After using our small pump filters with the ceramic stones in them ... (actually not sure what stone .. mini hiker type of pump filter) well they stopped working as the water was so heavy, I could barley keep afloat after trying to cool off in the dam. So it was that when it rained that night, we collect what water we could off our tarps ... The taste of the eucalyptus trees was VERY STRONG ... I got rather ill later on with bloated gut, felt like vomiting and my head was thumping ... I am thinking or I now ask ... I guess I should of treated the rain water despite it being considered safe by most people??? It really tasted like the previous days leaves expiration of oil was washed down with that rain and that the bitter taste was very much a small amount of oil???
We also did drink some dam water as well ... but did so thinking our filters would of done the trick ... I had some tablets sent over from Israel and used one which I thought was not so bad after I poured it onto a wide open billy to let the chlorine taste evaporate some ... tasted like tap water after that, however my mate was not so keen on using that tablets. I on the other hand twice his age and already having had near renal failure in the past, did not fair so well ...
In future I think I will use my tablets after using my little stone pump filter ... although I am not sure if the tablets would of helped with the bitterness of the eucalyptus oil ... or what I figured must of been ... as after a few hours in my bladder it tasted really BITTER ... like I was drinking the leaves straight ...
3 DAYS we spent like that as the filters packed it in straight away on the dam water ... NEVER again ... I carried extra water, but my hiking buddy refuses to carry much as he relies mostly on his filter. Hope he learned from this episode!
I was feeling a little better 5 days later ... after we stumbled out of the National Park onto the prearranged pickup point on the highway.
Need to study up some more on water treatment!!! Any Advice welcome ...
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