Trekking the Inca Trail Itinerary

Day One
We fly from London to Lima
Day Two
We’ll fly over the Andes to Cuzco, the ancient capital of the Inca Empire.
Day Three
We’ll acclimatise.
Day Four
After an early start, we’ll join the trail at 2,500m. By the end of the day we’ll have climbed to 3,000m.
Day Five
We’ll follow the banks of the Llullucha River, through cloud forest towardsWarmiwanuska, at 4,200m. This is the highest point of the trek, and the air at this altitude will make our ascent slower. We’ll camp near the Pacamayo River at 3,600m. (* Trekking time approx. 6 hrs)
Day Six
We’ll visit the small archaeological site of Runku Raccay, and then head to the Runku Raccay Pass at 4,000m. We’ll trek to the well-preserved Inca town of Sayac Marca (3,600m) and have lunch at Phuyu Pata Marca, otherwise known as ‘the town above the clouds’. After lunch, the group will choose our final route for the day: a detour via the Intipata archaeological site, or straight to the campsite. (* Trekking time approx. 11 hrs)
Day Seven
We’ll set off at 4am to catch the sunrise at Intipunku, called the ‘Gates of the Sun’. From here you can catch your first glimpses of Machu Picchu but it will take another hour to get there. We’ll enjoy a guided tour of one of the world’s most fascinating archaeological sites. Then you can choose to explore the ruins or ascend Huaya Picchu Mountain. (* Trekking time approx. 3 hrs)
Day Eight
We’ll return to Cuzco by train
Day Nine
We’ll travel back to Lima, where there will be an opportunity to visit the Oxfam project. We’ll take an evening flight to the UK.
Day Ten
We arrive back in the UK.

My Fellow Trekkers

Only 4 months to go until departure and Oxfam’s Global Challenge team has just set up a group email so that we can share training tips and fundraising ideas and start to get to know our fellow trekkers. So far it looks like there will be 30 of us.

Reading the emails from everyone, suddenly everything seems much more real and yes it is happening - I am going to trek the Inca Trail to the lost city of Machu Picchu – awesome, scary and so exciting! What a fantastic challenge this will be.

It has also made me realise how much work I still have left to do with fundraising, sorting out my kit and getting fit. Everyone is working very hard on their fundraising, with lots of bright ideas on bringing in those all important resources to support Oxfam’s excellent work.

Just starting to learn a bit about my fellow trekkers; some are travelling with friends and partners but most like me, are travelling alone. There is a mix of ages in the group, ranging from 20 to late 50s:

There’s:
Carolyn from Horsham, West Sussex
Tania from Bangor in Northern Ireland
Lisa from Gosport Nr Portsmouth
Christine, who lives in a small village just outside Glasgow
Amanda from Oxford
Nick from Glasgow
Friends Claire and Marianne who are studying at Birmingham University,
Friends Shelley and Jo from Tunbridge Wells
Kate from Swansea (hoping to meet up with Kate before June)
Marisa from Newcastle
Gill from Horsham
Justine from Winchester
Partners Darren & Sian from Cardiff
Paul from Greenwich

I am really looking forward to hearing more from everyone over the coming months. It will also be great to eventually meet up in June and to put faces to names. I am sure we will all become very good friends as we support each other through the challenge and experience the magic of the heights of Machu Picchu.

A Poem to Machu Picchu by Pablo Neruda

Poem to Machu Picchu – Poem VI

And then up the ladder of the earth I climbed
through the horrible thicket of the lost jungles
to you, Machu Picchu .
Tall city of stones stacked up in steps,
at last a dwelling where what is earthly
was not hidden under slumbering clothes.
In you, like two parallel lines,
the cradle of lightning and humanity
rocking together in a thorny wind.
Mother of stone, spume of the condors.
Highest reef of the human dawn.
Shovel buried in the first sand.

This is the spot, the place where they lived:
here the fat kernels of corn were carried up
and fell again to earth like red hail.
Here the gold wool came off the vicuña
to dress the loves, the burial mounds, the mothers,
the king, the prayers, the warriors.
Here men’s feet took their rest at night
next to the feet of eagles, in the lofty lairs
of the meat-eaters, and at dawn
they trod with thunderous steps over the rarefied fog,
and touched the ground and the rocks
until they knew them in the dark or in death.

