Olympians In Training

Inca Trail Porters
Originally uploaded by Scott Howard

Well, I have survived the Inca Trail and, after reflecting on it during a flying visit to the Peruvian Amazon, I can say I feel both proud of myself and rather meek from the experience.

Now, I'm sure that hundreds, if not thousands of people around the world have written stirring, evocative accounts of their four-day hike to Machu Picchu and the elated feeling when they finally reached the sungate and looked down upon the stunning sight of Peru's most fascinating piece of archeological heritage. As wonderful as my Inca experience Trail was, I don't feel I can compete with this, so instead I ask you to imagine the following scene:

Against a stunning backdrop of soaring mountains with their peaks in the clouds, waterfalls, ancient stone ruins and rare and beautiful wildlife were twelve hikers, all kitted out in their North Face finest. Gore-tex boots, waterproof jackets, sun hats, insect repellent, altutide sickness pills, factor 50 sun cream, hiking poles and small day packs containing water and energy bars. We were a pretty friendly bunch, with no real complainers and we trekked along fairly contentedly despite two or three cases of stomach upsets and many aching limbs.

Part of the reason we didn't complain could have been the 20-strong team that was needed to look after us on this 45km trek. It consisted of 16 porters, two cooks and two guides. The guides walked with us, camped with us, ate with us, and wore similar modern outfits.

Not so the porters and cooks.

These seemingly superhuman individuals tackled the hike wearing, in most cases, nothing more than a pair of shorts and sandals made from recylcled car tyres. They carried up to 30kg on their backs, including the rest of our luggage, our tents, sleeping bags, the kitchen and dining tents, gas cannisters, chairs, tables, water and enough food for 32 people for four days. They cleared up after us each morning and at intervals on the trek we would hear, "Porter coming through!" and would part so that they could run panting and sweating past us up steep, uneven steps in time to set up our tents, beds and dining table by the time we got to camp and be ready waiting for us with fresh glasses of pineapple juice.

You might think, perhaps, that the food and setting would be pretty basic considering where we were. Well, every day our waiter carefully folded our napkins, origami style into the shape of condors or peacocks, and the cook wrote G.A.P. (the name of our tour company) in caramel letters on our breakfast pancakes (next to the carefully arrange slices of orange). The effort and attention to detail was just incredible and made the trip almost luxurious for us, although after dinner the porters slept together on the floor of the dining tent. Who could complain after this?

We couldn't even feel bad when, having been woken up at 4am on the final day of the trek (with a cup of tea and a basin of hot water, obviously) we reached the sun gate to see nothing but a valley full of mist and no Machu Picchu in sight. We made it, that was all that mattered, and to achieve something even slightly on a par with what the Inca Trail porters manage five times a month was, for me, as moving as any part of the experience.

The Peruvian Olympic running team should be the best in the world.