Dear Pakwheels fellows,
Since my first visit to Dowarian (In Neelum valley) back in 2010 I had always dreamed of going to Ratti Gali lake one day. This season all plans of going there after Ramazan were washed away by continuous spell of rain in July/August/September. So when I saw the following event on facebook I said what the heck even if the season is off, the beauty of the lake/track might be reduced to merely 10% of it's original but I am still going.
https://www.facebook.com/events/489493414474966/
So I asked all my friends here at Pakwheels to join me but no one was interested :S due to one reason or another ( @Shahbazzain , @[/email]%5b/email%5d%5b/email%5d"]ranasherdil , @emmaar , @[/email]%5b/email%5d%5b/email%5d"]m_Mahmud , @BILAL3538 ). Since it was a very cheap deal (Rs. 6000 only) and I had no plans for the weekend and also I had no problems what so ever for the leaves so I decided to join the above team and go for Ratti Gali lake.
Route Info:
Islamabad-Danna (Roughly 55 KM) (1 Hour)
We took the Murree Expressway and rather then turning towards Murree from Musiyari we went straight and reached Danna.
Danna - Kohala (Roughly 40 KM) (1-1.5 Hour)
The road condition is good. We took the Phagwari route rather than taking the Bhurban-Deval route. Although the Bhurban-Kohala route is shorter but it is more steep and more dangerous.
Kohala - Muzaffarabad (Roughly 34 KM) (1 Hour)
Good road with quite a few areas affected by landsliding. Also we had to take a diversion at the start due to landsliding.
Muzaffarabad - Nusehri (Roughly 42 KM) (1.5 Hours)
Very good and newly built road with the exception of a 2km Patch about 10km from Muzaffarabad. Due to heavy rainfall this area can have frequent landslides and can get closed and cleared throughout the day during rain.
Nusehri -Kundal Shahi- Athmuqam - Keran - Dowarian (Roughly 68 KM) (At least 4-5 Hours)
Very good and newly built road from about 2km past Nusehri to a few KM shy of Dowarian. Absolutely joy to ride and drive.
Dowarian - Ratti Gali (18KM)
Dowarian to Ratti Gali lake is 18KM quite steep ascend along the Ratti Gali Nala. Uptil 2 years ago one had to start the hike from Dowarian but now they are making a jeep track all the way upto the Base Camp of the lake. 10KM of this trek is completed and jeeps can reach there. But keep in mind that during rain or after rain this track is impossible for a jeep to cross because it is still a Mud track and is quite steep.
Daywise Itinerary:
Day1:
Left Islamabad at 10AM. Reached Muzaffarabad at 2:40 PM. Had lunch in Mir Continental Hotel. Left Muzaffarabad at 4:30PM and reached Keran at 8:30 PM and had our lunch at Keran resorts and stayed there for the night.
Day2:
We left Keran at 6AM. Reached Dowarian at 6:30AM and then had to wait for 5 hours to get onto the jeeps. This was the only mismanagement of the whole tour. The jeeps were there but the organisors were preparing food for lunch and we had to wait for them and finally we left Dowarian on jeeps at roughly 11:30AM and reached the last jeepable point at 1PM. Started the hike and I reached our pre decided staying area at 4PM with two more hikers and a porter. We had to cross a very difficult and dangerous landsliding area. It was merely 100m but it took us 30 minutes to cross and it was really scary. We started waiting for the other team members . But they were too much tired to reach our pre decided point (after crossing the very difficult land sliding area in 2 hours!!!) and they stayed almost 2KM before us. They send porters towards us so we had to go back in pitch black conditions to reach them.
Day3:
Started from our staying area at 7:30AM. Reached Domail in 45 min. (The place from where we had to go back the previous night). Reached Base Camp of lake in 2 hours and reached the lake in 3 hours. Had to wait for almost 3 hours on the lake for the last team to arrive. As soon as the last team arrived started the descend. Reached our staying area at roughly 3PM. Took some rest there and also enjoyed our lunch. As soon as the last team arrived we (i.e me and 4 other people left). We reached the jeeps at roughly 6PM. Had to wait for almost 2 hours till all the people arrived. Then travelled on the very dangerous track in night and reached Dowarian at 9:30PM. Left Dowarian and reached Keran where we stayed for the night.
Day4:
Left Dowarian at 8AM and had our lunch at Muzaffarabad. Reached back Islamabad at 5PM.
Remaining details will be added during the course of this thread......