HAMPSHIRE explorer John Pilkington is off on his travels again - this time on his most ambitious journey yet.

Fulfilling a ten-year dream, he is set to walk the Royal Road of the Incas - so called because it linked the ancient Inca capitals of Quito and Cuzco.

The Royal Road follows the spine of the Andes for 1,700 miles through Ecuador and Peru.

If John succeeds he will be the first person to travel the whole road since the conquering Spanish used it to wipe out the Incas in 1534 in their ruthless search for gold and silver.

After conquest by the Spanish, much of the road fell into disuse, and during his eight-month journey, John hopes to find out what became of it.

"It's an explorer's dream," said the 50-year-old from his home in Culverwell Gardens, Winchester.

"This was the M1 of the Inca empire - so important that the Spanish army used it for their march of conquest in 1534, yet only a few sections have been properly explored in modern times."

John had been keen to go on the trip ten years ago, but Peru's Shining Path terrorist movement was extremely active and when they started killing foreigners, he decided to abandon the idea.

Now that the route is safe again the time seems right to go.

Travelling alone on foot, John hopes to piece together surviving fragments of the ancient road and quiz local people for legends or anecdotes about it

A highlight, he hopes, will be a special search he's planning with the help of Peruvians for the lost city of Cajas - missing since the 1500s.

He'll also be helping a community aid project near Cajamarca carried out by Intermediate Technology, the charity which he has supported for many years.

For single man John, a former Hampshire County Council planner, it is his first overseas trip since walking the old salt roads in adjoining Bolivia in 1997 and searching there for the graves of Wild West outlaws Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.

As with all his previous expeditions, John will be making programmes for Radio 4 and the BBC World Service, for transmission possibly late next year.

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