Day Three - Windemere to New Pelion

Wednesday. This was an exciting morning. After the trials of Monday, and a fairly boring day sitting around after Tuesdays short stretch, I cannot tell you how zippy we felt waking up to a crispy clear sky morning, knowing our longest day was waiting ahead for us.

Today took us just shy of 17km, across a stunning plateau that had us gagging on dopamine, down down down and down some more to Frogg Flats (the tracks lowest point) and then up for a final climb to New Pelion Hut. Today was also the Day of the Fucking Tree Root, which were stepped over, slipped on, and generally mouthed off at for the next few days. One of my biggest tips for the OLT is to take hiking poles. I consider myself a fairly agile and sure-footed little scamp but good lord poles came in handy for the endless pools of mud, tangles of tree roots, and sketchy descents over rock. Plus they make you feel like some kind of human-spider hybrid.

After enjoying a sunrise, we skipped off into the frosty morning, yapping away like happy rats. The sun was peeking out, we could actually see what was around us, and I had managed to sleep the night before, magic. We turned around to take in the view and were very happy to spot Barn Bluff behind us, the summit we hadn't been able to glimpse for the past two days. You can peep my photo of it through the trees.

Walking across the plateau, in clear weather, was an absolute trip highlight. We were so blessed with weather this trip, shoutout Lady MC. I should've taken a panoramic pic, as we were surrounded on all sides by mountains. Ossa, Oakleigh, Barn Bluff, Pelion East & West, and some others who didn't tell me their names.

Coming down onto the plateau was where I also achieved the first and only stack of the week, which greatly entertained both us and the couple walking just ahead of us. We were stepping down big sections of the track, and the step ahead of me had a smooth old log laying across, acting as the edge of the step. As we're all aware, in order to descend a step, one must step on it. Logs, however, are fucking slippery when wet with morning dew. Out flies the foot, down the step I go, landing half in a bush with one leg stretched out in front of me and the other trapped underneath my bag/body. As with 99% of my falls, came out completely and mystifyingly unscathed. I squawked and laughed and garnered a lot of attention as I tried and comically failed to get up. As well as sitting on one of my legs, I also had one of my arms outstretched, hand through the loop of my pole, while the end of the pole was firmly wedged under my arse. In hindsight, anyone who wasn't a fucking idiot would've just slipped their hand out and let go of the pole. Spoiler alert, I didn't. I was helped up like a toddler who's gone 'dead bug' and all was well. The couple nearby were also very impressed with the fact my watch immediately started buzzing and beeping at me that I'd had An Emergency and that it was contacting Dylan Dewhurst at once. How cute, how earnest.もっと詳しく