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We had been conscious of Mustang as a potential destination since trekking round Annapurna in 1997. We got close to planning a trip before Covid intervened, set our plans aside, and brought them back to life in 2025. It’s a restricted area, and so needs to be visited with a guide. One of our hesitations had been that the trips offered were all quite short. Rather than subscribing to an organised tour we therefore arranged a custom itinerary through Multi Terrain Biking.

It was advertised as a mountain-biking route. Our previous rides in mountainous areas outside Europe had been more in the nature of dirt road cycle touring. We weren’t sure what to expect. In fact the difficulties owed more to looseness, steepness and exposure than to technical obstacles. Most people who go there are probably more hardened mountain bikers than we are.

We took full advantage of the comforts of supported riding, carrying very little by day, and leaving Ajay and Aayman to do the organising. All we had to do was turn the pedals and take photos.

Of all our trips, this is the one on which we covered least distance, both absolutely and per day, but it was also the hilliest if you measure hilliness by ascent per kilometre. The terrain was probably the hardest.

The page border comes from brickwork at the Inn at Patan. Thin bricks are characteristic of Newari (i.e. central Nepalese) architecture, in which most buildings of prestige are brick-built; only a few temples in an Indian style are made from stone.

| route notes : photos : GPS tracks : general info : ride stats