Off-Season Visit to Ratti Gali Lake(2-6 October 2013)

[imarshad]

Glacier on the other side of the lake... It was not as white as it is in early season... But still it was there.... and justa week after our visit it snowed there and the glacier got white top....

[imarshad]

Yes I have reached Ratti Gali....

[imarshad]

Time to go into the lake.... The water was freezing cold.....

[imarshad]

No flowers at the lake due to being so late in the season....

[imarshad]

A different view of the lake...

[imarshad]

Taking a (not) well deserved rest... It was not a difficult trek at all.....

[imarshad]

Adjacent mountains....

[imarshad]

Mansehra village on my way back. It was just 5 min. later that I met Asif Saeed @asifcae .

[imarshad]

On my way back I was almost alone as I was while going up.... It took me roughly 1:30 hours to reach back our base camp. I started returning back from lake at 1:30 and reached there at 3PM. and then I had to wait for almost 2.5 hours till the last team arrived from the lake. Then again me and three friends alongwith a porter left the place to reach our jeeps.

We were leaving while the team was preparing their luggage.

[MultaniTraveler]

@imarshad well done.....................

This trek is also offered to me by Rana Sb. It seem that i really miss a golden chance or may be @[/email]%5b/email%5d%5b/email%5d"]ranasherdil bhai is not going.............

[imarshad]

@imarshad well done.....................

This trek is also offered to me by Rana Sb. It seem that i really miss a golden chance or may be @[/email]%5b/email%5d%5b/email%5d"]ranasherdil bhai is not going.............

Yes I offered Rana bhai to join this trek but he didn't join because of him being busy.... I don't believe any other trip organizer can do this trek in a more affordable way....

[imarshad]

Bypassing the landslide area...
The porters who were with Asif told our porters that on return we should bypass the landslide area...

[imarshad]

Asif toold me that their jeep dropped them to the last point where the crane was working. Finally saw the Machine and knew that yes I've made it..... But alas! the road was blocked some 3KM from this point by another crane and our jeeps were 4KM from this point. So still another 30-45 min. of trek was left.....

Looking down during our descend. This is where Asif's jeep dropped them.

After passing the crane and on the newly built jeep trek.... Another 4KM left but thankfully it was all descend :).

[imarshad]

Finally after 50 min. or so I was the first one to reach our jeeps.... It was almost completely dark.... The teams came in groups and finally after 2 hours of waiting at the jeeps all reached back safely....

[imarshad]

A scary Drive....
and in pitch black conditions we had to descend all the way down to Dowarian in our jeeps on a very very tough trek. Specially the two bridge crossings and one very very sharp turn where the jeep had to reverse and forward a few times were even more scarier in night. Finally we reached back Dowarian and got onto our Coaster and then drove back to Keran for a stay in Keran Resort. Had a very delicious lunch a sound night sleep....

[imarshad]

The Return Journey...
After a sound night's sleep we left Keran at roughly 8AM, and reached Muzaffarabad at 12noon. Had our lunch there and reached back Islamabad at 5PM safe and sound. The return journey was an uneventful and almost non-stop. Most of the time was spent in playing song related games (Like Antakshari etc.).

[imarshad]

and this is my last picture of this trip...
It was taken at Keran and the river is Neelum and the trees on the other side of the river are in Indian Held Kashmir. This is how close we were to the LOC.....

[MultaniTraveler]

and this is my last picture of this trip...
It was taken at Keran and the river is Neelum and the trees on the other side of the river are in Indian Held Kashmir. This is how close we were to the LOC.....

Superb Shot........................

[chill2kill]

exactly thats extremely cold water, and when we have visited this, it was all snow covered except the lake

[asifcae]

and this is my last picture of this trip...
It was taken at Keran and the river is Neelum and the trees on the other side of the river are in Indian Held Kashmir. This is how close we were to the LOC.....

ur last pic was ur best bro.....

it seems u did learn photgrafy in this trip afterall