Leeched!

 

On Easter Saturday, Bill and I set off to explore. Entering a tea estate bordering a forest we discovered a nice trail leading deep into the forest. The trail was very discernable and where it became obscure or divided, we cleverly marked it with branches, sticks, rocks or plastic bags we found littered along the trail. We hiked for about an hour inside the forest and when the trail became too obscure, we turned back for home.

Once home, and puttering about, Bill suddenly called out to me, "What the hell? Come and look at this." A long shiny black creature was moving end over end, across our floor. It looked a bit like a slug, but had a different snout. It was a long proboscis type of snout. It seemed to use it not only as an appendage, but also to sense things. It was weird! We wondered what it was and once concluding it looked 'leech like,' Bill picked it up in a Kleenex and threw it outside.

About fifteen minutes later, Bill startled, "One of us is bleeding. There is blood all over the floor." Sure enough, like footprints, blood had tracked into the bedroom and kitchen. We both still had on our thick wool hiking socks. Bill stripped off his socks. Black leeches were attached to his feet and ankles and he was bleeding profusely from four places on his feet. I stripped off my socks and sure enough, I had three bites bleeding away and one leech still attached.

 

Bill tried flushing a leech down the toilet and this most resilient and fascinating creature swam strongly in the current of the flush and attached itself to the side of the toilet bowl. It attached its upper body to the slippery porcelain and swung its lower body up above the upper body. Then it attached that part and swung the lower part forward, end over end, just like walking. It was bizarre to watch. We, err, Bill, had to fish it out and squish it good. I used a shoe to squish my leeches. They were difficult to squish and when they did, the blood they had sucked from us squirted out all over the cement of the outdoor patio.

 

By now, we were really creeped out by this invasion. I decided to strip down and sure enough on my outer upper thigh, a leech had attached and I had blood everywhere inside my pants. How they got inside our clothes is a mystery. Now frantic, we stripped down to nothing and examined all the nooks and crannies of each other's body to ensure no creatures had nested. We inspected our socks – a few strays remained. I inspected our hiking boots and not finding any, I concluded we had rounded them all up, until.... one was on my baby finger. I finally lost it and screamed!

That night in bed, we were both hyper vigilant and itchy; sure that leeches had invaded our bed. On our Easter Sunday hike, we walked the sidewalk on the main road into town.