Day Four - Machu Picchu.

The big day finally arrived. We were woken up at 3.40am for breakfast and then to join the queue at the final checkpoint for the trek. It wasn't too cold surprisingly, and from 4.30 we waited in the queue for an hour for it to open. Our group was the third group (of approx 20) to get through the final checkpoint. Once through, it was on.

A quick pace was set by the front groups, the walk to the Sun Gate is approximately one and a half hours. Our group kept up the cracking pace, with Jeremy and I not too far off it. My joints, muscles and generally body just ached all over this morning. Every step down/up was painful but was offset by my newfound fitness level. The only problem with releasing the entire Trekkers within minutes of each other, is that you get people literally running for the gate. People not even saying 'excuse me' to get past, running to get to the gate before sunrise. The American crew (the same ones singing '99 bottles of rum' down the mountain yesterday) also pushed past. And as we climbed the infamous 'monkey steps' we were overtaken by a twat of a German guy who almost pushed us out the way to clamber past. Jeremy actually even called him a cock to his face ;) At the top of the 'monkey steps' we even saw one of the American girls vomming over the side of the mountain - having pushed herself too far when running to the gate. Still regretting not getting a photo of that...

The 90 minute walk took us 60 minutes. Very impressed with my own pace! The Sun Gate was a complete let down though, it was completely shrouded in cloud. So we moved on almost immediately to get to Machu Picchu. It started pouring along the walk. Our first glimpse was through thick cloud, heavy rain and foggy glasses. Disappointing to say the least! But sure enough, after about an hour the fog/cloud started to lift and we could take in the site as a whole for the first time. Amazing. I took a load of photos, but I was so exhausted I just wanted to head to Aguas Calientes for lunch and a rest. By 9am the site was full of tourists everywhere. I felt like i had a distinct right to be there, having taken a 4 day trek to get there, compared to the wankers who took transport (pardon my French!). We then took a 2.5 hour tour with William which was really interesting (but I think we all felt a bit bad that we were all too shattered to enjoy it as much as we wanted to) then we headed for the bus as soon as we could.

We spent the rest of the day in Aguas Calientes. A small town, not a lot to see really. And we were all completely knackered. Very happy with that we've achieved, but really feeling the physical and mental exhaustion. A completely amazing experience for us all...

So after seeing all the horrid bus tourists at the site today, I can honestly say that what William said on the first day really struck me as true - It doesn't matter where you go in life, it's all about the journey and how you get there.

I made it!!!