GWoC - 29.10.15 Last walk on the wall

Thursday 29 October 2015

We had to be down for breakfast at 07:00 so Sarah’s alarm went off at 06:15. I had slept pretty well but Sarah had snored a bit, mainly because she was suffering with her sinuses, with a sore throat and ear-ache. She had however recorded me snoring on her phone during the night!

I had 3 helpings of porridge (in very small bowls) with a dollop of strawberry jam: yum! We piled on the bus about 08:30 and drove for about 1.5 hours to Road 101 which goes to Section One of the Great Wall. 

Sarah and Janine were asked to have their photo taken with some Chinese tourists

We walked to the end of the wall, had some group photos and then walked back down. Our walking time today was only about an hour and 1,511 steps. It was beautifully sunny again but the wind was cold. Most of us were disappointed that we weren’t walking further today. I certainly would’ve been happy to do more walking along the wall, maybe another couple of days even.

There's always time for a walking buddy selfie!

So, in total, over the 7 days of walking, we stepped up or down a massive 14,960 steps and took more than 35,000 paces. Wowwwww!!!

 Our last dose of steep steps 

An infinity river!

Today's favourites: "No spitting. Do not appreciate the scenery while walking. And do not walk while appreciating the scenery. In case of the natural disasters such as mountain torrents, landslide, debris flow etc, follow the worker's instructions to evacuate to the highlands on both sides or avoid the risk in the designated area, and do not lust after the belongings. Treasure your life and avoid all dangers."

During this trip we've seen quite a few what we called Police party buses. Fab! We walked back to the bus and ate our packed lunches while being driven back to Beijing. 

We stopped off at a massage place and, for 280YN each we had a neck/back/foot massage. It was amazing! There were lots of little rooms where they did the massage, each containing 3 or 4 chairs. Sarah, Dean and I went into one and I loved it, although at times it was quite painful. It was constantly on the verge between pleasure and pain! Dean let out lots of squeals like a big girl because he has really ticklish feet and he was struggling to keep from kicking the massage lady in the face while his feet were being massaged. We all found his discomfort hilarious of course! The whole process took about 1.5 hours and it was SO good!!

View from our hotel room in Beijing

We got back on the bus and drove to the Rainbow Hotel. Sarah and I were in Room 1003 which was on the 10^th floor with a fabulous view across Beijing. Sarah was so excited because we had a bath as well as a shower! 

Interesting selection of items in our bathroom that could be purchased!

I had a quick shower and went out shopping with Faye to buy shoes to wear while sightseeing over the next few days in Xi’an.

We went in a few shops and one sold drinks with snakes etc inside. Not good.

The biggest thing we noticed while we were in Beijing was the lack of wildlife. Not that you’d expect much in a huge city, but there were no pigeons scratching around on the pavements, no sparrows, nothing. We asked Alan why this is and he said that it’s because Chinese people eat everything!

We returned to the hotel about 18:00 and met up with the others in the lobby. We decided that the ‘Challenge Dean’ fact game would be best done tonight so I got the list of facts and we all went to the restaurant. The food tonight was ok, but much more adventurous than we had been used to. 

Dean gave a speech to thank Alan (our Guide) and Mr Loo (the bus driver) for their hard work and support during the trip, and gave them some tip money which we had collected for them.

We then played the ‘Challenge Dean’ game. I had collected a random fact from everyone on the trip, including Alan, over the previous couple of days so had a list of 22 facts that he had to match up with members of the group. Dean deliberated over dinner and then he stood up and read out the facts one by one and said who he thought the fact belonged to. He got 2 (Charya's and Kim's) out of the 22 correct which was pretty awesome really, especially as he had got them all wrong last year!