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Published: August 20th 2012
On Thursday we got to Piscaycucho to start the Inca Trail. We walked 11 km, starting with some up hill in the heat of the mid day sun. It was a beauitful route with the train running along side us to begin with. The walking wasn't too hard on the first day with a mixture of up and downhill getting the legs used to it. In the afternoon it rained so the waterproofs came out. We got to the camp site at 5.30pm had some popcorn and a cup of tea then had just enough time to get into the thermals before dinner. The food was amazing, Soup followed by Chicken and Rice and then more Tea. The porters slept in the dining tent so was in bed by 8 pm. Only had to get up once in the night and take on the death walk to the toliet (if you can call it that).
The second day we were woken at 5am with coca tea and ready for breakfast at 5.30am. We had to say goodbye to one memeber of the group who was suffering from a chest infection so decided to turn back. We started walking at 6am. The route was all uphill. We had to go from 3057m to 4200 before lunch. It was a hard walk with the sun coming out to make it that bit harder. Dead womens pass is the name of the highest point, The Incas must have loved stairs as there were alot of them to get to the top. It felt as though you were walking for ages but getting nowhere, as you could see the top for a good hour before you got to it. It was a great walk and I have Natalie, Lucie and Conor to keep me company. Once at the top we waited for the others and and took in the view before starting the 500m descent. I didn't have poles as I dont like them so the knees felt it on the bigger steps. We got to camp for about 2.15 and then had a free afternoon, well we had a big lunch then where able to sit in the tent and look at the fantastic view of the valley. Tea and popcorn at 5 with a few games of cards before dinner as we where higher up it was much colder so we decided to say in the dinner tent and play, had some more food and then to bed at 8pm.
woken up at 5am again to start walking at 6. Today was a mixture of up and down we passed lots of Inca ruins which Henry, our guide, told us about. Today was the best day of walking even if the legs were feeling it from the uphill climb from the day before. We passed a lake where we took a rock and carried it to the top to allow us to make a wish - appartently it is a tradition. As we got closer to the camp we moved into the cloud jungle and were now walking through lots of trees making it much cooler. We got to camp about 4.30pm and then talked about the next morning and our walk to the sun gate to get the first view of Machu Picchu.
It was decided that we would wake up at 3am to see if we could be the first in the queue for the walk and we were, which meant we had a 2 hour wait for the gate to open but at least we would be in for a good chance to be the first. There is 200 people that walk the trail everyday and we got to go first. We knew people would be walking fast to catch up with our 5-10 min head start so I set a fast pace with the group keeping up well. We started in the dark with about 5 layers on, but as we were in front we didnt want to lose anytime but in the end we had to stop and get some water. The route was amazing up and down hill, being able to see the train and town below us. After about 30 min we reached the fake steps but knew we weren't far off and hadn't been caught up so we pushed on reaching what I can only describe as a set of 50 vertical steps they were massive and one of the boys climbed up them using his arms aswell like a monkey (prob best as they where very narrow) at the top was a stone structure and after a few steps we could see Machu Picchu - We had done it!! The group had walked a 1.30 min trail in 45 mins and were the first to see one of the best views ever. It was amazing and then we sat and watched the sun on the Inca ruins and walked round it and took in the prevoius few days. It was a great few days!!
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Fiz Osborne
non-member comment
Well done, Ruth!
This sounds absolutely incredible, Ruth, and I can't believe you guys walked such a long trail in such a short amount of time! I love that they have little traditions to share - the idea of making a wish with the rock is so lovely : ) Is there a particular reason why they like popcorn?!xx