Overland Track Cradle Mountain to Lake Saint Clair Day 2

hypothermia
the condition of having an abnormally (typically dangerously) low body temperature.

To say I was cold overnight would be an understatement. Parks tell you to expect all weather conditions and to take at least a minus 10 sleeping bag which to me is overkill especially because I've spent plenty of cold nights in Tassies highlands right........wrong!!

I use a minus 7 Enlightened Equipment quilt and what I thought was a reasonably rated (R Value 3.5) sleeping mat but neither of which were adequate for the night I spent at Waterfall Valley. The ranger said it got down to minus 5 inside the hut so I am not sure what it was outside on the wet ground but I don't think I slept too well. I put every bit of clothing I had on and survived obviously but I never want to spend another cold night like that again.

I laid in bed until the sun was high enough to start to warm my tent up, made a coffee and had some breakfast.

After packing up I checked out my kilometres from the previous day, took a few pics of the surrounding area and started heading towards Lake Windermere which was to be a quite a short walk.

It is another magnificent day and I was very tempted to go back up the hill to summit Barn Bluff but not really knowing what was ahead of me and not being 100% confident in my fitness and how my body was going to hold up over 6 or so consecutive days I decided to give it a miss and just head towards the next location.

Todays walk had some of the most spectacular outlooks of the whole trip, you really just had to be there to appreciate it. My photography certainly doesn't do it justice.

I arrived at the junction to Lake Wills and found a couple of packs that had been raided by the infamous Currawongs! I wasn't comfortable repacking the packs without the owners permission so I sat there waiting for the owners to come back.

In the meantime some other people arrived and we all agreed the best thing to do would be to do our best fixing it all up for them. So we did.

I then proceeded to head down to Lake Wills where I met the two ladies who owned the packs and informed them that they may be short a few meals due to the birds being clever enough to undo their zips ;)

I didn't bother to go all the way around Lake Wills or visit the waterfall as I was also concerned about my own pack and food in it given that the Currawongs were so aggressive getting into packs at that junction.

So I went as far as I felt I needed to and took some pics.

On my return I noticed a bit of a fire over near what I would have thought was the Mersey Forest area.

But as Barn Bluff and Cradle Mountain finally started to leave the view I continued on towards Lake Windermere.

As I got close enough to see the Lake the Fagus was once again quite prominent.

And then before yo know it you are right on the lakes edge.

Not too far up the track (or boardwalk) you arrive at the hut.

I set up camp on a platform hoping it would be warmer than the previous night and decided to make my next days lunch. However the mountain bread I was using dried out too quickly so I had to eat my lunch as a snack on the spot!