The Inca trail: Day 2
We could see Dead Woman’s Pass from our campsite and didn’t look too far away.
Imaginary “Tys”: “Ha ha ha…..”.
Thank God for the those walking poles! It was permanent uphill, which slowed everyone who was on day 2 down, concentrating us into a mass of reduced oxygen and heavy breathing. There were awkward steps to disrupt the pace. Imaginary Tys: “Keep going. You´re making good progress”.
A campsite appeared around 10.30am where our cook and porters were resting easily. I felt exhausted and could only sit and sip coffee when Eug told me to do so. He also forced some food down my neck, which while I didn’t want, was absolutely necessary. You could see the different coloured rows of ants hiking up the continuing path. I can’t believe I’ve got to carry on walking UP there.
Imaginary Tys: “You´re doin fine”.
And off we went again, this final plod really was the killer. Everyone on the way up here looked absolutely knackered! My slow plod kept my breath and kept me moving. The best part of this hike was the weather. It was slightly overcast so no blazing sun to meltdown even more energy. The top looked so close but felt so faraway. And as we approached, Fredy skipped past us, picking up Eug’s camera so that we could have a picture of reaching the summit.
The top. What a result! “You’ve made good progress. Superb!”. We had a good rest there, like most other hikers! It was at this point that Eug admitted to Fredy that he had got up here with a broken toe. We don´t think that he quite believed him.
A whole pack of Tesco’s gummy mix later, I was feeling rested amd slightly sick from eating too many sweets! Over the top it was down, down, down on steps reminiscent of that damned Watkins path on Snowdon again. But with the aid of those wonderful walking poles, we fair licked it down the path. And the knees didn’t feel too bad. “Good progress indeed, eh, Rich??”.
And by around 2pm we were at the campsite. This time a concentrated arrangement of tents from all tour companies, with a noisy stream running though the middle.
Julio had prepared another sumptuous feast for lunch and we even had a glass of wine! Wonderful! And then another treat – a couple of hours kip in the tent for the afternoon before dinner. We got out our alpaca blanket for a special treat – lovely and warm.
So the most difficult part of the hike was over and done with. Apparently. We decided with Fredy to get up extra early in the morning to be ahead of the crowds. Because our tent was just out of sight of the dining tent, our porters had taken it in turns to ‘camp’ outside our doorway to guard our gear, which was not only very admirable but bloody cold too at just under 12,000 feet! The campsite was a bit noisy that night – even over the noise of the stream, which was a bit annoying but we got a bit of kip in anyway.
Tags: Peruvian tales
mihai