We started the day with our last shower for 4 days and headed to breakfast.
At. 7.30 we said good bye to Inca trail folks and waited for our team who arrived at about 8am and we headed off for a long drive as we end up back here in Ollantaytambo - so we need to be at least 40km away.
First stop after a couple of hours was at the Inca site with the moonstone carving that gave our trek it's name - then off to the start , which was not without it's issues - a road closed sign as part of highway construction was a worry but we were allowed through luckily to meet up with the horses and our team for the trek. Sadly Carlos our assistant guide had to leave as had an emergency message from home. At 1130 am we finally set off; we crossed a river and went steadily upwards until our lunch stop by a strategically placed Inca construction high on a mountain @ 4200m - the last part which Bobby said to do at our own pace was a killer - probably the hardest I have ever done - and we have worse tomorrow as we climb to 4700m! Luckily after lunch which ended at 3 ish it was downhill to our camp site. We finally arrived as the sun went down at approximately 5.30 - thankfully the tents were up but there was a mad clamour for warm clothes and head torches. They brought us warm water to wash in which was lovely but I had already attacked my dusty grimy legs with wet wipes.
We opted for supper at 1830 -and missed out tea - after a lovely meal we all made a beeline for bed and were snugly settled by 1930 and soon sleeping albeit I did after an hour or so adopt Bobby's advice of wrapping my feet in my over trousers to keep them warm.
(Today's photo is Alec/Lainey, Dan/Alex and us by the Moonstone rock anticipating what is to come ......little did we know!)