Swaik Lake had been on my list for a long time but without much information available on the net I was a bit apprehensive. All this changed when I saw the post from Falcon Tours about a trip to Swaik Lake on the last Sunday of May. I called them up to confirm my place for the trip but was informed that there are not enough people who have signed up and trip might not happen (at least not from Islamabad). At this point my entrepreneurial skills kicked in and I proposed that I could take up to 3 people from Islamabad in my own car and we can share the fuel cost. After some deliberations the proposal was accepted and we were asked to meet up at the Falcon office in G-11/3 at 8:00 am on Sunday.

Getting up early on Sunday is not exactly my cup of tea but I managed to arrive at the Falcon office by around 8:15 am. There were 3 people who were waiting for the ride and after loading all the essentials required for the trip we were on our way. We reached Kallar Kahar in about 1 hour 30 minutes where we had a small break for tea. This also allowed the team from Lahore to join us. At around 11:30 am we were on our way towards Swaik via Choa Saidan Shah Road. After traveling for about half an our we were at the trail head that leads to the Swaik Lake.

The hike to the Swaik Lake is quite similar to the hike to Neela Wahan although the level of difficulty is a bit higher. The trail is quite wide for about 10 to 15 minutes after which it narrows down and steeply declines towards the gorge that encapsulates the lake. A further 30 minutes on this trail and we were down to the base and the lake was right in front. The lake has become quite a popular place in recent times and there were about 100 odd people enjoying the cool waters of this lake.

We spent about 3-4 hours at the lake swimming, cliff diving and enjoying the delicious BBQ that Falcon folks had prepared. Our guide Mr. Mehmood was quite a pleasant company and we enjoyed the stories he had to tell about his various trips. The group from Lahore as well as the 3 folks travelling with me were quite a friendly bunch and we bonded quite well. In between all these activities I had enough time to read one chapter of my book “Karachi – Our Stories”. After drying out our clothes and collecting the trash we decided to head back to where our cars were parked. The return journey was a bit more taxing as we now had to climb up and out of the gorge.

All in all it was a very memorable journey and I made a lot of friends. The only sore point was that the place was not as clean as I would have liked it to be. We plan to arrange a special trip in which we will go there equipped with garbage bags and clean up the place ourselves!

General Directions

For Detailed Directions Click Here

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B6FHay4T7jHqZkR5U2RKVW1Tc28