At the beginning of October, Dom visited Borneo with our first client group for this new destination in our trekking itinerary.

Please get in touch if you would like more information about the next trip we are running to Borneo in October 2019.

 

The Milky way in the Peruvian Night Sky at Camp 2

Introduction

In September 2017 myself, Dom and 15 clients flew out from Heathrow airport to visit Peru. To get there involved 3 flights, stopping off at Bogota, Columbia, Lima and Cusco, Peru.

The route we were undertaking took us through the High Andes mountain range over 5 days on wild and rarely travelled Ancient Inca Trails. Our in country guide Elkin, had secured permission to use this route which enabled us to avoid the tourist masses on the main Inca Trail route that most companies offer.

The clients included people from our previous trip to Kilimanjaro in 2016, personal friends, work colleagues and 6 clients who were raising funds for www.zoes-place.org.uk/coventry

 

Day 1

Day 1 – We started off at Papipuchu bridge and met our guides and porters in company with the horses who would carry all our provisions and also some of the team members  at various points. During the day we ascended over 1500m to a high point of 4400m before descending into the Lost Valley and Camp at 3900m.

 

 

 

Day 2 –

 

After a 0430 wake up call from the porters who bought hot tea and coffee to our tents we had a quick breakfast and started off on another long day in the mountains. We spent 10 hours on pathless terrain climbing over 2 high passes through wind, rain,snow and sunshine. During the day we unsurprisingly saw no other persons and had these beautiful mountains all to ourselves.

 

 

 

Walking down the Valley to Camp for Day 2

 

Day 3 –

After the previous 2 long days this walk was a short 3 hour descent down to camp 3 at the head of Salkantay Valley. Upon our arrival we were treated to a delicious chicken curry lunch. After this there was plenty of time to relax and I discovered a new card game called “Exploding Kittens” – www.explodingkittens.com. It is a seriously addictive game in which the clients did there very best to ensure I didn’t win !!! For dinner we were treated to a traditional Peruvian barbecue of lamb, Chicken, Pork and GUINEA PIG!

During the evening Wayne,Steven and Fisher (guide) explored the Ancient Inca ruins and produced some stunning imagery of the Milky way and night sky using time lapse photography techniques.

 

Day 4 –

From Camp 3 we descended down the valley and joined up with the main Inca Trail. This was a bit of culture shock after the 3 previous days trekking alone in the mountains. Once you enter onto the Main Inca Trail you meet up with fellow trekkers on the trail and various groups of porters working for different companies, all in different brightly coloured uniforms. We descended from 3700m to 2500m to reach the valley bottom.

 

 

 

Day 5 –

Another early start 430am wake so we could catch the train from a local village to K104. At this point we disembarked the train in the middle of the jungle and began the 5 hour ascent towards the Sungate and our first view of Machu Picchu. On arriving at the Sungate we were greeted with thick clouds and visibility of 10 metres. Our local guide retold a local legend and suggested cupping our hands and blowing 3 times to move the cloud away. We did this as part of the moment and unbelievably the clouds did part and we were greeted with wonderful views looking down upon Machu Picchu.

We then descended towards this amazing place and after a brief tour we caught the bus to Aquas Calientes and a hotel bed and beer. We were to return the following day for full tour.

 

Day 6 –

Our final days walking. Today we ascended Wayna Picchu which is a short but very steep and precarious climb along paths and on stairways cut of of the rock. It is not for the faint hearted as there are 1000ft drops off the path should you slip!!

Myself and 7 clients took the opportunity to climb this before returning to fully explore Machu Picchu.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I am really excited to announce our International Trekking trip for October 2018 in conjunction with Dom Pickett Expeditions.

Dom has lead several treks in Nepal and previously summited Mount Everest in 2011.

Myself and Dom will be leading this 15 day trek in the stunning Himalayas to reach Everest Base Camp. There is an option to extend the trip for 5 days to climb Island Peak at 6189m.

Please get in touch for further information.

Trip Dossier – Everest-2018 PDF Original

 

 

I have just returned from an 8 day expedition to Norway, working with 4 groups from a UK school on their Gold Duke of Edinburgh award expedition.

The photos below are from the trip.

This is the best part of my job, receiving positive feedback after working with 5 lovely clients from London.They learn’t how to use a map and compass to navigate in the countryside this weekend.

Anya

Thank you Paul for such an informative and great day! Very well-taught, the right amount of people, all the questions covered, everything spelt-out perfectly and a huge amount of patience on your side.

Will happily do another course with you.

George

Thank you Paul and Neil, for your patience and enthusiasm in helping us learn and improve our orienteering skills . I guess your course had made all of us a “Ninja Navigators” :-).
It has been very helpful and informative with good coverage of navigational concepts. Nonetheless, course provided great opportunity to socialise and get to know some nice people.

James

Great day out with lovely people. The course was very practical and well-taught. Learnt useful skills, while having a thoroughly enjoyable time in the process.

Claudia

Hi Paul, thank you very much for being such a great leader and instructor. I really enjoyed today’s course and meeting you all. Very glad with the course contents, was just the right amount of information to take in as a first step and being a beginner.

Jo

I echo everyone’s comments. Thank you both for A brilliant day and organising the beautiful weather for us 🙂