Rare Adventures

Tag: fitness

Conquering Rainbow Mountain: high altitude trekking, rolling rocks, courage and condors

The last adventure was the amazing Rainbow Mountain, or Montane Vinikunka. We had first seen the natural spectacle on an episode of BBC Race Round the World; it is a phenomenon that only became visible as a result of global warming around 2012 with the retreat of the ice layer on top of the mountain.

The retreat exposed a multi colour landscape that is one of the wonders of the world, however you define them. There are only two known examples, the Peruvian mountain and one in China.

We didn’t commit to this trip until we had completed the Inca Trail. We didn’t know what the outcome of that adventure was going to be, especially Wooksie and her ability to cope with the altitude. As you will have read from other blogs, our trip to Machu Picchu took a different route to avoid a fire in Dead Woman’s Pass, so we avoided the high altitude element of that trek.

As a result, this adventure took on more significance because we needed to prove to ourselves that we could cope with a big high altitude trek (though I had done the climb on one of the Lake Titicaca Islands), which would make up for missing Dead Woman’s Pass.

As always, we were picked up before daybreak by the bus for our long haul to the mountain. We stopped off at the next hotel for more adventurers to board, most were dressed as you would expect for a long climb up a mountain, with one exception, a lady who came dressed in trainers, a fluffy jacket and muti coloured leggings and looked like she had just arrived from a disco, it was Minni.

We cleared the traffic of Cusco headed in a new direction, with different villages and landscapes and after an eternity we stopped for breakfast. The normal people seemed to group themselves together and we ended up sat beside Minni and her friend and got the chance to know each other. It’s strange how we always end up befriending the less orthodox people in a group.

After an unpleasant altercation with a male Alpaca we got back in the bus and started following the offroad trail, to climb up to the drop off point. Cusco is at about 2500m altitude, high but manageable, by the time the minibus had completed the climb up the mountain tracks we were at 4100m.

When we got off the bus the altitude hit us immediately, it felt like a huge pressure on my chest and it took time to get oxygen into the lungs, but it was a real sudden shock, but the body adjusts.

Basically, we were being dropped off at roughly the same altitude as Dead Woman’s Pass, I looked at Wooksie and could see the lack of oxygen was having an immediate effect. We were all issued with walking poles to help with the climb.

I was amazed to see that most of our fellow adventurers chose to take the easy way up on the back of mountain ponies, the ponies carried customers up to the final station, which meant they only had to do the last climb, cheating or what!

We set off to walk the 5km walk to the summit, roughly 1000m higher in altitude. Progress was painfully slow from the get-go. I could see Wooksie was really struggling and suggested that maybe she should get on one of the ponies. To be fair she has had bad experiences with ponies in the past, and she wasn’t going to make an exception.

She then came out with the bravest of words, “I’m going to climb this f@cking mountain if it kills me”. In the light of what had happened in Puno with altitude sickness, it did occur to me that there was a possibility of that happening. On that cheerful note, we headed off.

The tour guide was carrying oxygen for emergencies and it turned out only 3 of passengers on the bus were walking up, Wooksie, me and of course, Minni in her totally inappropriate outfit. An unexpected consequence of trekking at this altitude is the impact on our bowels, there were 3 rest stations on the climb and the toilets were very busy places.

I was carrying a stock of caffeine energy gels and bars. We hadn’t needed them on the other treks but they came in very handy on this one. Each stage of the trek got tougher, I looked into the distance and saw the peak and couldn’t see anyway that Wooksie was going to make it, however, my girl is from Northern England and made of tough stuff, and she climbed that mountain one step at a time.

Eventually we reached a point where we could see the multi coloured, stripped slopes and I was relieved that Wooksie had made it that far, even if she had to go down, she had seen it, but she wasn’t giving up. At the final rest station, we downed the remaining energy bars and gels and made the push for the summit, Wooksie travelling one step at a time, but now I was full of caffeine and bouncing up the mountain like a gazelle then coming back to chat with Wooksie.

Then a moment of drama, the rocks on the mountain are very loose, and the mountain is very steep. The reason Dead Woman’s Pass was abandoned was because of the loose rocks and we had a demonstration of the dangers.

One of the climbers ahead of us dislodged a small rock, that started to roll very slowly initially, it rapidly picked up speed and headed towards the next batch of trekkers, nobody was looking up for danger and the rock hit a group of walkers like a bowling ball, none of them saw it coming and fortunately it was just a glancing blow before it continued it’s journey down through a gully and to safety. It was a great illustration of the dangers and why the Incas spent all their time terracing the mountains to keep them stable.

Soon after this we reached the ridge and had a full view of the coloured slopes and the valleys, as we sat and looked down the valley we saw a mighty condor fly out from a perch below and glide down the valley, if there was ever a message from the gods that was it. I asked Wooksie if she wanted to go to the summit and you can guess the answer.

