Day 2: Scott-Kilvert Memorial Hut to Windermere Hut
Distance: not quite sure! 15k? Maybe?
Weather: Misty, light rain, drizzle
Accommodation: Windermere Hut - Lower bunk
🛏 I slept so well last night - best night sleep I’ve had for a while. I love hiker midnight, I woke up around 8.30 am and then lingered for the next hour and a half. I had some breakfast of porridge with Nutella.
⛰ It was a big climb out of the valley and it took around 1.5 hour to get back to the overland track. I took a quick break at the emergency shelter and bumped into a few other hikers.
One of the girls asked... “is that a leech on your leg?!” I looked down and a big blood sucker was feasting on me.
I screamed!!!! How had it attached to my leg and for me not to even feel it!!!
The best thing to do with leeches is to just let them continue sucking and then they will fall off. It not the nicest thing in the world to know that it’s just sucking away.
⏰ After 30 mins later I check again and it was off!!! But it was now trying to crawl out of my shoe. I stopped took my pack off and helped the leech get out of my shoes! I took a selfie with my new friend!!!
🩸 The leech wound continued to bleed none stop - it’s wasn’t clotting and I
could see a lot of the blood was being absorbed into my sock. I stopped to clean it & add a band aid. That’s pretty much all you can do.
The leech releases an anticoagulant which stops your blood for clotting and keeps the wound open - which is all the better for the leech as it makes it much easier for it too feed on your blood.
💦 Although the day was super misty it was still such a beautiful walk! I passed lots of lakes today, Lake Holmes and finished at Lake Windermere.
Windermere Hut is the accommodation for tonight!!
There is an outdoor area under cover where you can hang your wet stuff, you then enter straight into the dining room, before open another sliding door which take you into the sleeping area.
There are 5 bunk beds - all quite spacious so you could squeeze two people onto each. There is also a triple bunk bed.
I arrived around 4pm ish and set myself up, and just relaxed. It was great to chat with the other hikers about the trail and other hikes people had done.
🥾 Randomly there are also 2 other hikers called Sarah who are solo hiking!
📚 My hike is being sponsored by @ciceronepress - Cicerone has a new guide book which launched on the 15th Feb - with everything you need to know about hiking the Overland Track 😀 Head to www.cicerone.co.uk for more info.
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