Waterfall Valley hut to Lake Windermere hut – 7.8 km

Penny cut her toe pretty deeply walking on the wire covered duckboard this morning. I told her to put on her camp shoes, but did she listen? No, she knew better than her old man, I mean he’s old, what does he know? *Sigh* at least she was pretty nonchalant about it, seeing as she manages to do something like this at least once a week.

Today was a ‘short’ day. Often when people say that a section is ‘short’, they are just straight up lying. Or by short they mean a 100 meters less than the day before or something. But, honestly, this was kinda short, which was pleasantly surprising.

The weather we had yesterday was almost perfect for hiking, a little cloudy but not enough to interrupt the views. I even managed to get sunburnt in the afternoon, huzzah!

Today it rained pretty much all day. The rain was on the light side when we started, but it was constant and by the time we stopped to put on our rain gear, only about 15 minutes into the walk, we were soaked through. Ah well, at least we were moving which kept us warm. Mostly.

Initially the girls were a little grumpy, a combination of the weather, still being tired after the big effort the day before and not having the greatest sleep in the hut. But once they embraced the fact that there was no way to stop their feet getting wet they had fun splashing through the many, many puddles we encountered.

I felt a little guilty as the kids wanted to stop and have a break nearly every 10 minutes or so, but I kept them moving as we were trekking across moors and open areas. The wind was cold enough to bring our temperature down quick smart if we stopped for even a couple of minutes.

Note to self: Don’t delay putting the friggin’ rain gear on dude. Jeez

Unsurprisingly Windermere hut is right next to lake Windermer. The guidebook cheerfully declared this a great place for a swim…if you are insane. When we got to the lake we actually saw one guy swimming around in the distance. Closer to the hut there was a big group of folks on the lake shore. ‘Did one of you mad buggers go for a swim?’ a distinctly blue, shivering guy gave a nod. Or a vigorous shiver.

Ellie gave me into trouble. Apparently it’s rude to call people ‘mad buggers’.

“Honey, they went swimming in a lake which is over 1000 meters above sea level and it’s about 12 degrees, with a wind chill of what feels like -1. ‘Mad buggers’ was the politest thing I could think of saying.”

Cold and tired we reached Windermere hut at midday, where some lunch and warm clothes made us feel a whole lot better. It did take a while to warm up though. The huts have heaters, but they can only be turned on if the temp is below 10 degrees. I wasn’t the only one in the hut who checked on the temperature gauge throughout the day. Giving it the occasional tap. It sure felt colder than 10 degrees but the gauge confirmed us as snowflakes and told us all to harden up.

Despite the chill, there was a jovial mood in the hut. A group of young folks (average age looked about 20) were playing Harry Potter trivial pursuit and they graciously let the girls join in. I think Penny surprised them with her knowledge of all things Harry Potter. I did warn them she was obsessed. Penny and Ellie dubbed them as our ‘hut buddies’.

It was nice to relax a little after the last few days of little sleep.

Note to self: Bring more entertainment for the girls. Cards, books etc.