10th September - Inca Trail

Up above us we could see Dead Woman's Pass at 4200m, flanked either side by snow capped mountains. We headed up the hill, first through forest and then latterly across barren hill-side terrain. Augusto paced us for the first part of the walk and then left us to our own devices for the remainder. After much slog, we eventually reached the summit at around 1pm ish. We sat and waited for everyone else to arrive, before we headed back down the other side. The campsite was only about an hour away and we had opted to have lunch at the campsite rather than risk staying out on the trail any longer than we had to in case it started to rain again. James and I, both carrying our rucksacks, made similar progress and so we walked together. Luckily, we had just arrived in the campsite at Paqaymayo when the rain we had dreaded suddenly reappeared. There were others behind us, some of whom ended up much wetter than others. Lyndsey, however, disappeared. She had only been minutes behind the Dutch girls, Els and Esmerelda, but she didn't arrive. About 15 minutes after she had disappeared, we began to get quite worried about her and so Augusto and Aldo and a few of the porters started searching for her in the rain. It didn't take long to find her. She hadn't missed the campsite; she hadn't had a nasty fall; she hadn't even been abducted - she had taken shelter from the rain in the toilet block at the far end of the campsite and was waiting for it to ease! Phew!!

Once everyone had arrived, we continued with our lunch. During the afternoon, I had a little snooze and wrote some of the postcards I had bought in Arequipa. After dinner, we tried to get all 6 of us into our tent. It was nothing if not uncomfortable. Jamal opted to return to his own tent for more space while the rest of us continued with our contortions. Once the discomfort became too much, we evicted the others and settled down for a quiet night's sleep.