My flight departed from the new Islamabad Airport on 31^st September around 9:30 AM. The new airport is located just outside the city, so it is much bigger and has a better design overall.

We start our journey through Muzaffarabad, the capital of Kashmir. After spending the night there, we drive to the Neelum Valley. The route is very scenic, as one can see villages and rivers from the mountain cliffs.

Neelum is famous for its glacial lakes and rivers, so we head towards Dowarian village. The Neelum river flows besides the main road. In the afternoon, we rent a Jeep to visit the Ratti Gali Lake, which is located at ~12,000 feet. The lake is only 18 KMs from Dowarian village, however, due to a high gain in altitude (~6,000 feet) and the rocky terrain, the journey takes around 2 hours.

The base camp is surrounded by tents. It rained almost all night, but the weather cleared for a few hours around midnight. Even though its remoteness, there is still Wi-Fi up there. The locals also generate electricity through water turbines. As there wasn’t much lighting in this area, stars, planets, and the Milky Way were easily visible during the night. Due to the high altitude, it takes a long time to cook food, and often pressure cookers are used, even for boiling eggs.

At around 8:00 AM, we head towards the Ratti Gali Lake, which is a ~40 minutes hike from the base camp. As it was raining in the morning, the mud was slippery, so it took us nearly an hour to reach the top. Our our way, we were greeted by a baby goat. He followed us all the way to the top, and was quite helpful in navigating us towards the dry land.

Ratti Gali translates to “Red Alley”. The name probably comes from the unusual flowers that surround the valley. After some time the rain stopped and the clouds cleared. The sun made for a pleasant experience. Herds of cows were grazing the grass.

Ratti Gali was as serene and breathtaking as ever. The locals welcomed us with warm tea and hard-boiled eggs.

Clouds started to surround the mountains on our way back.