We climbed up the last couple of hundred metres to the summit at 5100m and the Instagram shot place where there was a long queue. Then another wonderful thing happened, we spotted Bettina, last seen at 3am in a Huacachina night club two weeks before hanging out with Wooksie.

Big embraces, hugs and photos followed, we had made to the summit and banished the little doubts about whether we would have made it over Dead Woman’s Pass on the Inca Trail, this was much higher and much tougher.

Within minutes of saying arrivederci to Bettina we bumped into Minni, and we wandered back down the mountain triumphantly together. Back at the bus, we discovered that we were the only people on the bus to reach the summit. One of the problems with the pony trek approach is that the lungs don’t adjust and suddenly you are on path to the peak at 4700m with no aclimatisation, so they had all given up.

The trip back to Cusco went really quickly, learned a lot about Minni, who was an architect from Toronto and pursuing a part time career as a fashion influencer (hence the strange get up).

After a stop of for a drink, another confrontation with the angry Alpaca, and once the elation had passed we dozed all the way back to Cusco.

On arrival in Cusco, we headed for the Irish Pub only to find another pal from Huacachina, Cockney John.

12/02/2026
Inca Trail day 3: Cloud forests, precarious toilets and a tip ambush

Eventually, we wandered into our second campsite. To find the porters had all been busy again, the tents had been built, the canteen tent was laid out ready for dinner and we had bowls of water sitting outside our tents for washing.

Another smashing evening chatting with our companions, good food and it was time to re-engage with my wandering mattress in the tent for another night chasing it around the tent floor. After such a long period without camping the hard ground started to take its toll so the early morning stretch was getting tougher.

Same routine with breakfast and then we set off on a long day of climbing. The downside of coming through the valley was that we were way below the altitude needed for the Sun Gate at Machu Picchu. If we had gone over Dead Woman’s Pass we would have been coming down so day 3 would have been the easy part of the journey.

The Incas were very busy step builders and we were regularly negotiating steep climbs and drops using the stairs they had built 500 years ago. The path meandered along the hillsides, dropping occasionally but it was never any relief, because whenever we went down, we knew we would be coming back up.

Best scenery of the trek

The scenery on day 3 was stunning, mostly we climbed through the cloud forest, which is pretty much what it says on the tin, the altitude of the forest means that there are shrouds of clouds in amongst the trees, I guess we would normally call the fog!

The comradery of our fellow adventurers was great but the strain of the climbing was making an impact on Todd’s knees and he really started to slow up, as did Wooksie who was struggling again as we started to hit altitude, plus the endless steps up through the terraces. The young people didn’t have any of these issues and I made it my business to try to keep up with them, but it wasn’t particularly successful.

There were some spectacular structures along the route which left us in awe of the Inca ability to turn uninhabitable hillsides into fertile terraces for growing crops of raising animals, probably Alpacas and Lamas.

Into the afternoon we finally crossed the path coming down from Dead Woman’s Pass which marked the end of the serious climbing for that day. Soon afterwards we were at probably the most impressive of the remote Inca temples and settlements, stunning views, great photo opportunities and an end of the climbing.

We headed up for the last push to the next campsite only to find that we had actually arrived and it was only 10 minutes away. The porters were busy assembling tents on the terraces and putting the food together for the evening.

We had a big chunk of the afternoon to ourselves for recovery, which the young people used to climb up some of the trail to Dead Woman’s Pass to prove they had done it, meanwhile, Wooksies decided she would just go and have a lay down, whilst Todd and I went and found ourselves a nice bench and talked about to right the wrongs of the world, and the looking threat of a Trump presidency.

Precarious Loos

This was our last camp, and due to it’s location at the end of the trail it was very busy. The conditions were crammed and toilet facilities were at a premium. Each night the porters erected a toilet tent, and tonight was no exception, however, due to the precipitous location of the camp site, the toilet tent was literally hanging off the side of the cliff.

Going to the loo involved a lot of dexterity, but we had to hang on to the branch of a tree to stop us tumbling down the hillside into the bushes. There weren’t many late night visits to the loo that was for sure, and it wasn’t linked to heavy rain that started to fall during dinner.

The tipping tradition

The tradition of treks normally involves a tip for the porters which is collected as a form of thank for their services. In this case it was more a form of extortion, after dinner, the trek leader gave us a grand stand speech on how poor everyone was, and how we were rich.

The poor old cooks and porters were made to queue up in the rain, and then they were marched in front of us bowing while we applauded their efforts. It was clear that it was humiliating for them and embarrassing for us, in fact, I eventually suggested that they should be allowed to get in out of the rain as they had worked hard enough and didn’t need to be going through this ritual.

