Yesterday Don and I decided to start walking separately because he wanted breakfast and I do that whilst hiking. So I started just before 8, which is in my opinion not extremely early as there is 24h daylight. And in the distance I could see other hikers ahead of me.
Getting of our camping-spot I realised that still more people had come and also slightly further up there were even more tents. So it would be a busy day on trail.
The day started with a small climb which was enjoyable. The rest that I walked by myself was mainly rocky footpath. So the pace wasn’t the 5km/h which I’m accustomed to, but more 3,5 km/h. The only people ahead if me walked a similar pace and very slowly I got closure. Although I’m sure they didn’t know they had a target on there back. When they took a break I overtook them and now I was leader of the peleton. Because looking back I saw a stream of people and Donald catching up with me. I didn’t want to let that happen do I switched on turbo mode. This did give me some additional time but eventually we were reunited.
The weather was cloudy and the views nice, but to be honest not as spectacular as I expected. Once we saw the lake the view became more pleasing. At the end of the lake was the first hut of the day and we hoped to eat our lunch there. The circa 5km along the lake felt endless, but eventually we got to the hut in time for lunch.
For lunch a Dutch couple joined us and especially the woman was into hiking and brought along her new boyfriend (there age mid-forties?). Nice chat but they seemed to have a different understanding of the facilities the huts would provide. For instance that they would serve coffee and accept your trash. While I was surprised nearly every hut had a shop which was supplied once a year by helicopter to reduce the cost. The explanation made them accept the situation more.
They continued as we finished. So after lunch it was just us again and the many people who came from the opposite direction. The afternoon was also a slow trail and I had a HUGE after dinner dip with eyelids falling. We ended up very close to the next hut before finding a camp spot. Nicely hidden away from the trail, close to the large valley floor river and into the home of 100.000 mosquito, which I realised too late preferred me over Donald. So during the 5 minutes it took to set up the tent , I already had 30 bites. Literally.
Bathing time was no pleasure either. The water temperature near zero, but once out of the water it was a war for my blood.
Putting on rain gear which made eating dinner bearable, but I wasn’t as happy as normal
In the tent I drank my night time tea and then went to sleep.
Zilla-in-the-wild 