Himalayas epic lakes and the highest road in the world on the Royal Enfield Himalayan - Episode 7

In this episode, I explore more of Pangong Lake, ride through incredible valleys, and across high deserts. Then I head up to the highest motorable road in the world. Morning. It is cloudy but they don't look real rainy kind of clouds, which is good after yesterday's few hours in the rain. Plan today? Well, yesterday morning I went over what used to be the highest motorable road in the world, but that's been surpassed a few times. But apparently they've got a new one. So that's east from here. So we're going to go to a little town first, if we can find somewhere to stay, and then see if we can get up to this high pass. To get there, I could go back to that small town where I fuelled up and then go along the main road, or I could continue along the lake. Hopefully it goes the whole way and not like yesterday's shortcut that just stopped a dead wall. If it does, I'll just be turning around and coming back and going the other way. All right, I'm gonna pack this bike and get on the road. You have to admit, those mountains ahead are kind of stunning. It seems we have a bit of earth movement from yesterday's rain. I saw a dirt track that looked like it went down to the water's edge, so down I went. I'm not sure exactly what it is, but exploring random tracks you come across on your own is always so much fun. Picking your own path, exploring the unknown to you. I made my way back up towards the road again, and that snow capped a ridgeline. There was more runoff over the road, but you can understand why. With all that catchment area at the side of the range, and the steepness of the slope, it has to go somewhere. Now that's a cool looking structure. I wonder what they put in there. Okay, you may have noticed some yellow scooters around, and these three butt chairs as they're called. Well, they're from an Indian comedy movie which was the highest grossing Indian film ever at the time of its release. The scooters and butt chairs were used in the film, and the film ended at this lake. Just pulled over at this headland which gives you a very good look up and down the lake. With all the cloud cover you can't really see how blue it is, but it's pretty wild. And I think I'm at 4,200 meters, somewhere around that. So still right now, there's no one around. Just stunning. Mountain ranges up here with snow caps, out the back a couple of epic valleys. These things over here have got this green sort of mineral in them. It's all happening at the lake. I made my way back up to the road and passed another yellow scooter. I turned away from the lake as the mountain ridge had ended, and I could make my way towards the main road again. I was stopped by a few riders who informed me that the road ahead was blocked and there was no way through. So like yesterday, I'd need to backtrack and find another way. That is one thing you need to expect when riding in the Himalayas. You're probably going to have your route changed as landslides are very common. The guys who told me about the blocked road were telling others. So I made my way past and continued on. I rode past the shacks where I'd spent last night. I turned up into the valley, which I'd come down to get to the lake. But as it wasn't raining this time, I'd get a lot better look at these incredible walls of the valley. Now that's a very large boulder. I made it back to the small town where the turnoff was. And as always, if you get a chance to fuel up, you do it. The guys I'd passed earlier who told me about the roadblock also stopped for fuel and gave me some advice on which route to take to the southeast. I was heading to a town called Hanli. There was a turnoff there that would take me to the high pass I wanted to ride, which kind of looked like it was close to the border with China. But on online maps there are two dotted lines, so it's a little confusing. I found out if there's a dispute of the exact location of a border, it's marked with dotted lines on a map. After so many valleys, the landscape changed to even more barren than before, with vast flat lands between the mountains. The mountains look like they're covered in sand. You could almost mistake them for sand dunes. I came into what looked like another checkpoint. This area has only recently been opened up for foreigners. It was closed to foreigners previously as it is a highly sensitive area due to, as I mentioned before, the close proximity to the Chinese border. Just coming to this area and I've noticed these really green valley floors and then just deserty mountains either side. It's such a contrast. Stunning though, absolutely stunning. I'm not too far from the tallest pass, well basically the tallest pass, I'd still have to get up, but there has been some weather around so hopefully it hasn't been washed out somewhere or something. I got to the