He then told us that we should have separate tips for the cook team and the porter team, and that each trekker should contribute $50 to each of the team, which was $100 each in total. Todd had his family of 7 with in, so in effect he was looking at a tip of $700 !

It is fair to say that this rather the dampened the atmosphere as nobody was carrying that sort of cash. Between us we clubbed together and created a decent contribution from the group.

Interestingly, when we did our feedback to Alpaca Tours on the bus home, everyone complained (without any co-ordination) and to be fair we were met in Cusco by representative who worked hard to resolve the problem, but be warned.

04/02/2026
Inca Trail Day 2: Close encounters with trains and endless ancient step

Day 2 of the Inca Trail trek officially started at the crack of dawn when the porters came to our tents with warm water to have a wash. Unfortunately, our day had started way earlier than that.

This was our first night under canvass for many years, having had the luxury of an old VW camper for 20 years, the need to sleep on the floor was long passed. Consequently we paid the extra for the sleeping mattress, but during the night my body and the sleeping mattress parted company, or at least, I spent most of the night with limbs and torso only having the briefest of contact with the mattress, so the dawn chorus and the warm water was a welcome relief.

Breakfast was all ready for us, with hot drinks, bread, toast and various local porridge type concoctions for us to stock up on. Day 2 was scheduled to be the big day, with a 1000m climb over Dead Woman’s pass, but we were heading off on our alternative route around the mountain.

We set off along the valley, trekking through farmland and following the Urubamba River, which ultimately could take us to Machu Picchu Pueblo further along the Sacred Valley. The walking was nice and easy and Wooksie was recovering steadily at the lower altitude, and I was grateful we weren’t climbing a mountain, and I wasn’t the only one, Todd was really suffering with his knees.

Time passed quickly as the adventurers got to know each other. I was inquisitive about the Mormon way of life and how their beliefs varied from mainstream Christianity, and the conversations meandered through numerous topics.

We also had a lad from Sweden, I didn’t know anything about their social issues with drug related gang crime and I was even more intrigued to discover that there was still national service in Sweden, as you can tell, I enjoyed listening, talking and sharing views on anything that came up.

Eventually we crossed a footbridge and found ourselves beside the train track again, we then realised that the alternative route was actually walking along the train track. It is probably fair to say that this approach would not have survived a UK Health and Safety risk assessment, but it was a lot of fun, but the walking was hard over the stones that the track was bedded on.

There were plenty of tunnels and cuttings that involved sending a scout ahead to check it was safe, and then we would all run through the tunnel before any other trains came. Over time we all got used to our close encounters with the trains. They always blew their whistles as they must have known there were trekkers on their track, and it normally involved lots of waving to passengers.

By early afternoon, we reached another river crossing and headed back across the bridge to pick up the trail. One of the discussions was around why would the Inca kings want to climb over a 4500m pass when they could walk along the river. It didn’t make any sense, so we concluded that the kings probably used this route along the river and named our trail the “Royal Route”, rather than the “Classic Route”.

The Inca Trail isn’t really the route used by the Incas, more a route that takes you through some of the Inca sites on the way to Machu Picchu.

Once across the river we picked up the normal trail again and started the climb. After an easy day along the valley, it was good to be in the forest again, climbing steadily past waterfalls and magnificent views, and we started to pick up the Inca constructions in the form of terraced hillsides.

We then realised how incredible the constructions were. Basically, these hillsides were very steep and covered in small loose rocks, and useless, The terracing of the hillsides enabled them to use the steps for farming and turn the whole area into a form of industrial farming complex. Among the constructions there were houses and temples that reflected their way of life.

Late afternoon, we wandered into our second campsite. To find the porters had all been busy again, the tents had been built, the canteen tent was laid out ready for dinner and we had bowls of water sitting outside our tents for washing.

Another smashing evening chatting with our companions, good food and pretty quickly the day light was gone and it was time to re-engage with my wandering mattress in the tent, and another night chasing it around the tent floor.

31/01/2026
Destination Argentina
Patagonia and Ushuaia here we come

Nearly time to pack our rucksacks for the next adventure. This is a big one on our bucket list and has taken a lot of planning over the last few months.

Anyone in their right minds would be using a travel agent, but that is too easy for us. It would hardly be Rare Adventures if we had someone organising us, just think of the things that could go wrong.

This idea first came up from the BBC series “Race across the world“, when they travelled the length of South America. The scenery was so remote and beautiful that we decided we had to see Patagonia and the most southerly point at Ushuaia.

In an ideal world we would like to have been doing more by road to enjoy the scenery, but the distances are so vast we will be using internal flights as our main form of transport. Wooksie has put a 1 month limit on the trip and we had to be home for Christmas, which apparently starts on the 1st December in her world, the schedule was a bit of a challenge,

It is quite difficult to filter though the information on the internet, there is so much to trawl through and evaluate, but eventually we came up with this route. Driving or train would have been more fun but would have constrained us too much, and by using flights we can spend more time as the destinations.

