The First Seventy Years: 112 - The Sacred Valley
Eric Biddulph cycles into the secret valley of the Incas.
Eric’s book The First Seventy Years can be obtained for £10 by contacting http://mary@bike2.wanadoo.co.uk or telephoning 01484-658175.
All the cash raised by the book goes to a water aid project in Malawi.
I needed to get back to Lima during the next week so I made it a priority to book a flight back to the capital before I embarked on any further travelling. A visit to the Aero Peru office drew a blank; no flight could take me until the day before I was due to fly out of the country. Fawcett Airline however, offered me a seat some five days later giving me reasonable time to tour this historic and fascinating region.
I parted company with two of my companions as they set off on the week long hike along the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu. Emma and myself scaled down to a doubleroom for the night as I arranged to leave some of my luggage with her whilst I set off on my bike for a short tour. First stop was Pisac but I had to reach the ridge above Cusco by way of a steep road past the remnants of Sacsahusman, pronounced 'sexy woman'. This was one of the Incas most remarkable achievements. Some of the rocks forming the walls were more than six metres square; weighing in excess of three hundred tonnes. How they manoeuvred these large objects into place has remained a mystery to this day.
A spectacular drop down a winding road brought me to the Sacred Valley of the Incas at the head of which was Pisac. Continuing my ride through the Valley alongside the Rio Urabamba I reached the town of Urumbamba after 80 kilometres. Climbing over a distance of 25 kilometres out of the Valley the next day I was rewarded with spectacular scenery. I was eventually able to look down from the ridge to see Cusco nestling below. The Incas had realised the value of building their cities surrounded by high ridges long before the arrival of the Spanish.
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