Not that it needed any validation or confirmation.... But I concluded one more time that saying I hate camping is an understatement.I couldnt sleep all nite, the restrooms were so horrible that I don't even want to talk about it and getting ready with a torch light at 5:00 in the morning is a nightmare. Somehow we were all ready by 6:00 with our day packs packed and duffle bags packed for porters. It was freezing cold and I wish I had more layers of clothing but I was reminded that we were on trek and not going to a relaxed 4 star vacation resort:( After a quick breakfast we told Roger that since we were behind the group last night we would like to get head start. He showed us where the trail continues and me and akarsh started marching along. It didn't help since we didn't get very far along before the group caught up:)
Today we had to climb two huge mountains, go to the highest elevation at 13500 ft and pass the 'dead woman's pass'. Most of the names along the Inca trail are given to them due to some occurrence.. Dead woman's pass is called so because they found a woman's skeleton there and also because it looks likes a women lying with her head facing the sky!! They called a Glacier Veronica because somebody by the name of Veronica attempted to climb the glacier and never returned... I was worried they might have to change the dead woman's pass to Jalpa's pass ... Akarsh was worried it may have to be renamed to dead man's pass;);) Luckily there was no need for any of this..we made it to the top of the pass in the allocated 4 hours!! Will not get into the details of how but we were both so proud of each other and somehow felt like we accomplished something big!! The views of the valley were breath taking..infact the whole 4 hour hike had beautiful views all over. But it was too cold and windy to click many pics. Plus I was too light headed and having altitude sickness. I still clicked a few pics. Btw did I mention that I carried my dslr with me all along the trek.It weights at 1kg which is a lot specially when you are already carrying your day's supply of water, snacks, medicines, torch light, different layers of clothes for different weather etc..anyhow my biggest lesson learnt would be to not carry huge camera. Its not efficient to take the camera out and click pic while trekking and when you are at the campsite you are too tiered to even think of clicking pics..iphone is good enough which is what we used for most of the pics!!
So back to the hike: I was so sure the tough part of the day was over and downhill was going to to be easy but there is nothing quiet easy on inca trail.The downhill was steep uneven steps made of uneven rocks.It was tough on knees specially for Akarsh since he already has knee problems... But we made it to the lunch site 30 minutes after the fast group (which was not to bad)..After lunch we had one more mountain to climb.I was giving hints to the group and Roger that we should just camp out here like all other groups, but all I got in return was 'we are stronger than others' so after an hour lunch break we were climbing uphill again. Again the views all around were beautiful.I wish I had some more energy to click pics. We had 4-5 more hours of hike ahead of us and we were enetering the cloud forest area...The views were breath taking but at the same time I was getting very anxious about how dark it was getting and how much more distance we had to cover, so was in a rush to get to the camp site. Our guide was on and off with us so that was encouraging. Looking back I wish I had enjoyed the views and took it easy. We reached the campsite with all the limbs intact and really not much in pain;) We felt exhausted but overall day 2 was not as bad as people had made it out to be!
Day 2 campsite was the highest elevation for campsite in our trek and it was much colder than last night... I hate this part of the trek called camping!!!! I can walk all day but need a decent bed and moderate temperature to sleep. Again Aleve and Bengey to rescue! Tomorrow is going to be a happy day:)
No comments:
Post a Comment