- The trail is about 45km long.
- The altitude varies quite a bit throughout the hike, and the highest pass is 4200m above sea level.
- The weather can vary drastically, and in a day you may be faced with burning hot sun, and freezing cold winds, rain and hail. And sometimes a combo of the options. Hooray!
- The rain means that the hundreds of steps you have to descend will be bloody slippery, and can/will result in you falling on your arse in the mud. Maybe more than once.
- If you suffer from vertigo, you are, as we say at home, completely rooted.
Some steps I should've probably taken before attempting the Inca Trail:
- Perhaps purchased some sort of rainproof clothing, or proper hiking shoes.
- Maybe taken some sort of medication with me for when The Shits hit with a vengeance on Day Two.
- Taken at least some emergency clothing, so that I wasn't dressed in the same mud-soaked pants for four fricking days.
- Packed a Whacky Stick for when the hiking peeps got bitchy.
- Exercised at some point over the past TWO YEARS.
But, I did it. Dressed in muddy jeans and a singlet, without a walking stick (the only person in my group, I might add. Oh, I am tough.), with the shits and stomach cramping, with permanently aching muscles and a bruised arse, with a freakin' umbrella, for Christ's sake, I did it.
Yes, it was totally worth it, but I am NEVER doing that shit again in my life.
Damn.
(Off to Bolivia tomorrow and I'll be home within the week and whinging about work in no time. Muchos thankskies for comments, peeps, even if I am terribly shite at replying to them right now. Catch you on the flip side. Literally. Get ready for shitty photos and wobbly video footage. Oh yes!)
posted by GBE at 6:19 am
7 Comments:
Nice work! My mate did the Inca trail the other year and was amazed at the Americans who fly in for the weekend to do the trail as a bit of exercise. She said she was puffing up stairs, bent under the weight of her backpack and with leg spasms from hiking for several days, and there were these crazy yanks with iPods and gym wear hooning past them for their weekly walk. She even got a few photos to prove it to us.
I think the Inca Trail sounds like my idea of hell on earth. Being wet, caked with mud and in pain would just make me cry for the entire hike, you are my new hero for just making it through!!
P.S You aren't missing much in Brisbane, enjoy your time away :D
Oh.. ow.. and ow some more. You are a strong strong woman. They would've beaten me to death w/ all my whining had I been on the same trip.
NO pics of the trail? Good for you for having done it..sounds like it was difficult, yet you made it through.
And here I was thinking I was tough because I made it to my car without falling on the 4-inch deep ice floe in my driveway....
Sigh. You got me.
- M
I can guarantee I would have spend the entire 45km crying. I use my experience on the Bibbulmun Track in WA as evidence... but that was 6 odd years ago, so maybe I'm older and stronger now...?
Well done for getting through it. The high you must have had at the end would have been incredible.
Mel, I must admit that I didn't notice any superfit tourists who use the Inca Trail as a substitue for their morning jog, most likely because I was too busy wheezing and sobbing and crying 'I'm DYING' a bit too loudly. I did notice a pack of American tourists who took their own oxygen tanks though. What the!
Jen, you're right, nothing seems to have changed around this place. Though I apparently missed the hottest temperatures in March ever on record. Is this right? Hooray!
Miss Devylish, for some reason I ended up separated from everyone. It could have perhaps been because I was doing a hell of a lot of whining and they all wanted to get away from me. I was so completely by myself that I probably would've been devoured by wild llamas during the time it would've taken for them to find me, if I'd had an accident.
Hi Cazzie!!! Yes, I took a few pictures, but wasn't able to upload any while I was using public computers over in Peru/Bolivia. Now I'm home and cuddling my very own laptop, I will be uploading photos very soon. So many that everyone will hate me in no time.
M, no way! This would be the first time I have ever beaten somebody in the toughness stakes. Never fear, I am already back to my lazy self and anticipate losing every single toughness competition from this point onward.
Amanda, yep, I guess the best thing about it was the sense of satisfaction at the end. I quickly forgot it after I doubled over in leg pain, though. And I had trouble remembering it every time I cried in pain when I had to climb up/down any steps. Really though, it was pretty freaking cool. It took Machu Picchu for me to submit myself to that - there's no way in hell I would be one of those nutcases who did it for the sake of it. Crazy!
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