Inca Trail

The first day of the Inca trail was very exciting as we were immediately spoilt with stunning views of the mountain ranges that felt alien compared to anything we can see in Australia. On top of this, we had many opportunities to see old Inca sites on the first days walk which was capped off with camping in Wayllabamba where we formally met our porter team and watched the sunset over the valley.

The second day was a daunting start as we had been told it was going to be the hardest day and right off the bat it didn't disappoint. It was straight uphill to our morning break at Llulluchapampa and it was here we were rewarded with the view of the Dead Woman's Pass. This was the peak that we would be ascending that day, and it looked steep, but there wasn't a better feeling than finally getting to the top of that pass. We then had a short steep descent into the Paqaymayu Alto valley where our camp for the second night would be.

The third day started with a slight ascent before going downhill for the majority of the day. Towards the end of the day, we were treated to probably some of the best Incan sites to date. Intipata was a terrace farm that had the sole purpose to grow crops that would be offered to the gods, and Winaywana was a terrace farm that generates crops for people living in the area. We were spoilt for a view to watch the sunset and stargaze on the rooftop of an abandoned club near our campsite.

Our final day had an early start, waking up at 3am so that we could get to the checkpoint for the final walk to the Sun Gate, which would give us a unique view of Machu Picchu. After a 3 hour hike, we were rewarded with a clear view of Machu Picchu, fortunately with clear skies. Once we got our fill of the views from the Sun Gate, we headed down to explore Machu Picchu.

The day finished off with rejoining the rest of our Intrepid family for lunch before returning to Cusco.Read more