MACHU PICH - DAY 2

SUNDAY 26th JUNE

  A reveille at 6.00am for breakfast and day two was under way. No messing around this time, I was left in the rear in no time and spent the bulk of the day with Santiago for Company.  He gave me coco leaves to chew which apparently was the Inca's secret formula to sustain their strength, not sure how much it did for mine, other than to give me sores iside my mouth!

Time for a breather and contemplate the ever rising path upwards.

Well at least I managed to stay standing for this picture!

 Bloody hell! I've got to climb up this lot!  The rising steps never seemed to end!  20 metres at a time, a drink of water, deep breathing, and three inhalations of oxygen from the can I had bought in Cusco and I'd be ready to tackle the next 20.  I spent time chatting with Santiago and told him that Jim was meant to be coming on this trip with me, and the reasons why he couldn't make it.  I almost suffered as much through him not being here to share the pain and exhaustion as I did from my own.  I didn't not look up often as the sight of the rising trail was just too depressing, instead I looked just in front of me working out where to put my feet, because it was certainly a rocky path.

No denying that the sights were spectacular.

 Made it!  All the way up half Everest to 14, 000ft in something like 7 and a half hours.  Not a record as that stands at 9 hours, but not far off it.  However the sun was starting to dip in the sky and night time was not far away.  A couple of the porters came back with some food for us as we had missed the lunch break being so far behind.  Going down the mountain was almost as tricky as going up, as every time I put my right foot down a judder of pain shot through my right knee, whilst the left hand toe nail took a severe bashing everytime that foot went down.  A couple of the porters took me under each arm and helped me down until it was completely dark, and then offered to carry me down in the packing sheets, an offer I found it impossible to refuse.  They set me down outside the camp site so I could walk in under my own volition.  I felt a bit guilty when I received a resounding cheer from the rest of the party!

   Again we had dinner at about 7.30pm and then adjourned to bed about 9.30pm.  Again it was damned cold and again I found it hard to get any sleep.  The latrines in the camp were again holes in the ground, filthy all around - I declined using them (I had visions of trying to squat and falling over right into all the s**t all around! Instead I  tried to eat as little as possible apart from energy bars and the like in trying to avoid the toilets.  So they reckon the hardest part is over, we have covered 21Km - I don't believe a word of it!