It was a photo of the blue waters of Attabad Lake that inspired me to travel to Pakistan and today is the day that we get to see it in real life. To get there we were hitching and our first ride was in the classic Pakistani little Suzuki car which have an open rear and a bench inside.

The driver was only going as far as the first tunnel on the edge of Attabad so we hopped out with a local family that we’d been hitching with. They all excitedly ran for the entrance of the tunnel and began howling and whooping, listening to the echo bounce back. The mum introduced herself as “my name is …… ….. …. …. Daughter of …. …. …. from the town of Karimabad, Hunza”. I asked her to repeat it again but I still didn’t catch a single name. She was on her way to see an unwell relative in hospital and I kind of loved how they all had high spirits and were hitching and having an adventure along the way.

We all waited in the shade of the tunnel for another ride and the first vehicle to come by was an open-backed truck full of merchandise. The elders spoke to the drivers and shook their hands and next thing the kids started climbing up the side of the vehicle. They all began waving for us to join but we said we didn’t think there was space for us and we could wait for another ride, but they weren’t having that and encouraged us to join them. So I heaved myself up the back side of the truck, climbed over a huge electrical unit and then began scaling some sort of rugs or blankets piled high and overfilling the truck. Then we were off! It was absolutely hilarious, we were precariously balanced atop the pile of stuff with nothing to hold on, the wind was whipping fast into our eyes and mouth, making it hard to breath or speak but it was so much fun. The family were all screaming with joy and we were roaring with laughter, it was like we were all given free tickets to a theme park ride.

As we exited one of the tunnels the sun beamed down on us and Attabad lake was revealed, causing more whoops of joy from everyone and then we were back in the dark tunnel, zooming through at 80kmh. It was just 8km until we needed to get off for our hike so Craig carefully lent forward and tapped the roof of the front cab to let the driver know to stop and then we bid our new friends farewell. It was such a fun experience and a lovely highlight from our time in Pakistan.

We spent a few minutes soaking in the dramatic setting of the lake which was surrounded by high, rocky peaks and then we set off on our hike uphill. Attabad was actually created by a landslide and we’ve heard mixed information from locals but for 2-4 years the people living in the Upper Hunza valley were completely cut off from the rest of Pakistan. They ended up bringing boats to the lake and using them to transport not only people and food but also cars which were precariously balanced at the front of these colourful wooden boats. The locals were disappointed that the government decided to keep the lake as appose to digging away the landslide and putting it back to a flowing river. Some communities were completely submerged under the water and many lives were lost.

It was a steep route uphill and in true Pakistan style it was along a narrow track carved into a cliff face with plenty of dodgy looking overhanging rocks. After about 2 hours we reached the top where there was a lush green meadow filled with apricot trees. It was a little more uphill to reach the edge of the mountainside where we got our first look at the lake way below us. It was epic but we knew there were better vantage points so we opted to walk along the narrow track to the right. When I say narrow it was basically a goat track and halfway along came my friend Vertigo. Suddenly the steep slope leading down to the lake felt way too unsafe and I panicked and went on all fours, calling for Craig to come back and help me. I’m so angry I get vertigo now, I used to be the one who was fearless and Craig suffered from it quite badly but now that tables have turned.

Once we were back on flat ground we made our way up to a different rocky hill which had sheer drops straight down to the lake. I couldn’t get close to the edge and even while videoing and looking through my viewfinder at the water below I turned to jelly and had to get Craig to help me back to the safer area. I absolutely loved the view though, the lake was the most intense blue colour and the desert style pointy mountains around it made it look even more impressive. We spent awhile admiring the view and watching the patterns change on the water as cloud moved across it.

Before we headed back down we decided we wanted to ask some locals living in the meadow if we could buy a bag of apricots. They happily filled up our bag and then invited us for tea inside a very cool cooking sort of shack that they’d built by hand. The back wall was a humongous boulder and at the front was a large curved tree, across the middle they had fabric and sticks holding it in place. On the floor was a sort of cushioned matt to sit on and a fire in the middle with a pot steaming away. We met the mum, dad, one of their kids and his uncle. The uncle was the one who invited us for tea and we sat inside the boulder-kitchen chatting with him and the kid. The young boy told us that he was 1 of 7 kids but two had died in the landslide that created the lake which was really sad to hear. The uncle grabbed a ladle and filled a couple of mugs for us and then tore off some bread and placed it on a plate. He was really cute and giggly and albeit he spoke English his nephew spoke better English so he kept whispering things to get him to translate to us. He was so distracted and giggly that when he was pouring tea for his nephew he unknowingly spilt half of it on the boys shoes.

After a lovely chat but not such a nice tea as it was salty instead of sweet we got up to leave. The uncle grabbed our apricot bag and started adding even more to the bag!! We didn’t have any small change for the apricots so gave them 500 rupees which was about £1.50, a small price for bag of apricots but we’d bought a similar amount in a village for half the price so we at least knew we were paying them well. But low and behold, they wouldn’t accept the money. The uncle was adamant that he wouldn’t take it and it was funny as after us being persistent and explaining that we wanted to pay for the apricots and you gifted us tea the kid said “ok”. We gave it to his mum and she was very grateful, the uncle was still little annoyed that we paid. What a wonderful experience yet again.

Once we made it back down to the main road we walked a couple of kilometres to a boat dock area as we fancied seeing the lake from another perspective. We opted for the mini wooden boat which was the cheapest option at 2500 rupees (£7) for the 30 minute whizz around the lake. The wind had really picked up and the waves were getting choppy but it was still a fun ride, even if I thought at one point we were about to start taking on water. We were made to wear life jackets but the lake was fed by glaciers so if the boat sunk we’d probably die of hypothermia before we could make it to any shoreline.

Two more hitchhiking rides with strangers led us back to Karimabad. It ended up being one of my favourite days in Pakistan, from the beauty of the lake to the hitching adventures with the family, I must admit having countries like Pakistan where there are no rules make it really fun! As we approached Karimabad we noticed it looked a bit moody down the valley and a storm was brewing. The wind caused a huge dust storm and going out for dinner felt like there was an apocalypse. Dust and rubbish were spiralling around us, we had to walk with our hands across our faces and only look though a tiny gap between our fingers. We even had to take refuge in a shop at one point. As we walked under a tree apricots suddenly started falling all around us, it felt like an obstacle course to reach the restaurant. It was our final night in Karimabad so we opted to try some traditional Hunza food. Lightning was striking all around us and the rain began falling moments before we arrived at the eatery. We ordered the two vegetarian options which was a spinach pasta and a really tasty chapati filled with a sort of thick yogurt or cheese, mint and onion.