9 weeks till Machu Picchu

Train Train Train - that's the name of the game now, as we have a lot to look forward to!!!!

The final invoices for our trip to Machu Picchu came through this week and they have confirmed our regional flights from Aberdeen to London.

Machu Picchu

More importantly though, we now have confirmation of our extension trip to Lake Titicaca :-)  We will be heading there by train after the trek to Machu Picchu.  Once at Lake Titicaca we head out on a boat to see the floating island of Uros, enjoy the Titicaca National Reserve and then staying on Amantani island where we stay with a local family and enjoy the community lifestyle.  While on the island we will have a chance to visit some pre-Inca ruins and enjoy the famous Inca weaving.

Lake Titicaca

Lake Titicaca map

We both had the weekend off this week, so up we got up early and headed out to climb Lochnagar.....

Lovely day we thought as we headed into the glen, should be great we thought and the sun was shining and making it look fantastic.  We parked the car and crossed the waterfall at the start of the path, this was our first clue on how strong the wind and sun was.  The snow melt was in full swing and the wind was blowing the trees quite strongly.

Heather and Karen in front of Loch Muick
 

The wind was so strong, it took all our strength not to get blown over, and at present that's a strong wind to blow me over LOL!!!

We passed a second waterfall that is usually just a trickle, it was not a trickle just now!

Small waterfall?

So lets think ..... what to do .... we have to train for a long distance walk on rough terrain and we're here now ..... we checked the maps and decided to circle the loch instead.

Glen Muick has several tracks that don't include going all the way up Lochnagar so we chose one that was about 8 miles long but safe in windy weather and off we went!

We headed up the left side of the loch towards the lightning path (a path that looks like lightning and heads up a very steep side of the hills), this path splits half way up giving you the choice of climbing the Munros or circling the loch.  There's a waterfall at the point where the path splits and we had to stop and take photos.

Karen and Heather at the lightning path waterfall.

 

Howard, Karen and Heather at the lightning path waterfall.

As you can see we managed to get Howard to join us this week, its amazing what a bit of sun can do!

So after making our decision and enjoying the views of the snow melt water rushing down the hill, we headed round to the other side of the loch for lunch.

Karen, Heather and Howard enjoy lunch in the best looking restaurant in town.

So far we had managed to stay one step in front of the rain, but the clouds were threatening all day, could we make it back without getting wet?



Heather and Howard as we headed back along the deer fences.




After lunch we continued round the loch through the trees and passed the deer fences and sapling trees, enjoying the beautiful sunny weather and fighting the wind but the only time we got wet was passing along the shores of the loch down in the glen.  No photos of this I'm afraid, the cameras were all kept in their bags, but it was fun when the wind lifted the water off the loch and sprayed it all over us.

There is a serious reason behind all this of course.  Now that the Inca Trek trip is getting closer it's easy to forget why we are doing this.  We may be training to ensure we beat this challenge and make the most of our opportunity but a lot of people out there have a much bigger challenge on their hands, with the prize at the end for them being LIFE!

Cancer is one of the biggest diseases of our generation, I am sure you all know someone effected by this disease.  Macmillan Cancer Support do as much as they can with every £1 they receive but are limited by their funds, more funds mean they can help more families effected by cancer.  Please consider giving a donation to Macmillan Cancer Support through our just giving links here: Karen and Heather.