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Well what can I say...I'm not sure how to go about writing this blog entry. The experience was truly magical and you really need to go and see for yourselves. I struggled putting it into words in my diary even, but will try and summarise it for you.
So 45km, 4days, 22 Porters, 2 Guides, 14 hikers, up to 4200m elevation, several mountains climbed and a whole lot of calories taken in and burned... It was both a mental and physical effort by the last day just to move my foot forward, everything ached like crazy.
The porters all need a medal and without them I would never have made it, they carried 25kg's of luggage each and legged it to our lunch spots and camp spots before us to be there to set up and applaud us in. We got bowls of hot water to wash in, 3 amazing meals a day, all prepared on the mountain side, one day we even got a big iced cake, our tents were put up and down for us. It all felt very 5*, despite the obvious lack of toilet or shower facilities.
Day 2 was my best walking day and I actually made it up deads womens pass in a little under an hour, I was very proud of myself. The altitude makes it really hard to breathe and we climed up to 4200m, only to get to the top and have to descend all the way back down the other side. The scenery throughout was spectacular and the best on day 3 thankfully something to take our mind off of the 2 mountains we had to climb and descend and the uneven paths. Our camp spots were very scenic just perched on the edge of the mountain somewhere and it wasn't cold at all in the tents despite the first night me going to bed wrapped up in all sorts of layers, they were soon kicked off! Bedtime was around 8.30 pm every night after a few hands of cards, we were all exhausted. The porters normally found the energy to challenge the boys to a football match, I have no idea where they got their energy from, crazy.
Day 4 was really hard, my legs were shaking, aching, it was such an effort and for the first time we were up against a time limit....sunrise! Thankfully I kept going and made it to the sungate in time to watch the clouds disperse and reveal what we had been walking towards for 3.5 days....Machu Picchu. I could have cried, I was that tired and excited! Our guided tour around Machu Picchu was great, although what was better was just sitting and enjoying your surroundings. Great memories and some fab photos, washed down with a giant beer on arrival to town, well deserved me thinks!
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