Rawlakot valley AK visit from Karachi during first week of February with office colleague

[atifpia]

3FEB: After breakfast we program to go kot mattay ali khan ,where first president of AK mousoleum and its a good hilly place, sunny weather temperature is nice around 40-50 min drive we hired hiroof and went back around asr. see pics below

[atifpia]

[atifpia]

our hiroof unable to go to mousoleum due to patch of hard snow and stayed around a km before so we walk thru and enjoyed the weather and as usual some photography of envoirnment.

[atifpia]

4-FEB: After breakfast at hotel we again booked hiroof for Banjosa lake and zoo visit. Now the weather is a bit cooled, no sun out there.
First we visit zoo area as it is on more height which is full of snow covered but again we left hiroof around 2km before zoo and went on foot. see pics below

[atifpia]

Then we went to frozen Banjosa lake, its first time i saw frozen lake, its a great enjoyable experience, although weather is tough because no sun out there but we enjoyed a lot .

[andaparatha]

was the lake frozen enough to walk on it?

[atifpia]

No not looks like.
Top is frozen , not deep enough, in side side areas water is seen with ducks sitting, while main lake top is frozen , but through spillways water is flowing from main lake. so i think lake is not deeply frozen , also temperature is not low enough, its still in + degree C.

[atifpia]

The last point in the valley is toli peer, the highest peak around 8800 ft above sea level. We tried to hire 4wd vehicle, but there are few available only used for goods transport not suitable . we r not risking on hiroof. So we cancelled it.
Now what to do next , we still have few days of vacation so we decided to go Bagh area.

But next morning weather is very cloudy and it start raining and as per locals it will definately be snowfall later so we decided to stay here & enjoy snowfall.

Around midday rain converted into snowfall and we really enjoyed first time in our life.
see pics below snow fall, for better viewing experience see full size.

[usman_haider84]

I went to banjosa lake one montb ago and in morning lake was frozen but not white like this. Still i managed to walk on it.

[atifpia]

Walk on the lake, its a good idea but it wasn't in our minds. So we can't try it also we can't see anybody to do that.
Thanks for sharing ur ideas.

[atifpia]

Next morning weather is fully overcast, and soon after breakfast rain start, as per rest house staff rain/snowfall spell normally expected to continue several days. so we decided to shorten our trip and leave midday to ISB.
We reached ISB around maghrib, stayed at night in hotels at Khadda market islamabad.

For our return flight to KHI i contacted PIA call centre to plan our return journey. It turn out to be very tough as only early morning flt 0635 is suitable for chance passangers rst all day flts r fully packed so we get up early morning 3 oclock , take uber and careem (as we r 5 passangers with luggage) and went to ISB airport . Thanks to Allah we all get boarded with some difficulties and landed karachi on time.

So our great winter tour ends, where we enjoyed snow fall, snowy mountains around and snow around our feets.
For karachi persons its tough but manageable and we enjoyed a lot..

[aghaabbas]

Bohat Alla....

[atifpia]

Visit my flickr page to see videos and few more hi quality photos of rawlakot tour

RAWLAKOT

[OvaisAlam]

Ma Sha Allah, the tree (which is standing alone) looking beautiful.

[atifpia]

Thanks ovais, I think its my best of tour, good blue sky and sunshine on snow make it differant

[arsal396]

zaberdast

[aks_e_ahmed]

Very nice pics

[aftab.khan3]

Lovely weather.

[tourist]

So Beautiful
Nice photos

[zeeshan5586]

amazing views !