Day Two - The most definitely hard day.

Everyone told us that day two is the difficult day, and they weren't kidding. A 5.30am start meant we were walking at 7, and the hardest 12kms of my life.
Breakfast was amazing, lots of fruit, pancakes and coca tea meant we were ready to begin.

The day was broken up to effectively 4 parts. The first part was done as a group. A difficult climb, lasting about an hour and a half, with absolutely no flat bits or downhill walking. By the time we made it to the rest of the group I was shattered. We had a brief stop, a 'how to chew coca leaves' lesson and then we were off again.
The second part of the day was probably the hardest. A winding track and never ending steps meant that we had no idea when the end was in sight. It took a lot of effort to not lose the will to go on, and I really struggled to push myself on. We kept the same pace as some other people and finally made it to the second stop of the day - the second breakfast. Consisting of cheese breadrolls and popcorn, but I wasn't feeling very hungry. I was too tired and scared of what was coming up next.
We set off for the third section of the day - a climb up to the highest point of the trek, at 4200m. The path was a lot nicer and involved fewer steps than the second section so I didn't find it as hard. And we could see the pass, in the distance, so we knew where we were aiming for. I struggled. I really struggled. Each single step was uphill, and not in the metaphorical sense. It took us about 2 hours to reach the pass, climbing the final 500m for the day. I finally found my pace in this section and managed to make reasonable time. I put my headphones on, looked down, and took tiny steps up. It seemed to work. Jeremy and I were finally walking at the same pace and reached the summit together. Sarahs weren't too far behind - maybe 10 minutes? We hung around the lookout for maybe half an hour and started on the 4th section of the day.

It was completely downhill. Not one step up, and barely any flat. The path was almost completely all rocks, which made it slow going. And it was super long. It seemed that the campsite that we could see in the distance just wouldn't get any closer... Again, I found a good pace for some reason and just wanted to get to camp so I powered on. Even managed to outpace Jeremy ;)

At 3.58 we reached the campsite. And only an hour behind the next group, which I'm really pleased with.

Reaching the summit was satisfying. Finding a good pace was amazing. Making it to camp not top far behind was a really good feeling too. But it was perhaps the most challenging thing I've ever done. I've never felt so defeated as that second section. I've never been so sweaty. I've never been so tired at the end of a day. Seeing Jeremy really emotional sort of hit it all home for me, that we've achieved something big today. And knowing that we have most of the same tomorrow is more than a little daunting right now. I've been good and not complained much, I'm just worried what tomorrow will bring. Apart from another 5.30am wake up!!

It is nice to know that now we're more than half way through. That is a little comforting... So, I'm going to bed before 9 so I get some sleep. That's an indication of my tiredness I think!

Until tomorrow!