Hi ho, hi ho, had enough now....

Today felt positive. Although it was going to be 14km we'd been told that there were no large climbs and also we'd been assured that there was a bar at the campsite we'd be staying at this evening. If that's not a reason to be positive then I'm not sure what is!

Everyone else on the hike (Especially Mo, no, I'm not laughing - much...) has a variety of ailments includiing knackered feet, knackered muscles and knackered legs. So far I have nothing wrong (well, nothing out of the usual anyway). I must admit though, I feel like I'm about to get a blister on the ball of my right foot. It's odd because I've worn these boots all over the world and never had a drama before.

I decided to spend a few minutes this morning to tie my laces really well to ensure my boots couldn't move around on my feet.

I then headed off and decided to take things a bit slowly. I made it my mission to be the only person to complete the trail without any injuries. It meant a lot to me because everyone had been taking the piss and saying I didn't look like a proper hiker.

I strolled really leisurely and took loads of photos. At one point I met a tour leader from a different group. He offered me some coca leaves so I indulged for the first time. They're legal in Peru, in fact most hotels and hostels have a basket of them for free. I'd like to say they tasted good and I got as high as a kite but I'd be lying. They tasted like tea bags. And I encountered no happy feelings. What's the point in banning something if they don't give you happy feelings?

Lunch was great as usual, but instead of hanging around for an hour afterwards I decided to get walking after eating. TT came with me and it was probably the best afternoon of the trail. It was the first time we'd walked alone together and it was fantastic to share the scenery with the girl I love.

About 3pm we got our first view of the mountain that hides Machu Pichu. It's marked with a flag. The primary guide was already waiting for us. I've no idea how/when he passed us as he was definitely still at the lunch site when we left. Somehow they ensure that there is always a guide in front of the group and a guide at the rear ensuring no one gets left behind. All in all there's normally about an hours difference between the leaders and trailers of the group. It's pretty spaced out.

While gibbering about the guides I should mention a very annoying habit the primary one has. He plays a flute. And the sound travels. For most of the uphill struggle yesterday I could hear him trilling away. I distracted myself from the hard work by thinking about ways to kill him using his bloody flute. At one point I had a particularly happy thought of him being so distracted by his trilling that he actually walked off a clff and managed to impale himself on the flute. And on the way down he caught his foot on the cliff causing a landslide that buried him under a big pile of rocks. I'm not a nasty person really but he was extremely annoying.

We arrived at our final campsite about 5pm. As promised there was a small bar. I was expecting the drinks to be expensive but they were only 5sol, about $AU2. Why would you do that? You have a captive audience in the only bar for miles. Why only 2$AU? I'd charge about 5 times that and I'm sure everyone would have been happy to pay it too. After all, we'd spent nothing for the three days previous and beer is beer. I'd easily justify paying that price.

After dinner we said goodbye to our guides and sherpas and gave them our tip money. For some reason Mo decided to be a cow. Perhaps she'd not had enough mango or something. Basically we'd been advised to split our tip money something like 15% for each guide, 15% for the cook, 10% for the assistant cook and the remainder to be split evenly amongst the sherpas. Mo didn't agree with this. She was arguing that the sherpas should get more.

After listening to her drivel for about 15 minutes I'd had enough. I asked the group for a show of hands in favour of giving the recommended amount. Every single hand went up apart from Mo's. We took that as a decent enough majority and gave out the money accordingly. The rest of the night was spent in the bar. Once again, fun was had by all.