I look at their clothes and their hands,
the traces of water in the echoing hollows,
the wall worn smooth by the touch of a face
that looked with my eyes a the earthly lamps,
that oiled with my hands the vanished
timbers: because everything –the clothes, the hides, the vessels,
the words, the wine, the bread-
was gone, fallen into the earth.
And the air came in with orange-blossom fingers
over all the sleepers:
a thousand years of air, months, weeks of air,
of blue wind and iron mountains,
as if soft hurricanes of running feet
were polishing the solitary enclosure of the stone.

Update on Training and Fundraising

Hope you like my Blog. A Great Big Thank You goes to Ash of Wired Up Wales for his help in setting it up. Thanks for your support Ash, brilliant as usual.

Well I have just gone public with my plans to take part in Oxfam's Global Challenge and the response has been amazing. Everyone is really surprised but so supportive. Thanks everyone - having your backing means a lot to me. I feel honoured to be part of Oxfam's Inca Trail team for 2006 but also a little nervous. I think its going to be quite tough, climbing at high altitude. I hope I can avoid the altitude sickness. Any advice or recommendations would be greatly appreciated. Just post your comments

Fundraising has started through my online webpage and I have received many generous donations. Thank you all, your donations will make a great difference to many of the worlds poorest communities. I still have a long way to go though to my £2,500 target and will have to keep plugging over the next few months.

I have started training and not doing too badly so far. I've been attending the gym about 3 times a week and walking a few miles every other day or so around the local area with my daughter Rhiannon. I think though that I will have to step up the pace soon and train for longer periods on hills and slopes. I really need to devleop my stamina to make sure I can cope with the hiking up and down steep hills and the steps of the ancient Inca Trail. I will be joining Ysalyfera Walking Club/Clwb Cerdded Ystalyfera soon and taking on more long distance walks. See www.clwb-cerdded-ystalyfera.i12.com

Oxfam Numbers Quiz

Here's a Numbers Mind Teaser - by kind permission of fellow trekker Marianne. Each one is a well known saying or similar. Can you work them out?

Example: 26 L of the A = 26 Letters of the Alphabet

3 B M __________________________________________
9 P in the S S __________________________________________
12 M of a J __________________________________________
52 C in a D __________________________________________
88 C of the S __________________________________________
24 B B in a P __________________________________________
1 F in the G __________________________________________
1066: B of H __________________________________________
12 O in a P __________________________________________
7 Y I __________________________________________
33 B in a H S __________________________________________
11 P in a F T __________________________________________
18: C of A __________________________________________
1000 Y in a M __________________________________________
15 M on a D M C __________________________________________
4 P in a B __________________________________________
64 S on a C B __________________________________________
57 H V __________________________________________
7 W of the W __________________________________________
24 H in a D __________________________________________
3 W on a T __________________________________________
238,900 M to the M __________________________________________
7 C of the R __________________________________________
1666: G F of L __________________________________________
20,000 L U the S __________________________________________
12 S of the Z __________________________________________
101 D __________________________________________
14 L in a S __________________________________________
12 I in a F __________________________________________
10 T I H A Y ­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­__________________________________________
366 D in a L Y __________________________________________
1969: F M on the M __________________________________________
50 S of A __________________________________________
3 F in a Y __________________________________________
12 D of C __________________________________________
6 S on a H __________________________________________
360 D in a C __________________________________________
13 in a B D __________________________________________
206 B in the H B __________________________________________
13: U for S __________________________________________
6 W of H T __________________________________________
13 S on the A F __________________________________________
8 L on an O __________________________________________
40 P in a F __________________________________________
7 D in a W __________________________________________
9 L of a C __________________________________________
1952: Q C __________________________________________
4 C in a H H __________________________________________
9 S of B __________________________________________
40 T of A B __________________________________________
12 D of J C __________________________________________
5 C and I __________________________________________
8 B in a B __________________________________________
1 E on a C __________________________________________
3 P C __________________________________________
4 H of the A __________________________________________
8 P in a G __________________________________________
4 S of a C __________________________________________
21 S on a D __________________________________________
5 L in a L __________________________________________
7 C of N __________________________________________
16 M of J __________________________________________
144: O G __________________________________________
32 C on the L E __________________________________________
7 D S __________________________________________
874 M: J O G to L E __________________________________________
3 W on a R R __________________________________________
10 C __________________________________________

If you donate £2 towards my fundraising, I will email you the answers.

Just click on the donations link on the right of this page, donate £2 via Oxfam's bmycharity on-line system and in the message box state - 'please email me the answer to quiz'

(For those of you who have already donated, email me a request for answer sheet)