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Pari Lake Trek
Izmis Lake, Swat

Pari (Fairy) Lake Swat Valley – Pakistan

Pari Lake:

Pari/Fairy or Khapiro, all these names are of the same lake, to which locals call it Khapiro Dandh. Google Earth shows only one big lake on the map however there are two lakes in fact. Fairy 1 is the water source of the Fairy 2, but it is relatively smaller in size, as compare to the Fairy 2. A big stone-type wall separates both the lakes from each other. When you reach Fairy 1 you have to cross Fairy 2. It takes almost 20 to 25 minutes of trekking to reach there.

Treks:

To reach Pari or Fairy lake, there are two treks. One is from Kundol lake and other is from Izmis lake. Furthermore, there are two treks from Kundol too. One starts just before lake from the right side of mountainh. It is quite steep and challenging ascending. The other trek starts from Jabba Banda after crossing 1.5 kilometres of distance from Kundol lake.

Jabba Banda:

Jabba Banda is a beautiful meadows and an ideal place for camping. You will find a few shepherd huts there on both sides of the mountain. From Jabba Banda, there is a Pass, from where you can directly descend to Behrain. There is a small descending alongwith camping site. There is a wooden bridge over the river. From there upon, you are on the trek of Fairy lakes and just have to forget the plain trekking.

Ascending:

Continuous ascending starts from there. At the beginning, it is a gradual descend within the boulders. Then suddenly it turns out a rocky ascent after a few hundred meters. It’s significance is its trek, which I like the most. You will enjoy beautiful scenic view of the Kundol lake. During half of the trekking, seeing Kundol lake from such height is quite amazing. As soon as Kundol lake gets disappear from the sight, small waterfalls of fairy lake welcome you. These waterfalls scattered on whole trek up to the lake.

Tough Rough Patch:

There is a small patch which gives tough time to cross the remaining trek. It is a steep ascending with big boulders and pastures. The locs take their livestock there in summers, when the fodder is scarce in plain areas.

Camping:

We planned of camping at the lake. I was wondering during trekking that there is not a single plain patch there. As I couldn’t find as yet, so possibly we would have been to camp along with the lake. While thinking all this, I was ascending towards lake with the group fellows. Some of the friends impatiently started asking how much climbing remains? In this regard, I am thankful to the local people. I have learn one thing from them, which is a simple answer “bus thora sa aur reh gya hai” or “bus yeh samnay wali jagha hi hai” lol. It was the same strategy, I adopted there too.

Timing:

At around 2 PM, we were in front of Pari/Fairy lake 2. Thinking of befitting answer why it is named as Fairy. The crystal clear water of the lake looks blue with mirror to shade of the Sky. Suddenly sky started covering with clouds and the color of lake turns blacky. In the meantime our guide and porters reached there with the luggage. Now we have to setup camps and prepare food.

Scenario:

Luckily we find a suitable space for camping and fixed 5 camps altogether. After helping in setting up camps, I returned to the lake. It is located in the foothill of the tallest mountains of the area. The clouds hides the Sun and water of lake seems dark black now. The outcome of the name research is that it is perhaps given because of its changing colors, with the blink of eye. Locals believe that the place is abode of Fairies. They bathe in cool, pure and crystal clear water of lake. Some of the locals even hesitant for camping there.

Cooking:

Now the next task was to prepare food. For this purpose, we have arrangements of Gas cylinder but unfortunately Daewoo Bus managment did not allow us to take it alongwith us. We had to arrange another one from Utror. But again we got a shocking news. After reaching there the porters handed over an empty cylinder to us. Hence we asked them to fetch wood for cooking. After efforts of an hour, they managed to gether enough wood for making fire.

Precautions:

After having green Tea and Noodles, everyone was fresh again. As the Sun already hid behind the mountains, we were feeling cold. We were on high altitude of 4,100 metres above sea level. First Aid kit is very important in such sitation during the trekking, with basic medicines for high altitude sickness, fever and pain killers.

Fairy Lake 01:

In the morning, alongwith 2 friends, I visited the Fairy lake 1. I found out it smaller as compare to Fairy 2. Swimming pieces of snowflakes makes it more attractive. When done with breakfast, we started trekking towards Izmis lake. After a final ascent of Fairy lake trek, there is again very steep ascending with green pastures. After 35 minutes, we were on the top of the Pass from where we descend down toward Izmis lake. I will share the remaining details of the trek in other blog to come, as this was the technical part of the whole trek. The trek from Kundol is steeper as compare to Izmis side. But Izmis offers a wonderful scenery of Kalam Banda. It took five hours with chilly winds to reach to the Izmis lake.

Itinerary:

5 day trekking itinerary was as like below.
01

  • Kalam to last Jeep Point ahead of Laddu (2 Hours)
  • Jeep Point to Spin Khwar (Total Time 4 Hours)
  • Camping at Jeep Point

02

  • Jeep Point to Kundol Lake (3 Hours)
  • Kundol Lake to Jabba Banda (1 Hour)
  • Camping at Jabba Banda

03

  • Jabba Banda to Pari/Fairy Lake (5 Hours)
  • Camping at Fairy Lake

04

  • Pari/Fairy Lake to Izmis Lake (5 Hours)
  • Camping at Izmis Lake

05

  • Izmis Lake to Batool Jeep Point (5 Hours)

Author: Afaq Mahsud

About Fehmeeda Farid Khan

A freelancer, blogger, content writer, translator, tour consultant, proofreader, environmentalist, social mobilizer, poetess and novelist. As a physically challenged person, she extends advocacy on disability related issues. She's masters in Economics and Linguistics along with B.Ed.

4 comments

  1. Well done Afaq Mahsud 🙂
    You do a great job…

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  3. Such an amazing blog that represents the beauty of Swat valley, I feel that I have to book a tour to Pakistan to explore it very closely and feel that beauty.

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