After months of waiting, it's finally time to conquer the Inca Trail...

Day 1

As much as I enjoy experiencing new things and seeing new places, every time we go on an organised tour they alway insist on a ridiculously early morning. And the Inca Trail was no different. With the bus waiting for us at 0530am on Wednesday morning we walked down to the plaza to get on it and start our 4 day adventure. I must admit that at this hour I was not particularly excited but fortunately we had a few hours to catch some sleep before getting to 'kilometre 82', the start of the trail. Halfway along this journey we stopped off at Ollantaytambo, a very nice town in the sacred valley, for some breakfast and we treated ourselves to a pre-trip brew.
Feeling much more awake we started the trek to our first campsite at Wayllabamba (sitting at a mere 3000m above sea level), with our team of 14 walkers and our guides William and Javier. The morning was relatively easy going with only a few short steep climbs to get everyone building up a sweat. We were blessed with beautiful sunshine for the whole of our first day and didn't see a single cloud in the sky. The mood was jovial as we got to our lunch spot to find that our team of 19 porters had set up a cooking tent and a mess tent and our chef, Jesus, had cooked us up an incredible 3 course meal, in the middle of nowhere! The porters were incredible, carrying all camping and cooking equipment along with all the food, and doing it in less than half the time it took us. To top it all off they met us with a smile every time they saw us. Amazing.
After a relaxing and extremely filling lunch we set off again to get to our camp for the night. After a few stops to look at some incredible Incan ruins and some beautiful orchids we were on the home straight and everyone went off at their own pace. Gen and I were pleased to find that we were not the slowest in the group and most of the time everyone was happy to go together.
When we arrived at camp all the porters clapped us in, this did feel a little silly as they had not only beat us by several hours but they had also put up all our tents and handed us a drink of freshly prepared juice and a seat! Not long after our return we were again treated to a 3 course meal washed down with a hot drink of our choice. I was yet again bowled over by the quality of the food on offer and they catered perfectly for the vegetarians in our group as well.
The first day is meant to be a warm up for the hardest day of the lot which comes on day 2 and already people were feeling the strain of the altitude and worrying about their weary legs. Fortunately for us, as we had spent so much time in Bolivia, which is much higher than this trail, we were nicely aclimatised to it all, although that's not to say our legs weren't feeling the strain after a full day of trekking.
Sleep was a little hard to come by that night as we were camping very close to a farm, so dogs, donkeys and cockerels were busy chatting away all night. But bearing in mind we were all in our sleeping bags by half 8 we managed to fit in enough sleep.

Day 2

Yet another early morning, except this time we were woken at 0530am with a knock on our tent by our porters bearing hot cups of coca tea. Camping has never been so good, but I'm worried that if we ever go again Gen may expect the same service! After a tasty breakfast of French toast, hot porridge, cereal, fruit salad, pancakes and more coca tea we were ready for a little early morning sleep! Unfortunately we had to set off early as we were about to tackle the hardest day of the trek, ascending 1300m in 8km before dropping down 600m in around 2km, all this in the blistering sunshine. Not that I am complaining as yet again we were riding our luck with some beautiful weather.
This day was not about seeing any Incan ruins but more about achieving what initially seems an impossible climb and taking in some breathtaking scenery. So with quiet apprehension we set off as a group to cover the first section of the climb up to a meadow known as Llulluchapampa at 3680m. This took us around 4 hours and split the group up as we did so, with a few people really starting to feel the strain of the steep hills coupled with the altitude and the heat. When we reached this meadow we found that our porters had set up a table and chairs for our 'second breakfast'! We all happily tucked in to popcorn, cheese rolls and biscuits all washed down with some tasty coca tea! Sitting there tucking in to all this with some amazing mountain views to look at in the glorious sunshine we were beginning to realise why so many people rave about this trek. However, we then took a look behind us to see the 520m climb up to the aptly named 'Dead woman's pass' that we had to conquer before the descent back to the camp.
After about a half hour break and with full stomachs we started the final and toughest part of the climb, up some unforgivingly steep steps and rocky terrain. Gen and I plodded away somewhere in the middle of the pack taking regular breaks 'to take in the scenery' - our excuse to sit down and try to catch our breath! Eventually we made it to the summit to be greeted by cheers and claps from our fellow teammates who had already made it up there as well as some of the most spectacular scenery yet, a full 360 degree panoramic view of the sacred valley. We spent our time up the top resting, cheering in our fellow teammates and taking photos before realising that if we didn't start soon we may never get to our second camp.
Off we trotted, down the back of the pass, all thinking that the worst of the day had been completed. Little did we know that the descent was nearly as bad as the climb. For the next few hours our knees took a pounding as we stomped down the uneven track, though fortunately we had hired trekking poles which took a huge amount of the impact out of our joints for us. Wearily, at around 1430 we made it to our camp, yet again greeted by fresh juice, seats and smiles from our porters. Once everyone had made it back to camp we settled down for our 3rd meal of the day, a huge 3 course banquet to replenish our energy reserves. If that wasn't enough to satisfy our needs they also laid on a tea at 1700 with popcorn, biscuits and tea, closely followed by a massive dinner at 1900. To top it all off, as it was one of our teams birthdays, Jesus had managed, somehow on a tiny camping stove, to prepare an amazingly tasty birthday cake which we shared with the porters along with a very strong, hot rum cocktail!
As this camp was quite high up we had a very cold nights sleep, but after the day we had just been through and the amount of food in our bellies, sleep was not hard to come by.

