The Spiti Circuit — Seven Nights from Shimla to Manali by Kinnaur, Kaza and Chandratal

Up from Chandigarh to Shimla, about 115 km and three and a half hours, to 2,200 m — the first night of the climb. The Ridge and the Mall in the evening, and an early dinner: the road tomorrow is the longest of the trip. This is the acclimatising direction on purpose; the loop can be driven the other way from Manali, but that puts Kunzum and 4,500 m on the second day, and this one puts them on the seventh.

East along the ridge to Narkanda and down to the Sutlej at Rampur, then the gorge road into Kinnaur — about 265 km and eight to nine hours, the river far below and the road cut into the cliff for long stretches. Kalpa is 8 km above Reckong Peo at 2,960 m, an apple-orchard village facing the Kinnaur Kailash range, where the Shivling rock on the skyline changes colour through the day. The evening is the view; there is nothing else to do and nothing else needed.

The Sutlej narrows and the country dries: through the Kinnaur checkpost, past the confluence where the Spiti river comes in, and up the Spiti gorge by Nako and its lake to Tabo — about 170 km and six hours, the trees giving out somewhere after the confluence. Tabo sits at about 3,280 m in a flat of green fields, and its monastery, founded in 996 CE, is a compound of mud-brick halls whose murals are among the oldest Buddhist painting in India. The afternoon is spent in them, quietly, with a torch.

A short road day by Spiti standards, about 50 km, taken slowly. Dhankar first, the old capital, its monastery stacked on a cliff of eroded mud above the confluence of the Spiti and Pin rivers, and the short climb to it. Then a detour into the Pin valley, the greener side valley that is a national park for the snow leopard and the ibex, as far as Mud. Into Kaza, the district town at 3,650 m, by afternoon, with the rest of the day for rest — this is the night the altitude is felt, and the itinerary leaves it empty.

The great day in Spiti. Key Monastery first, 12 km north of Kaza, stacked up its conical hill at about 4,100 m — the largest monastery in the valley and the image of it. On to Kibber, once the highest village with a road, and the Chicham bridge across a 300-metre gorge. Then Langza, where the Buddha statue looks down a valley of marine fossils, and Hikkim with the highest post office in the country, and Komik. Back to Kaza by late afternoon. The distances are short and the altitude makes them feel long; the day is paced for it.

West up the Spiti to Losar and over Kunzum La at 4,551 m, 79 km from Kaza, with the chorten at the top and the Chandra valley opening below. The Chandratal road leaves the highway about 8 km down the far side and runs 12 km to a car park a kilometre short of the lake; the last stretch is on foot. Chandratal, the Moon Lake, sits at about 4,300 m and is a Ramsar wetland; the camps are pitched a distance below it, and the evening walk to the shore and the night sky are the point of the night. It is cold, even in July, and the camps are simple by rule.

Back to the highway and down the Chandra valley by Batal and Gramphu — the roughest road of the trip, river crossings included in early summer, and slow — then up to the north portal of the Atal Tunnel and nine kilometres under the Rohtang wall to the green side — the tunnel is open all year and needs no permit, which is what makes this exit reliable. About 140 km and seven to eight hours, ending at Manali at 2,050 m among trees again, which after a week in the desert is its own event. A proper bed, a long dinner, and Old Manali if there is energy for it.

The descent of the Beas and out through Mandi to the plains, about eight hours to Chandigarh and more to Delhi, with nothing else asked of the day. Your Live Traveller journey ends at the airport or the station. If you would rather fly from Bhuntar, an hour below Manali, we book it with the road held as the fallback the valley usually needs.