After all these years, and with all the online information, we still end up buying a copy of the “Lonely Planet” as a simple point of reference.

Argentinian itinerary

Here is our plan, or maybe more of a list of things that might happen!
- 29^th October fly from Bristol to Rio– with a change in Amsterdam with KLM, we spend 3 days enjoying the Copacabana and Ipanema beaches, bars and having a look at Christ the Redeemer and Sugarloaf Mountain.
- 2^nd Nov we fly to Iguazu Falls – for trekking, 4×4 offroading and speed boating around the spectacular falls, it’s going to be a spectacular day.
- 4^th Nov we fly to Bariloche via Buenos Aires – this could be a bit tricky as it’s not a through flight but with a bit of luck we will arrive in the northern part of Patagonia and the Argentinian Lake District in the early evening. Trekking and adventures at altitude await us.
- 9^th Nov we fly to Buenos Aires – we then have 3 or 4 days getting to know the place and popping over to Montevideo in Uruguay.
- 13^th Nov we fly to El Calafate to spend 4 days trekking around the glaciers and mountains in the southern part of Patagonia.
- 16^th Nov we fly to Ushuaia to head to the most southerly point in South America and cruise around the Beagle Channel, unfortunately Wooksie didn’t fancy a cruise to Antarctica which is a disappointment.
- 20^th Nov we start our trip home with more stop overs in Buenos Aires and Rio before getting back for the end of November.
We have lots of adventures and and scenery to explore d and will be posting regular updates on what has happened – onwards and upwards.
26/10/2025
My weight loss journey 10 – Mounjaro after effects

Managing Weight After Mounjaro: A Real Challenge

See the rest of my Weight loss journey posts.

Coming down and stablisation

Generally the treatment was really successful in my view, but coming off Mounjaro has to be managed; it is deeply depressing to know that something like 80% of people put their weight back on within 6 months. The son and wife of one of my mates lost 5 stone before a trip to NEw Zealand, when they came back, they put it all back on again. To make matters worse, they are quite contented that if they need to lose weight off again it will cost them about £3000, so why bother staying fit.

I did some research around the topic and fortunately came across this podcast back in the summer. The podcast discusses the relationship between the food industry and the weight loss drugs. In summary, the problem is that many of us are addicted to food thanks to the disgraceful marketing by the food industry and now the pharmaceutical industry has found an antidote to the addiction.

So, it is like a heroin addict being hooked on Narcan as the alternative. There are people who even think there is a conspiracy between the two industries, but it’s not worth going there. Discussing it with another mate he couldn’t understand why people just couldn’t stop eating crap, he took some convincing that he was lucky to be one of the fortunate people who weren’t susceptible, just like he is inexplicably and annoyingly much better than me at mountain biking.

Positive side effects

The problem with Mounjaro is that you are likely to put the weight on when you come off it, unless you really focus on changing from the eating habits that got you there in the first place. The strange thing about the drug is that it seems to help with other addictions and habits, there is even evidence to reduces other addictions like gambling.

Human nature being what it is, people are continuing to use the jab to keep their weight down rather than taking the chance of putting the weight back on, basically people are hooked.

It helped me break some habits, notably I liked to have a drink in the evening while watching tv. This habit went back to when work was really stressful, I would come home, put the kids to bed and the drink was the signal to my body that it was time to relax.

It was normally gin and tonic, but since having the jab I can’t face a gin and tonic. The other mini addiction was bacon sandwiches or rolls in the morning, for some reason, the smell and taste just doesn’t do it for me anymore. My couple of months on the jab seems to have had more benefits than just weight loss.

I’m writing this just as the price of Mounjaro has increased 170%, apparently this is to reduce private demand so that there is enough supply for the NHS, apparently there are not enough stocks to treat the clinically obese and those with serious diabetes.

I’m sure the makers were heartbroken about imposing this price rise, but I suspect people will still find the money or switch to the slightly less effective Wegovy, which is now a lot cheaper, particularly if they are moving on to sustaining rather than losing weight.

I guess the major lesson from this experience is just how depressing it is that the food industry has got millions of people addicted to appalling and damaging food, yet no government on the planet is willing to stand up to them and stop it.

Negative side effects

Meanwhile, people are getting addicted to being thin, guaranteeing years of income to the drug companies, the whole thing is mad but here we are in the 21st Century, half the world is starving and the lucky inhabitants of the free world are taking drugs to stop us eating.

There are lots of other suggested side effects being suggested, including muscle wastage and impact on mental health, so anyone considering it should do their research first, there is a ying and yang to everything in life.

I’d recommend the approach for anyone who is in the privilege position to be able to enjoy it.

See the rest of my Weight loss journey posts.

22/10/2025