turn off to Hanley. It was still early in the day, so I decided I might as well go check out the highest motorable road in the world. There was a mention of this road a few years ago, but they didn't consider it to be the highest motorable pass as it was only used by military vehicles and was just a dirt track. They've created an actual road to the top now. This road was definitely built to get trucks up here. The incline is very gradual. The switchback sections were quite long for a small gain of elevation, but then I saw a side track which looks steeper, so I thought I'd give it a crack to see if it joined back up with the road again. And yes it does. Now that's a much better way to get up a mountain. Could that be another one? Only one way to find out. This is epic. This type of dirt track between switchbacks, I'm going to call them the Indian shortcut. Thanks bro. Oh, for those who don't know, RO stands for Border Road Organization. They're the ones tirelessly keeping the roads open and maintaining them. A much funner way to get up the mountain and quicker too. There's the road to the right, but the track continues to the left, so... You can see on the hill the road switchbacks four times to get the same elevation as I am now, and this track is still going up. And again, another six switchbacks. Look at the valley I've just ridden up. That looks epic. I made it to the top of the ridge with another valley falling away to my right. It looks like I'm going up through the gap in front of me. But first I needed to traverse across the other side of this section. Ahead looked like there was rain on the other side of the mountain. It's wild how it is full sun over here and wet on the other side, as the mountain affects where the clouds go. This is Fotillar at 5,524 meters, which is actually the sixth highest motorwheel pass in the world. Well, what if it was rain? It wasn't. Being this high up here, it was hail. And I've learned there's one downside to open-faced helmets with goggles. Hail can get in the gaps and hit you in the cheeks and nose. Eventually the hail stopped as I crisscrossed my way further down the mountain. To give you an idea of how many switchbacks are on this pass, have a look at the map from above. Now that is an insane view. It's wild how the shadow of the clouds have a red tinged. I spotted an Indian shortcut. These things are gold. I had reached the valley floor. Then I got to see my first yak, although from a distance. There's a bridge over the river. There's also a random dirt road. The water was clear and it didn't look too deep. Maybe that's the yak farmer's yurt. The bro have done an incredible job on these roads. As you'd expect, it does take some time to get to the top of the highest motorable road in the world. It is definitely barren, like a moonscape up here. Now this is a great reference point. That sign with all the stickers over it says you are now higher than Everest Base Camp. Everest Base Camp is at 5,364 meters. So I still have 435 vertical meters to go. One of the army trucks has rolled, luckily to the right and not to the left. Otherwise it would be a lot more difficult task these guys would be dealing with. I continued to climb up the last section. I finally made it to the top of the pass and the highest motorable road in the world. Well, I've made it to the highest motorable road in the world, currently. The one I went past a couple of days ago was actually the previous one but they just keep making them higher. It is getting a little harder to breathe. My device is 5,801 but here it's got, I think it equivalates to 5,799. So I feel okay, just a little out of breath. I did grab one thing you can get at most chemists around here, oxygen in a can. I don't feel I need it but I'm going to try it to see if it makes any difference. I think I just spray and breathe. This way. Twist cap to open. Insert nozzle into mask. Oh, you go this way. Okay. Push cap to the attached cover. Press the nozzle against beginning of float. Getting high on oxygen. Wow, like wow. Wow, that, that really works. If you're going to go high passes, that is epic. I feel like, wow, just so much better. I'll stop saying wow now. Oh, wow. Who knew oxygen was so beneficial. Better have some more while I climb back up the hill. Also, for those who are interested, there's a sign up here that shows the top 13 highest passes in the world. What an incredible day and a unique experience the Himalayas have delivered. And I'm only halfway through exploring this amazing region. Oh my love, you're such a fragile thing I know. In the next episode, I head down from the highest motorable pass in the world, but have to wait for a tow truck to be right. I pick my own route back down the mountain, which is rather rough, technical and wet, and then the inevitable. I get smashed by hail, wander into the desert, pass a mirror lake and end up in an oasis.