In September 2006 my wife and I took part in a fundraising walk along the Inca Trail in the Andes, Peru. To do this we first had to raise £2650 each (as well as our airfare) in aid of our chosen charity which is APEC, a charity which has saved the lives of my wife and children and countless others throughout the world. The trek was actually a different trail and was a lot harder. It involved walking up to 11 hours a day in some mountainous terrain at an altitude of about 15,000 feet. The organisers gave us a training schedule which started in July.

Trek Photos

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Training Schedule

The schedule starts with a couple of 2 hour walks (easy). (A normal walk is about 3 m.p.h. but with a few stops and gradients it usually works out a bit less – more like 2 m.p.h. when walking up and down hills). The main bit of training means a 4 hour walk one weekend, then two 4 hour walks the next with a couple of brisk 1 hour welks on the weekdays. This progresses to one 6 hour walk at the weekend, then two 6 hour walks the next weekend with brisk 2 hour walks on the weekdays. Then on to the 8 hour walks, ending up with 2 consecutive 8 hour walks (aaarghh!). We are trying to make the walks as “realistic” as possible, ie lots of gradients as you might expect on the Inca Trail, but I imagine there is not the same type of pub for lunch. I’ll also be taking my panpipes on the training. But not up the Andes, I’ll leave that to the locals.

It struck me that here was a bunch of people doing something for charity. Something that was potentially (and really was) “tough and miserable” to quote the words of Kelso, one of the team leaders. Not only the toughness and miserableness of exhaustion and altitude sickness but in addition I’m sure there were quite a few (like us) combining it all with something we hate the idea of, i.e. camping. Not just normal camping in a civilised campsite, but in a very basic and cold site. No showers; toilets are either a long queue for a chemical jobby (excuse the bad pun) or a hole in the ground. You don’t know whether to be happy about the fantastic starry sky or dread the cold night ahead that it means. You wake up at 3.a.m. needing the toilet and wonder if it’s best to get up then and put all your clothes on and navigate to the toilet and hopefully get back to sleep, or worry whether you can hold it in and go back to sleep until the 5.30.a.m. wake up for breakfast.

The good thing about this trek was the food. The local porters and cooks did an amazing job. A nourishing breakfast of coca tea, quinoa porridge and pancakes was ready by 6.00. We set off, they then packed up camp and set off (with all the tents, sleeping bags etc, food, water and toilets) and overtook us in time to set up and cook lunch, we ate a hearty meal, they then packed up and set off with all the stuff, overtook us and set up the evening meal.

All that in sandals and no Goretex.

No chance to do this from Peru, it was either a case of no internet cafe (4450 meters up in the Andes) or too much altitude sickness to get it together when there was one. Yes altitude sickness can mess with your brian, as well as the other effects of headaches, nausea, nosebleeds, flatulence, dizzyness, more flatulence, synus issues and dyselxia.

Firstly on arriving at Cusco we were told that instead of walking The Inca Trail (which we had thought we were doing from the start) we were going to walk An Inca Trail. Apologies to all those who sponsored me to walk The Inca Trail, however the trail we did (the Lares Trail) is actually higher and tougher than the actual Inca Trail. Instead of nicely paved Inca tracks it’s mostly quite nasty rocky or treacherously dusty and slippery terrain up and down very steep slopes, with mountain passes that deceive you with every twist and turn: your feet, calves, thigh, stomach, lungs and brain are saying “STOP!”, but the end of the climb is in view. Only to find that as you get to the top and turn the corner it was only the first stage of many on the way to the pass and there is another and another impossibly steep and gruelling climb. You have to walk/climb very very slowly or the altitude sickness and exhaustion take over. I wish we had been better briefed about this, perhaps the training schedule was right for The Inca Trail, but it was nowhere near adequate for this kind of climb and possibly for this reason a few of the party had to stop and be taken down.

Still we saw some great views and memorable experiences. Camping at -5 degrees (note minus) being one of them. We had the privilege of visiting the home of one of the locals. This was a real eye opener, A family of 8 living in one small room, dirt floor and guinea pigs running around the kitchen (see photos).

A note to those who very kindly sponsored us to walk The Inca Trail:

Until arriving at Cusco we weren’t made properly aware that we were going on the Lares Trail rather than The Inca Trail. I think if you knew how much tougher than the Inca Trail this was, then you won’t mind (and you might even possibly pay more!), but if you feel conned (as I did slightly), I can happily refund you and still pay the charity.

More to come soon as I get over the jetlag and a stinking cold.

We’re leaving today, might get a chance to update the blog if I find an internet cafe up there!

Bye