UKC

Hi

Just a heads up. Partner and I both poorly after drinking from streams draining into the wee lake. She,s spewing for Britain and I'm following thru

Climbing good though!. :

In reply to alasdair19:
Did you treat the water with anything?

In reply to gethin_allen:

Fine wines and belgian chocolates?

In reply to gethin_allen: nope, never have in UK and didn't even.consider it

In reply to alasdair19:

Maybe buy a UV pen for next time

In reply to alasdair19:

There's a lesson there.

In reply to alasdair19:

I hope you (and Alex?) have a quick recovery.

In reply to alasdair19:

Hope you both recover soon.

As others have said, it's best to view some UK mountain streams with at least some suspicion. The upland areas of places like North Wales are essentially farmland, with heavy sheep populations at this time of year. Add in dry weather and the scarcity of drinking water for those animals and you are pretty much guaranteed to be sharing drinking water. Crypto, liver fluke and other nasty surprises can be found in our summer water...

In reply to alasdair19:

I got Gardial Lamblis once from water at the top of Helvellyn. It took 4 years before a full recovery.

I would not wish this on my worst enemy. Get yourself tested with your GP as you don't want this protasoa taking up residence in your gut.

In reply to alasdair19:
Bad luck - hope you recover soon.

I suffered from a serious stomach upset after drinking water on Scafell and have purified all mountain water ever since.

In reply to alasdair19:

Have you got the eggy burps?

In reply to Only a hill:

What a great service! Thanks from all of us.

In reply to richprideaux:

Most surely?

In reply to alasdair19: I got Gardial Lamblis from a stream in wales. Lost 3 stone. The worst smelling shits ever! For 3 months.

In reply to jon:

What's the significance of eggy burps? I've been ill for the last week, I thought it was a bug I caught from my little brother but it could be something else...

I've been swimming a lot in the lakes in N Wales the last couple of weeks.

In reply to Jack_Lewin:

Well giardia, for one: http://www.yogawiz.com/blog/home-remedies/sulfur-and-egg-smelling-burps-cau...

In reply to alasdair19:
Considering how many animals were killed by the late season snow this year it's probably a good guess that most streams will have something putrid in it.

In reply to alasdair19: There is no way you can be certain it was the water without tests.

In reply to alasdair19: you need to buy one of the new water to go bottles ,been using mine for a couple of weeks in all sorts of streams ,tarns and springs ,excellent ..

In reply to higherclimbingwales: One can have an educated guess though.

High alpine streams might be okay, but I'm not sure of many places I'd drink the water in the UK, would have to be very sure it's below the sheep line.

Personal choice and all that...

In reply to Timmd:

i grew up on a farm that the water supply came off the hill, untreated straight to the taps. the intake was in a sheep field, in summer it wouldn't even be a discernable trickle but none of the family ever got ill from it.

Consequently I have never treated water from upland areas. Maybe I've just been lucky.

In reply to Max factor:

You're body probably built up a significant immunity I'd imagine

In reply to xplorer: I've been drinking mountain stream water quite happily for 20 + years but I guess most of that was highland. No eggy burps thank goodness.

Ed _ Alex was fine in 24 hours but more dramatically ill.

Is there any tests done on upland water?

In reply to Max factor:

Interesting, maybe you've the constitution of a goat?

I've eaten reheated rice loads of times and been okay thinking about it...

In reply to alasdair19:

Can you do us a favour and get tested so we can find out what the actual culprit is? I feel that this story needs a proper conclusion now.

I drank from a refreshing stream on the side of Snowdon once. When we go it further up the hill we found a dead sheep in the stream.

Didn't get ill though.

In reply to Timmd:

What's wrong with re-heated rice?!

In reply to KingStapo:

I can solve that for you: They both had what's known as "the shits".

think it was more likely to have been the Suicide Wall stream (drunk earlier in day) as we'd drunk Cloggy water tue and wed with no ill effects. apparently it can be as fast acting as half an hour for the ill to kick in after drinking the offensive water. still being sick and the other thing this morning! :/

In reply to the half-an-hour thing (this is Al's wife pinching his identity), I would still say 24-48 hours is more typical. Just wikki'd campylobacter to check this and from what I remember about public health, this is the case for lots of other bacteria too. That said, it is all a bit vague and since it's organism specific, you don't know whether youre talking 30 minutes or 3 days until you know what bug caused it (also I think it depends whether you swallowed 10 of the buggers or 10 thousand), so guess it's not helping much..... hope you get better soon.....

