Sunday 26th August

We head to Calca to the local market and buy toys, fruit, paper and pencils to hand out to the children we'll meet over the next 3 days on the trek to Machu Picchu. I select a pack of plastic animals from Africa in the hope this will inspire a small childs imagination.

Another two heartstopping hours drive on the windiest, thinnest road ever and we're miles into the wilderness of the Andes. We meet our porters and cooks who decide to sort out lunch for us before we head off. They set up a tent for us all to sit in and then proceed to cook up a 3 course meal seemingly from nowhere. Apparently they will even put up our tents tonight. This is the best camping experience ever. Wow. How lazy do I feel? Oh yes, well except that we have to walk up to heights of 4,500 metres over the next 3 days. Ah well, maybe lazy is the wrong word.

We head off from Kiswarani in the mist - when we reach our peak for today at 4,200 metres we all feel a real sense of achievement. It's taken around 2.5hrs to get here and it was almost straight up. It's certainly exhilarating and I'm glad we had a few days to get used to the altitude.

It takes us around 2hrs to get down to camp at 3,800 metres. On the way we pass two lagoons which we only see because the mist cleared for a short while. We pass a few children and each of us takes a turn at giving them something.

At the campsite the only thing we have to do is lay out our thermarest and sleeping bag. Llamas have carried our duffel bags and the porters bring us hot water to wash our hands and face. Then it's time for a hot drink before dinner is served. Spirits are high and we sit around telling old jokes and doing brain teasers.

For example, Jack and Jill lie dead in a puddle of water outside the window of their home - what happened?

Jack and Jill are goldfish and were knocked off the window ledge!

Monday 27th August

We're woken with cups of tea brought to our tents and hot water to wash our faces. This is my type of camping! Breakfast is hearty and we set off in the rain feeling warm inside. Today we're walking for 15km which although isn't that much, is quite a long trek upwards to 4,500 mertes.

We start out and head down to 3,700m then up to Wakawasi at 4,100m. Shannon is feeling unwell but struggles on. After lunch it's the tough climb up to the summit and Shannon has to get on a horse to make it. The horse is called Caballo which is spanish for horse! Ah the irony. We're nearing the top and it's muddy from the rain this morning. Next thing the horse sinks in the mud and falls over. I turn around at Shannon's shreik to see her do a roll away from the horse and over a small ledge.

Fortunately the ledge below was grass and she's fine. It takes us a while to encourage the horse to stand up and we pull on the reins to stop the horse from sinking backwards and drag it to safer ground. Thankfully the horse is ok too and Jose, our tour leader just keeps telling us that it's a lazy caballo and only fell over because it didn't want to carry anyone!

We reach the summit and it's cold and windy but the skies are clear so we can see all the way down both sides of the mountain. The landscape is barren and the river snakes through the valley.

We head down the mountain and in the evening a campfire is made from peat. We're surrounded by llamas whose shapes we make out by the light of the full moon.

Tuesday 28th August

After camping at 4,000 metres we descend to Patakancha for around 2 hours and hand out the last of our gifts to the children we meet. It's a 45 minute journey back to Ollantaytambo and then we get the train to Aguas Calientes - the town at the base of Machu Picchu.