Sunday 25 October 2015
Before daylight the ceiling light in our room came on dimly, which may
have been an emergency light finally kicking in? Not long after, our air con
unit started clonking, which Sarah got up to switch off. Our alarm went off at
07:05 and we had to brave the cold and get ready for the day.
The empty beer bottles showed quite how much the lads and Sarah had demolished the previous night in front of the bonfire!
We took our duffel bags down for 07:30 and ate breakfast. There was porridge on offer, so I had 2 bowls as it was delicious.
We took our duffel bags down for 07:30 and ate breakfast. There was porridge on offer, so I had 2 bowls as it was delicious.
We picked our snacks for the day (apples,
Kit-Kats and Snickers) and set off back up to the dilapidated section of the
wall.
Thankfully we didn’t have to go up via the path with all the loose rocks;
we went up a path through the bush. It was cloudier today so, although I wore
shorts to start the day, I changed into my trousers late morning.
The terrain
up next to the wall was the same as yesterday; rocky and with loose rubble. 4
of the group had a day off from walking on the trail today as they were finding it
tough going. I could understand that if you’d never done anything like this
before how you’d find it hard going.
The paths were sometimes quite narrow as well as being rocky, often with sheer drops on both sides.
The scenery was dramatic and stunning, especially as the weather was so
glorious.
We could see the wall stretching for miles in both directions.
At
regular intervals throughout the day Sarah and I complained at there being
“another stunning view”. Would we ever get tired of the beautiful 360 degree
vistas? Nope.
We got to a high platform and took some photos including a group shot, which Alan took and managed to cut off people at the sides when he used my camera!
A random bottle tree!
The last 20 minutes or so of our walk today was on tarmac road down to the bus.
Walking on hard smooth ground was really quite hard going on our feet and I
wasn’t alone in having a sore right big toe and ball of my foot.
Just before we
reached the bus we walked past children playing (who happily posed for me to take a pic)...
... and many
3-wheeled trucks that all tooted loudly as they went noisily past.
The road seemed to snake down the hillside for miles.
We passed a
couple collecting Sharon fruit from a tree. The man was shaking the tree violently and hitting the branches with a stick to make
the fruit fall. His wife then collected up all the fallen fruit. It must have
been harvesting time because we saw a few people doing this.
We passed a jolly
chap peeling mushrooms just before we reached the bus.
We all piled on and I
don’t think I was the only person to take off their boots once seated. We
assumed our usual seats at the back of the bus and off we set, bound for our
next hotel. I thought this was an ideal opportunity to start collecting
people’s facts for the ‘Challenge Dean’ game, so passed my notepad round a few
of the group.
After her lunchtime failure yesterday, Sarah decided to try once again
to open her ‘lion’ sausage by just using her hands and this time she succeeded.
We passed many Police check points and Police cars, vans and bikes, all
with red and blue lights affixed to them. At one Police check point there were
even lights on top of the building! Leroy suggested the building may be a
transformer. Anything could be possible in China!
We arrived at the hotel and had about 1.5 hours before needing to be at
the restaurant for dinner. We found our room, G01, and were grateful to find it
was cosy and warm.
The view from our Room G01
As with the previous Bathroom, there was a suspended water
tank containing our allocation of water and we both showered. Shower trays
don’t seem to exist in this part of China and all shower rooms are essentially
wet rooms and in some you can actually shower while sitting on the loo (if you should so desire)!
We went to dinner in the restaurant and all squeezed around 2 large
round tables. The food was basically exactly the same as we’ve had in all the
other hotels, but we couldn’t complain as it was hot and tasty.
This is what he made as he stood in front of us. Some of the group
went to his studio and bought pictures, but I wasn’t tempted. I was quite
tired, so I went back to the room while Sarah played cards with a small group
of the others.
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