Attabad Lake

A long lake in upper Hunza Valley, northern Pakistan, between green and turquoise depending on the light, with mountains on both sides. Harry rates it among the most striking things he saw in the country, and it is the thing that most changed his idea of what Pakistan is: he had not known the country was cold, let alone that it had snow-capped mountains and lakes this colour.

It is only a few years old, and a village is underneath it

The lake was made by a landslide on 4 January 2010 that blocked the river. The water backed up and drowned the valley floor behind it. At the shallow end you can still see trees standing out of the water and buildings in the silt — the village that was there before.

Two consequences follow, and both are visible from the boat:

• It created the area’s tourism. Everything on the shoreline — the boats, the restaurants, the hotels — exists because of the disaster. Mac’s summary, looking back at the end of the trip, holds both halves of that at once: it buried villages, and over eleven years it became the thing that supports the local economy, with hotels still going up.
• It cut upper Hunza off from the rest of the valley, and people had to cross by boat. The Chinese-built highway that replaced the crossing came afterwards: an expensive road with something like seven minutes of tunnels in it, which is now how you drive up.

What Harry did

Jet-skied and then took a boat out, in January, with Mac and the guides.

• Jet ski: 1,000 rupees, about $6–7. His first time on one in winter. The water is dead calm, so it is nothing like riding one at sea — no bouncing, and you can carry speed. His hands went numb quickly.
• The first jet ski broke down and he ended up in the water, having said on camera minutes earlier that he did not want to fall in.
• Boat: 4,000 rupees for 20–25 minutes, split between five people. The first boat wouldn’t start either; the replacement was a quiet electric one. Harry drove it — his first time driving a boat — and notes the steering lags badly, which matters more than the speed.

The viewpoint above the lake

On a hill above the water are the remains of a fort — Harry is told it was around 100 years old (from video – unverified) and that nothing was ever done to preserve it, so only rubble and a few wall lines are left. It was built high for defence, and the defence itself was rolling boulders down the slope at anyone climbing up.

The reason to go is the view, which Harry rates the best in Pakistan: the valley, the river running into the lake, two villages, and the Chinese highway threading along the far side.

• You can drive most of the way or walk it in about an hour; even after driving there is a ten-minute climb.
• In winter the sun goes behind the mountains around 2:30pm — go earlier than you would think.
• Four layers is about right, and you will be too hot on the climb and cold at the top.

Practical facts

• Nobody has measured the lake, Harry is told, so its depth isn’t known; a local later puts it at about 15 m (from video – unverified — the two claims come minutes apart and are not reconciled on camera).
• Around 2°C in January with the sun out, which he says feels fine — but the water is close to freezing and the wind on a jet ski is the real cold.
• In summer every boat is taken and you queue. In winter Harry walked straight on to both, which he names as the concrete advantage of coming out of season.
• Most of the restaurants around the lake are shut in winter — there is Chinese food and pizza on the shore, open in season.
• It is about a five-minute drive from the guesthouses in upper Hunza.

Harry’s tips

• Come in winter if you’d rather not queue — the trade is cold hands for an empty lake.
• Take the boat as well as the jet ski if there are a few of you; split five ways it costs less per head than the jet ski did.
• Ask before flying a drone from a moving boat, and expect it to be difficult — Harry calls it the riskiest flying he did in Pakistan and lists the ways it could go wrong while doing it.

Source

• $6 Jet Ski in Hunza Valley, Pakistan 🇵🇰 — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_yfhIIb5Tk4
• I Can’t believe this is Pakistan 🇵🇰 — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2vsIqSZ1xVo
• Travelling on the 2nd Most Deadly Road in the World — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RUN6g8G3zII