By Natalie on Saturday, 30 August 2008

This moring we all woke up felling positive and looking forward to the day. Yesterday was one of the hardest days so far for me...climbing San Antonio pass was more challenging than I had envisaged. Nonetheless we all did it as a team, and today was meant to be no where near as physical. The trek today took us through a valley, along a massive rivier and culminated in a town called Huaeyappa. The terrain out of camp quickly flattened and transformed into meadows scattered with large boulders and cute little glacial streams. We walked or rather meandered for a few hours through this terrain and after a while the scenerey started to change, in what could only be described as quiet english country side. Trees started popping up, which was unusual because I hadnt seen a tree since our bus ride to Huruaz. The grass became greener and there were a lot more "rock fences" around (they were used by the locals to keep their animals in). Just as quickly as the scenery changed, it turned back into the rocky, shale like, moon...

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By Natalie on Thursday, 28 August 2008

Last night we changed tent buddies - Chloe and I were now budding up! I was secretly grateful that I was still in the bigger tent, although I knew my time would come. By the time we had started walking this morning the sun was up, which was fantastic because it meant I was warm and that I could shed a few of the layers of clothes I had on!My knee injury was starting to get noticable in the mornings...I had a small amount of niggling pain through out the night. I tried to put the pain out of my mind. I had walked well yesterday, and was feeling good, so I was confident that today would go well too.The first part of the walk (there are may parts of the walk...) had quite an up slope. The track thread its way through two large moutains- with a view like this it was hard to think about how difficult the trekking actually was. For the last day or so we had a separate trekking team, a group from Israel, hot on our heels. And today we were walking the track with them.After abour an hour of walking I could see the pass...

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By Natalie on Thursday, 28 August 2008

This morning I woke up feeling different.Not only because my stomach no longer had cramps, but today we were starting our journey into the Huayhuash. The whole point of today was to get to our first camp site for the trek. It was a 5hr bus trip into the Andes! Zac, our guide and Abraham (our cook) were with us for the bus ride, so it was a good opportunity to get to know them before the trek. Once we left Huruaz, the scenery quickly changed from mud brick buildings into sparse medows and distant snow capped mountains -it was beautiful and I felt a sense of excited apprehension about the up coming days in the mountains. We passed through little towns which were built into the sides of massive mountains; over muddy glacial rivers and saw numerous donkey herds. The road wound and zig zagged down one mountain and up another - this continued for hours and it really started to feel like we were venturing into the middle of no where...it was great!! At one stage we had to get out of the bus and walk over a rock fall...

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By Natalie on Wednesday, 27 August 2008

After a very comfortable stay in the cutest hotel in Chiquean, it was time to head back to Huruaz. Before breakfast, I got up early to sit out in the sun and enjoy the beautiful garden...I was quickly found by the resident dog - a rather large golden retriever who reminded me of the big white luck dragon, Falkor, out of the Never Ending Story. He made me shake his paws a few times, than ran away to play with the cat. It made me smile though, such a simple gesture brought such delight to him. And that was typical of our time in the mountains, everyone was always so happy!!After breakfast and a change of tyre for the bus, we loaded our gear and started on the 4 hr journey. Everyone was surprisingly sleepy...I guess after 12 days of hiking across the Andes and sleeping in tents we had a right to be tired. As I watched the familiar scenery drift by I wondered if I would ever come back to Huayhush. I looked across to Zac who was fighting to stay awake and the reality of how different our lives were really hit me. Until...

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By Natalie on Wednesday, 18 June 2008

Well it has been almost 2 wks since we all meet up in Sydney, and I am still motivated and excited. My Event is almost complete, and I should be getting the information out to the public within the week. I have to admit that it was a lot more hard work than I imagined ..... I am not used to asking companies for financial support, but so far the experience has been positive.
There is not much time to go until we leave Oz, and I haven't even started thinking about all of the warm clothes I need to take. As you can imagine, the Townsville climate doesn't call for much winter gear!!!

By Natalie on Wednesday, 21 May 2008

I have to say that I was a little anxious boarding the plane in Townsville. The idea of heading to Sydney to meet the other girls was exciting and nerve racking all at the same time. When I finally arrived in Sydney and meet Chloe and Renee for the first time, the reality of whole trip to Peru hit me. 

    I found out that I was going to be a part of the GoT team in early March, and since then I have not stopped - work wise. My feet have hardly been on the ground and my time has been very compressed. Soooooooo..... when it came to the topic of how each of us were going to raise the money, I was a little scarce in detail. I had an idea in my head, but I had not found the time to turn it into a reality.   

Renee picked Chloe and I up from the airport and we made the trip to Bundeena... finally we arrived at Jades place.  Meeting Jade and the rest of...

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