In reply to higherclimbingwales:

Well said. As someone else pointed out, 24 hours is more usual so could as easily be caused by breakfast, last night's dinner, etc.

In reply to Bobling:
Re-heated rice causes more food poisoning world wide than almost any other food believe it or not! I've had no such problems luckily

In reply to CrimpShrimp:

Interesting, so I googled it:

In reply to alasdair19:

Rice contains some nasties that aren't killed by cooking.

So while rice looks benign, any that has sat in a nice warm room for a while can be a little suspect.

In reply to alasdair19:

>> Apart from dead sheep, disease etc. "clean" hill water that runs through bracken carries bracken spores which can cause stomach cancer.

In reply to mockerkin:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1756650/

In reply to alasdair19: Get well soon! Drank untreated from several streams but never outside the Highlands (and not any honeypots there), never had problems yet, touch wood! I don't drink from anywhere that is busy with people, in addition to sheep!

In reply to Max factor:

So did I, I've never had a problem drinking from streams either.

In reply to alasdair19: I for one don't believe it's anything to do with the quality of the water. Highly considering walking up there just to collect some water so I can drink it to prove that it's safe to drink. Oh, wait there, one person drinking the water from there with no ill effects won't prove anything.

In reply to 1234None: haha good one

In reply to Timmd:
would have to be very sure it's below the sheep line.
Do you mean above?

In reply to alasdair19: "Just a heads up. Partner and I both poorly after drinking from streams draining into the wee lake. She,s spewing for Britain and I'm following thru"

Surely there was a clue in the fact that it was a wee lake? I'd never drink from a lake full of piss.

In reply to winst0n: amazingly we were drinking out of the streams that fill the lake as opposed to stagnant water

In reply to Toreador:

You and I have just given some good advice i.e. carry your water.
The article mentions animals e.g. hill sheep. Glad that they are slaughtered before they die of bracken cancer, or will we get cancer by eating them? Red deer?

In reply to alasdair19: Get well soon guys. So sorry to hear you have got sick and thanks for the warning.

Just throwing my 2 penneth into the ring as one does on these forums!

My comments are not aimed at anyone, just sharing experiences.

I work in the Welsh hills and taking young people out for walking + camping expeditions. Mostly not in the honey pots of the North of the park more often in the south of Snowdonia. We have sheep and bracken an so on but a lot less tourists it's quite remote in fact.

I drink my water straight from a huge range carefully selected streams at least 4 days a week every week, spring, summer and autumn and rarely purify it. I choose streams with a good flow, running over a drop, and that have only just come into existence within the last few hundred meters and hence don't run from, farms, settlements, footpaths, climbing crags, campsites or lakes.

I have never ever got sick from doing this for quite a few years.

Personally I think people are far more likely to pollute the water than a few hill sheep even if there is a dead one around.

Obviously as I have no proper evidence for this belief so I get my students to take proper precautions but I often feel they miss out on the taste of what is really a very clean environment.

(I would not put anywhere on the Snowdon Massif in that category thanks to it's popularity)

In reply to alasdair19: I have been drinking from the spring near the top of Bowfell for years with no bad side effects. Maybe it gets well filtered on its way down?

Just to amuse:

I come from a farming family where the water came from a concrete box built in a bog.

The water it was generally agreed was tasting a bit funny and somebody should go have a look.

There was a dead cow in it.

In reply to alasdair19: I always boil water and have never had a problem in 29 years.

You were drinking water from a stream running down the side of the busiest mountain in the UK. That's very different from most streams.

I've been drinking untreated for many years without a problem, taking basic precautions outlined by others. I have however fractured a wrist falling while collecting said stream water once. Is this danger specific to Torridon, or should I be careful of that everywhere?

In reply to mockerkin:

I think you've replied to the wrong person, I would never advise carrying water.

In reply to Turdus torquatus:
I nearly laughed my lunchtime sandwich through my nose to that!
OFFTOPIC: When are UKC going to implement a "like" button?!

In reply to ian caton:


I hope you mooved it.

In reply to Toreador:


Never? Good luck walking in Death Valley, then... Or even some parts of the South Downs, come to that...

In reply to captain paranoia:
Why would I want to walk in Death Valley? Or the South Downs for that matter...

A few interesting articles. All US-centric, and concentrating on giardia, but the first one in particular also covers the things that people are afraid of in the UK

http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=YOIDAAAAMBAJ&lpg=PA44&ots=fsJFmr...
http://www.rei.com/learn/expert-advice/water-risks.html
http://www.farnorthendurance.com/busting-the-myths-about-giardia/