Day 3

Another day, another 0530am start, another hot coca tea in bed! Sipping that in our sleeping bags while looking out the tent at the sun rising over the mountain made us completely forget about what time it was. Knowing that we were about to be treated to another scrumptious breakfast helped get everyone up and away on time.
This was our last big day of walking and would be our longest day both in distance, 15km, and time, we weren't due at the camp until around 1700. However we were assured that it was no where near as hard day 2 and we would spend a lot of our time exploring Incan ruins. It was another beautiful day of weather with only a few clouds in the sky and we spent the morning marvelling at the ruins and even more spectacular scenery.
After yet another impressive lunch we set off to our 3rd and final campsite at Wiñay Wayna. On this last part of the trek we encountered our first bout of poor weather and got out our ridiculously coloured and large ponchos, only to find that the drizzle lasted a matter of minutes before clearing up. We met up at some agricultural ruins near the camp for some group photos and a nice rest time before the final hour stomp down to our camp for tea time and our last dinner together. After dinner we had a presentation with all the porters so we could hand them their tip for all the amazing work they had done over the last few days. Without them, this trek would have been so much harder, and a lot less enjoyable.
As we had now dropped down to the measly height of 2650m, it was actually a pretty warm night and we all headed off to bed nice and early as we had to be at the Machu Picchu checkpoint at 0430am the next day!

Day 4

No tea this morning, but a 0330am wake up call and a pancake breakfast, can't really complain about that! We started trekking in the dark to get in the queue for the walk to the sun gate overlooking the Incan ruins at Machu Picchu. Out of the 20 groups that were queuing up we were about 3rd from last! Definitely not a group of morning people! However, we had an hour or so trekking before the sun gate and we easily passed about 7 groups on our way there so we weren't too bothered with our queue placing in the end. Also, in hindsight, as the groups were all so close together anyway, we were all at the sun gate at roughly the same time anyway so we could have had another few minutes lie in!
The view we were greeted with as we passed through the sun gate was spectacular. We looked down onto the famous Machu Picchu ruins with the Huayna Picchu mountain looming behind it. This was the culmination of 3 days of hard trekking and it didn't let us down. Even though the weather had turned this day with dark clouds threatening from all corners our spirits weren't dampened. We knew what we had achieved and nothing was going to bring us down off that natural high.
We spent the rest of the morning exploring these amazing ruins both as a group and individually until, not long before lunch, the clouds broke and the rain came down. At this point we decided to catch the bus to the local town, Aguas Calientes and head to the final meeting point, a restaurant called Ayllu. Here we treated ourselves to a well deserved cold beer or two.
After lunch we had a small presentation of certificates that showcased our achievements over the past 4 days. We also gave William, our guide, his tip. He really helped to make the trip fantastic with his expert knowledge, great sense of humour, and laid back attitude. After guiding this trek for the last 5 years, our trek was his last before his new job of guiding city and jungle tours around Peru and Bolivia and it was nice that his final trip had such amazing weather for him to remember it by.
After a long train and then bus ride back to Cusco we finally made it to our hostel at around 2230 that night. We were tired and very dirty, having not showered for the entire trek, and were happy to finally have a hot shower and a soft bed with the added luxury of a pillow!

This has been easily one of the best trips we have done since coming away and we were not only really lucky with the weather but also with the people in our group as well. They were a great mix of people from New Zealand, Canada, America, Ireland and England and we all got on really well laughing all (well...most!) of the way along the trail. Good times.

To top it all off, when we got to Aguas Calientes I was greeted by the news that the quins had made their first premiership final. It's in the bag.