Welcome to Day 5: The Big Day 
We spent couple of hours last night under the supervision of Rashid bhai 
to get everything in place so that once we reach Dowarian in the morning we won't have to waste any time.
Bags were ready. Hassan Ch. and Shah ji were also ready .... but to leave us and go back
As usual i was doing the job of waking up people from their deep sweet sleep and then got ready myself. Next step was to transfer the bags to the jeep. Rashid bhai and party were already enjoying the early morning views in the lawns and we met again while putting the luggage in the jeep.
Nihal (Rashid bhai's elder son) took some shots for us but my camera was still in the room and when i came down with cam, they went back to the room and we could not meet later as wanted to leave for the trek ASAP.
Once luggage was transferred, we went for breakfast and then did some group shots. Afterwards, we said goodbye to Hassan Ch. and Shah ji and started our journey to one of the prime destinations of this tour ...... Ratti Gali Lake 
Qari sahib had to drop us at Dowarian and then come back to Keran to drop Hassan and Shah ji to Athmuqam. Plus, he also had to collect our remaining bags to keep them in jeep for the next 2 days.
We started our journey from Keran at 7:15 a.m., reached Dowarian in 35 min and immediately started looking for porters. People in bazaar referred us to AJK Rest House just above bazaar and asked us to sit there while they will arrange for porters.
We received the bad news that flood came on 23rd Aug night and destroyed the whole jeep track recently built for first 8 km of Ratti Gali trek. Also, there were 3 very dangerous crossings which locals were advising us not to attempt and instead use the longer route for the trek by climbing up behind Dowarian and cross the mountain back to main Ratti Gali valley around the point where jeep track finishes.
We went to the rest house and started waiting for the porters. It took us 1 hr 45 min to get the porters, divide luggage equally and pack the stuff. We hired 5 porters as the trek was too long to carry heavy bags plus food stuff and it was already quite hot at Dowarian. Rate was Rs. 600 per porter per day. One porter was elder and rest were young boys below or around 20 years. But eventually they proved to be a great team and helped us throughout the trek in best possible way
Porter chacha ji told us that the crossings are not that difficult and we can manage it but need to be careful. So, we decided to go through main route. We started the trek at 9:45 a.m. and sun was very pinching and it was quite hot.
We stopped at a shop to buy some more stuff for the trek and kept moving ahead. The road had been brutally destroyed by the fierce flood and at points, u could not tell that even road used to exist at this point in past. Out of the 3 crossings, only the first one was seriously dangerous while the other 2 were normal stuff in such treks.
Alhamdulillah we crossed all three safely but our pace was being hindered by very hot weather. We were taking lots of stops for water, tang etc. plus were sweating badly.
We covered first 8 kms in 3 hr 45 min and stopped for lunch at a shelter around 1:40 p.m. It happened with me first time but i was feeling cramps just above my knees due to excessive sweating in hot weather and rapidly changing weather and air temperature. I knew we had made a mistake to start the trek in hot weather but now we had to move on.
We took a 40 min break and resumed the trek. I cut down my pace so that i should keep moving till the camping site. We made another stop after 1.5 km distance covered in 1 hour at higher altitude as it was a wonderful cultivated location with shelter houses made on the slope of the mountain.
Finally, i gave up my shoulder bag to Azeem who carried it for me which helped me a lot to maintain good pace ahead. But now i was in familiar territory for trekking in high altitudes so problem was being restricted under bearable levels.
I was taking multiple rests and was doing occasional sit-ups to keep the muscles warm and stretched. Our destination was 2.5 km away and we reached at village "Jhuggiyan" around 6:15 p.m. We took almost 3 hours for last 2.5 km but finally made it to the village with total trekking distance of 12 km in quite hot weather conditions.
Now was the tough task to fix the tents which was done around sunset time. All set and everyone was in the camps at once to take some rest. Villagers provided us chapattis and we used packed food for the dinner.
As if the day was not tough enough ...... the night also had adventure saga for us with 5 hours of torrential rain
It started at 7:30 p.m. while we were doing dinner. We waited for around an hour or so but rain didn't want to stop so finally everyone shifted to their camps and tried to sleep. Rain was too heavy and continued for 5 hours so after couple of hours things started to get wet. I had an extra cover for the camp while the other 2 had more trouble. But at the end, all camps gave up to the rain. We kept lying in sleeping bags which were the only safe dry place.
The thunderstorm calmed down around 1:30 a.m. and finally everyone went to sleep.
Get ready for the virtual trekking experience of Ratti Gali
Night stay in camps at Jhuggiyan on Ratti Gali Lake Trek
