The flowers of the Inca Trail

Inca trail in the mist
Inca flowers on the Inca trail
The long slog uphill
In a previous post, I described our experiences walking the Inca trail. This is high on many people's bucket list and I must say, it was an experience of a lifetime. I also mentioned that this was not a walk in the park. It was a very strenuous walk and not for the faint hearted. Having said this, there was a 70 plus year old woman in one of the other groups who did the hike. News spread quickly of this lady and everyone from the different groups of people would gather and cheer her in when she eventually made it into each of the camp site. She did manage to make the full trip, which is a real achievement. There are "escape routes" along the trail. These are used to get people off the high altitude of the trail. By far the biggest problem on the trail is the altitude. People who live at sea level, really get hammered by the altitude. With us living in Bloem, we were a bit more used to the altitude, although there were areas of the trail that were really high. The highest point was 4200 meters above seas level. Oxygen is in short supply at this altitude.  After we had spent a few days at Cuzco, the altitude was not really an issue for us. There was a good supply of Coca leaves and when the altitude was getting a bit bad, you could just chew on some leaves. This opens the blood vessels and helps greatly with the altitude. There was also coca tea available at all of the stops. This also helped, but say, I did not really like the taste of it! But it helps.

Mist, spoiling the view

More mist. If not stopping for flowers, stop for mist!
Wild orcids - a good reason to stop!


Beautiful flowers along the way
In my previous post I mentioned that saying I had to stop to take photos of the beautiful flowers, was a much better excuse then just saying I need to stop for a rest! So - I took lots and lots and lots  of photos of the flowers. I needed a rest very often! The vegetation on the trail was quite lush. Pretty much like a cloud forest. A cloud forest is found in the upper reaches of high mountain ranges where the mountain peaks stop the movement of the clouds and there is often mist. The mist did come in while we were on the trail, which was really a great pity. I think that some of the views would have been spectacular, but the mist messed this up a bit. 

We made it - well at least to the lookout over Machu Pichu
Flowers and more flowers. I stopped often! 
Doing the Inca Trail was one of the highlights of my travels. It was really an experience of a lifetime.

Upwards in the mist

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Looking for Tigers in Ranthambore

Image
Spotted deer. All my photos The star of the Indian wildlife reserves must be Ranthambore. This is a massive area of some 392  square km and it is a great place to look for Tigers. This was my third trip to look for wild Tigers, so, hopefully, 3rd time lucky. My first attempt to see wild Tigers was in Chitwan National Park in Nepal and the second effort was Jim Corbett Reserve in India. Came close in both reserves, but just saw beautiful tiger tracks. Ranthambore is close to the town of Sawai Madhopur in Rajastan. Apart from the main attraction - the tigers - Ranthambore is also a famous heritage site with various ruins within the boundaries of the reserve. Local gathering wood outside the reserve Tiger painting at the train station My trip started with a hotel close to one of the railway stations in Delhi. All of my previous trips to India, I was doing consulting for companies in India, and I had only been accommodated in top of the range hotels, so this was my fi...
Read more

The Embassed Elephant

Image
Charging elephant - not my photo Yet another elephant story! Anyone would think I like elephants. Well, I do. They are amazing animals and I just have a few very interesting elephant stories to tell you. Just wait until I start on tigers! I love tigers. In fact, I pretty much love all animals and any travel option which includes looking for animals is right up my ally! Now, an elephant story from the dim and distant past! Many many years ago in a kingdom far far away, there was an elephant. No - back to the real story. Many years ago I was working on diseases of fish and we (I was working at Onderstepoort Veterinary Institute) had a meeting and we invited one of the world leaders in fish diseases from the UK to the meeting. This meeting was held close to Lydenburg (where many of the trout farms can be found). The director of Veterinary Services was also attending this meeting and as we were quite close to the Kruger National Park, we decided to treat our overseas guest to a visi...
Read more

Richard Bragg in the First World War - Part 2 - Trench trains

Image
Damaged railway line at Ypres In the first part on the history of my Grandfather in the First World War, I explained that I only had very limited information on his story during the Great war. To my surprise, when going into his military records, I discovered that he also took part in the South West African campaign from 1914 to 1915. This I discussed in Part 1 of this series. According to his records, he was discharged from the army after the successful completion, and defeat of the Germans in S.W.A. He was discharged on 31 August 1915. He was a train driver, so I presume he continued with his life as a train driver. I obtained some information from a family member that his brother, Joe Bragg (it was probably Joseph Bragg - as this was a family name at that stage), also came to South Africa with him as a train driver. I understand that he was killed in a train accident. There was a train crash in the Cape on 22 April 1911 in which 30 people were killed. Another fatal train crash i...
Read more