Conquering Manang - Riding the Deadliest Road to Paradise

Mad busses, perilous drops, crashes, burnt clutches and one of the most beautiful places on earth. Welcome to Manang and the mighty Himalayas…

August 30, 2024

By Maddi and Oli (Tilly2Wheels)

Round the world motorcycle travellers

Riding high in Nepal

Nestled somewhere high in Nepal’s northern Annapurna mountain range, there’s a 99 kilometre road leading to mystical Manang… The route is mostly unpaved, untouched by tourists and calls to motorcycle travellers.

For us, that’s where the beauty lies – it’s a road less travelled, filled with endlessly changing landscapes, little traffic and has the mighty Himalayas as a backdrop. It’s truly an adventure rider’s dream and we were about to attempt to ride it two-up…

But, little did we know, the route is also known as the “Deadliest road to paradise”. We soon found out why with the first crash of our round the world trip quickly followed by our first major mechanical failure, all right in the heart of the Himalayas. Here’s our story….

Hot and steamy Kathmandu valley

With 200% concentration mode engaged, we dodged and pushed our way through the hustle and bustle of Kathmandu to a town named Besisahar, also known as the “Gateway to the Himalayas”. This 120km journey takes approximately 5.5 hours paired with a few choice words.

We crawled like snails along the one and only road through the valley. Sweat poured down our backs as we constantly wiped dust from our eyes to see where we were going. We had to keep restarting our hearts as trucks flew past blasting their horns a metre away from our eardrums.

It was hot, messy and chaotic, but a good way to test just how fast your reflexes are on the brakes and keep your thumb hovering nice and close to the horn. Safe to say, our moods weren’t the best as we pulled into our hotel for the night.

A movie scene

Waking up the next morning we were craving fresh mountain air and needed to get away from the hustle and bustle. With the mountains calling us, we set out on our 99km journey to conquer the mighty Manang.

It wasn’t long until the traffic cleared and we started to climb higher and higher on the winding roads into the mountains. The more we rode, the more spectacular it got. The scenery pulled straight out of a movie. It was like a Hollywood producer put up a green screen and here we were riding in it. Deep and endless valleys, sun beams peeking through the towering mountains either side. The higher we rode the more our frustrated spirits from yesterday were lifted.

The roads soon became narrower, the unpaved sections more frequent and the cliff drops became so sheer that one look down and your head would spin as your stomach churned. We felt like mountain goats hugging the mountain side.

But there were so many wow moments along the way that helped distract our minds from the crumbling cliffs. The “oh my god look at that” moments were a great remedy and helped take our minds off the easy possibility of our front wheel bouncing off a rock and sending us toppling down to our certain death…

There were the most beautiful waterfalls you’ve ever seen, some flowing across the road, and some so close you could feel the cool mist rushing over your face. Makes you wonder how difficult and dangerous travel along this road would be in monsoon season.

Taking a break in a colourful little village, we sat listening to the sounds of the Himalayas and were met with fairytale views of mountain goats running along the mountain side. We could watch them for hours as we sipped on our traditional milk tea and devoured our Nepalese momos.

A game of cliffside chicken

But jumping back on the bike we were quickly pulled from our fairytale and pushed straight into an episode of Ice Road Truckers.

There we were, balancing along a narrow road carved into the edge of a vertical cliff, with a drop of some 500m down into a raging river, when a bus thought it was the most convenient time to fly around the corner and pass us in the opposite direction.

With the bus driver hammering his horn, we chose to hug the mountain side. For the adrenaline junkies, you can opt to straddle the cliff side with your foot having nothing to balance on but thin air… no thanks. But scarily there are some cases though that leave motorcyclists with no choice but to do this along this road.

As the bus squeezed past, we simultaneously held our breath and breathed a sigh of relief because we chose to pull over on the mountain side with rocks on our shoulders – and not thin air and a huge drop. The bus squeezed past with just inches to spare from our panniers. If we’d chosen wrong and pulled over by the cliff edge, then one wrong move, a little knock or a few inches closer and we’d probably be tumbling down a cliff. This, however, was our fifth balancing act of the day scraping our panniers with oncoming vehicles, so we had started to accept it as the new Nepalese norm…

Do you smell clutch?

After catching our breath, it wasn’t long until we lost it again – and control of our bike.

