
ludicrous or lovely?

By Piet van der Poel

Holed rock above Nako Kinnaur. Photo: Piet van der Poel.

My friends were on the other side
stuck in the snow for four days, while I
returned to Kaza to drink coffee, explore
the valleys and wait.
“You must be totally bonkers!” Every now and then some
locals or tourists could not stop themselves from saying this
or something similar. More often however, motor bikers and
people along the road gave me the thumbs-up sign. This did
not mean that they thought I was sane, but at least they seemed
to appreciate people that don’t do the same thing as everybody
else. When I asked them why they didn’t do it themselves,
they invariably had some weak excuse, such as not having
the time, muscles or energy, or only owning a car. Many jeep
drivers show