THE INCA TRAIL

This is probably the most amazing thing I have done and we all absolutely loved it, the sights we saw were amazing and it was a real challenge, awesome! Heres the run down!

Day 1 - 13th April

It was an early start! The bus picked us up at 5.40! The previous days we had been sorting all our stuff out so we had our day bags ready full with bog roll (crucial!), snacks, jackets, sun cream, mossie spray etc. The company had dropped round a duffle bag earlier to put our sleping bag and toiletries in as our personal porters would carry these for us!

We jumped on the coach seriously tired and not really up for walking the Inca Trail, I was slightly aprehensive at this point because as I wasn´t sure how the altitude would affect me and I didn´t want to get ill from the food or anything! We picked up the other 16 people and the 20 porters and drove for about 2 hours before stopping for breakfast. I had a cheese toastie, safe option, then we continued to our first destination, Piskakucho. We got off the bus, donned our bags and started to walk, the first day was pretty easy, we only walked about 12km and it was a bit up and down but still pretty easy, the only thing is that you are at about 2600m above sea level so you get very out of breath very quickly!

Our guide showed us all the flora and fauna and we stopped at several Inca sites which were amazing to see! On the first day you pass through small villages where Peruvians still live off the land which is an eye-opener, growing all these crazy foods and using Llamas and donkeys as transport.

During the walk you stop several times and the porters put on some incredible food! They rush ahead with about 20kgs strapped to their backs to get to places before we do and set up everything, they are amazing! During the first day we stopped for a tea brak where they served coca tea, ordinary tea, popcorn, sandwiches it was amazing! But I suppose we all need the energy. After starting the day at 5.40 we arrived at our campsite at about 4 which of course was already set up and ready for us to fall asleep in! This campsite was called Wayllabamba at was 3000m absl. Earlier in the day lunch consisted of trout served with vegetables, soup and some kind of pudding and of course a cup of tea. Then dinner was served about 7 and consisted of more soup, potato bake and something else delicious that I can´t quite remember. I was amazed by the food that they cooked up at a campsite with extremely limited facilities! And it wasn´t as if we were sitting on the ground the porters have to carry a full on callapsable dinner table, chairs, everything you can think of, it was luxury (for a campsite!). Anyway the 1st day was just a brief warm up for what was to come, the second day was renowned to be the hardest, so we all went to bed about 7.30!

Day 2 - 15th April

The second day consisted again of an early start at 5.30 and began as it was to continue.... uphill! Day 2 was again 12km but was all uphill, we were to climb 1200m and it was so hard, I´m sure the trail was nearly vertical and every step was painful and relentless! Uphill, uphill, uphill was all we had, the altitude made you feel worse but you just had to keep on plodding along. About half way up we stopped for some tea which was amesome as we had a big table to sit around with the most amazing view while sipping tea and eating popcorn, brilliant! After a while we started to climb again! By about 12.30 we had managed to struggle to the top and we all did really well making it to the top at the front of the group! It was so worth it to get the views, you really did feel like you were on top of the world and recieved such a sense of achievemnt! That was it we had made it to the highest point, surely it woud be easy from now on, I don´t think so!

We then had to go down about 400m to our campsite which I felt was just as hard as you bash your knees with every step and have to stop yourself from accelerating downhill! Didn´t like going downhill!

We got to our campsite at about 2.30 just in time for lunch which consisted of spring rolls, vegetable patties, rice and soup, again delicious! I think everyone fell asleep until dinner was served! At the start of the day we had to introduce ourselves in Spanish to the porters and they did the same, this was quite cool but also quite strange.

Day 3 - 15th April

This was to be our longest day and we would be trekking 15km throughout the day from 4200m to 2700m. More downhill great! The start of the day consisted of another climb to the second pass which was almost as hard as the second day but you got the same sense of achievement! Again the day was broken up with food and tea breaks and visits to many Inca sites, and was probably the most rewarding with the views that you see! Its unbelievable what you see, there are mountains everywhere you look with these small Inca cities scattered around, they were an incredible race!

The downhill took its toll on my knees and I was in some pretty serious pain by the end of the day and tended to walk like a pirate! I´d got of likely though, some people were really suffering from illness! I think it was to do with the altitude and possibly the water, people had serious diarhea and were being sick, about six of our group fell ill, out of 16. G´bo wasn´t feeling great and didn´t eat much so it was a credit to him to get the energy to do the walks!

Dinner on the 3rd day was to be our last at camp so we had a celebration, the porters made us a cake and we all thanked then for their efforts, espeicially the cook! There was also plenty to eat as many people couldn´t handle eating, nice one!

Day 4 - 16th April

Our final day! And boy was it good! We awoke even earlier on this morning to get to the Sun Gate first. We got up at 3.40 and attempted to get ready in the dark! My knee was feeling a lot better which I was greatful for and we all set off to the checpoint to get in the queue, our group was second in the queue, nice one! We had to wait till 5.30 before the checkpoint opened and we could walk to the Sun Gate. Me and a few others basicaly ran through the path to get to the Sun Gate as one of the fisrt, there were about 500 people on their way there and we manged to get there in the top 10 which was great because we had the place to ourselves as we watched the sun rise in the east to shine over Machu Picchu which we could see from a high, truely aweinspiring, such a great moment! The weather was perfect and it was very exciting to see what we had been heading towards for the last three days and sweating so much for!

We spent a while waiting for the rest of our group at the Sun Gate then headed down towards Machu Picchu taking many photos on the way, we reached the perfect postcard photograph spot then continued to head into the grounds. Our guide took us around Machu Picchu for 3 hours and explained everything about it, it was amazing what they had created except as they had written nothing down the history was basically made up!

There was also the chance to climb Wanapicchu which is the large mountain in the background of all the photos you see. I was feeling extremely knackered but had to climb this mountain! It was probably the steepest part of the whole trek and was very hard work but the 360 degree views at the top were 100 percent worth it! Only a handful of the group did the climb as the others went down on the bus to Agua Calientes where we were to get the train from. After my climb I ventured down and joined the rest of the group for some lunch, thanked the guides and generally chilled out.

Our train was at 5 so there was a lot of hanging around, the journey took around 4 hours and when we got back we just crashed out in our hostel.

The whole Inca Trail experience was incredible and has to be up there with one of the best things I have done, you have to battle through many obstacles such as pain, illness and tiredness but it is so worth it for the feeling you get when you reach the top and look around! Worth every penny and every ounce of sweat, you realy do feel like your treading the path of a lost civilisation, its just incredible! The porters are amazing too, probably the fittest, craziest people I have ever met, the food was fantastic and for once the weather was perfect for us, not a cloud in the sky, which we have heard is very rare. Sometimes you can´t see a lot of the views including Machu Picchu from the Sun Gate that we got to see and for that we are very greatful.

We have experienced a lot of amazing things over the last 5 months but this surely has to be the greatest!