Turning the corner onto to a steep and rocky incline, it was difficult to determine a good riding line. Stopping at this point would mean losing momentum, so we went for it. But that’s when the mountain conquered us. The rocks and sheer steepness made us lose all momentum and balance. The hill was so steep it threw us metres back from the bike and left us rolling around on the floor in the dust.

After the initial shock disappeared, we dusted ourselves off, made sure there were no broken bones and then prepared for the most epic Himalayan hill start of all time.

We heaved our Tiger upright and Oli quickly lifted his leg over to straddle the bike. Trying to balance the clutch, power and weight over the rocky incline, we cringed as we heard the engine revving like hell. Battling and bouncing the bike from rock to rock, to our amazement we made it to the top. But our triumphant comeback was soon short lived. When rolling on the throttle, the engine was revving like mad once again, but this time with no power… our clutch was gone.

There we were, battered, bruised, covered in dust and sweat moments after our first crash and our bike had fried with nothing and no one surrounding us but the Himalayan mountains.

Strangers in the night

With the sun setting and the cold night approaching, we regretted not packing our tent so we could at least set up shelter for the night. Then to our surprise, some local riders appeared. Their generosity and hospitality to help complete strangers was like nothing we had experienced. If you ever find yourself in need in Nepal, you don’t have to worry, the people here will always help you.

Riding ahead to the next village, they returned an hour later with the village’s mechanic. And by some miracle, after the clutch had cooled down and the mechanic tinkered around, we had a semi working clutch. At least just enough to get us to the next village by dark where we could find a room, hot shower and meal for the night. You can bet after this we now carry spare clutch plates. They’re a Himalayan necessity.

Reaching victory!

The morning came and as we pulled our tired bodies out of bed, we were met with the smell of smoke from the village blessing ritual. The locals explained they do this every morning to get rid of any bad spirits and bring good blessings to the village. We figured we could use some good blessings after yesterday so happily joined in.

With every bruised bone in our body crossed, we attempted to start the bike to see if we could continue our journey. And by some miracle… or maybe it was the smoke blessing? Well, whatever it was, our clutch was still holding in there. We were going to conquer Manang.

Determined, we both jumped back on the bike and it wasn’t long until the snow peaked mountains appeared. Riding through the valley floor on our motorcycle we felt like ants surrounded by 8,000m high giants. The beauty of this place is hard to put into words, the snow covered mountain tops, humungous ice glaciers, wide flowing rivers, beautiful villages covered in prayer flags and yaks strolling around. It was yet another scene out of a fairytale book.

Arriving into the Manang village we felt both a huge sense of achievement, and a touch of altitude sickness at a height of 3,500m. But the headache and lack of oxygen was worth it. This was the most challenging, heart stopping, yet breathtaking ride we ever have done.

The road conditions are challenging and definitely live up to the name of the deadliest road to paradise, but that’s exactly what makes the adventure and also maintains the beauty of Manang. It remains wild and untouched, and we are so grateful we got to experience it in the way we did. It was worth every bruise and heart stopping moment to get there.

Maddi and Oli

Your turn

If you’re interested in riding to Manang, have a read of Maddi and Oli’s guide on how to get there. You’ll find all our motorcycle travel guides for Nepal including more stories, routes, rides, reports and info for overlanders in the Nepal Destinations section.

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About the authors

Maddi and Oli first met in Brisbane, Australia. Oli travelled from Germany to study in Brisbane and when they met they immediately clicked with their shared passion for motorcycles. It wasn’t long until their love story began, and soon after they took the leap to quit their jobs and sell everything they owned to travel around the world on their beloved ‘Tilly’ Triumph Tiger XCA 800.

Starting in January 2024, so far they have ridden through SE Asia and conquered over 12,000 kms (and the 40C+ heat). They are now in South Asia riding through the Himalayas, Stan countries and into Europe before continuing around the rest of the world through South America up to Alaska and all the way back home to Australia.

Follow their awesome journey here:

+ YouTube @tilly2wheels
+ Instagram @tilly2wheels
+ Facebook @tilly2wheels

Check out more from Maddi and Olli on Mad or Nomad:

+ Why Riding Around the World is Beautifully Exhausting
+ How to Motorcycle to Manang