Inca Trail – Day 3. Beer and Ciggies

Day 3 was pretty cruisy. It was still a struggle at times, as we joined the real Inca trail now and then and the paths became narrower and slippery and steep, and there was massive drops from the cliff faces we were walking along. It was more jungle than the previous days and we had to be more careful of our stepping. But the Posse and Pete and Suzannes Dad, Paul, who is one of the funniest men, and looks a little like Jeremy Clarkson (yep, family holiday, Mum Mary stayed in Cusco – dancing with David we assume??) stuck together for pretty much the entire day.

The Gang Photo Courtesy: Peter Hoellen

It was a pretty nice day actually. Just the gang hanging together, making stupid jokes and trying not to fall off the side of the mountain. We had promises of showers when we arrived at camp, and so I was pretty excited…

They gave us an option to walk a further kilometre past camp to check out another Inca ruin, but myself, Sonya and Suzanne decided that we didn’t want to be all Inca ruined out before Macchu Pichu. Seen one, seen them all philosophy… And possibly because I wanted to get to the showers before anyone else and maybe because I was still paying dearly for yesterdays bolt down the mountain.

Camp was awesome that night. I had a shower, no not warm, not even close, but I didn’t care. And best of all, after 3 days of hiking, We had cake with dinner and I had a beer and a ciggie. OMG. Life had never been better. About 40 kilmometres and 3 days of walking at a constant incline, no shower, no clean toilets, hardly a thing to eat, a constant inner voice filling my head with self doubt, and a feeling that I could follow through at any given time had all been worth that one beer and cigarette with my friends. God, life was good. And we only had one sleep to go…