Saturday 24 October 2015
Our alarm went off at 06:05 and I woke after a great night’s sleep but
then I had been lying on one duvet and with 2 more on top! The same sadly wasn’t true
for Sarah. She had passed a terrible night lying awake from the cold. She had
put on as many clothes as she could rather than waking me to take back a duvet.
I felt so bad. For the rest of the day we weren't allowed to mention the word 'duvet' because of what we now refer to as 'duvet-gate'! We got ourselves ready and went to breakfast of eggs, tomato and
cucumber, or spam and toast for the gluten eaters.
Alan brought me a bowl of what he called porridge but it wasn't good and certainly hadn't been made with oats!
We put our bags on the coach and chose our snacks for the day
Alan gave us a quick history lesson
We set off walking about 09:00 after a brief visit to the museum that is a part of the hotel. Alan explained about the history of the section of wall that we were to be walking that day.
We picked up the wall where we left it the day before and could see the climb ahead of us
We climbed Heaven’s Steps (343 of them) up to a tower and from then on we were walking mostly beside the wall rather than on it, following a rocky path which was very steep in parts. I changed into my shorts after an hour or so as it was beautifully sunny and warm.
Sarah almost at the top of Heaven's Ladder
2 of our group took a day off from walking today as they had found the day before pretty tough. There were some mega sized steps and the path was very rocky and uneven, with big loose rocks so it wasn’t an easy stroll by any means. We were walking along a very dilapidated part of the wall for most of the day.
As we climbed higher and higher the views stretched further and further
Some sections involved more scrambling than trekking
"Not another spectacular view?!"
Happy China days!
We had regular stops to eat our snacks and have water breaks
Some of the signs had some excellent 'Chinglish'
The English translation on some of the warning signs were hilarious, often written in what Alan called 'Chinglish'. This one said:
"Destruction of vegetation is prohibited, offenders fine Y1000, or be sent to public security organs."
"Damage or theft of any good in planning area is prohibited. Once discovered will be sent to public security organs."
"Visitors enter construction area is forbidden. Otherwise at your own risk."
"High risk. Easy to get lightning strike in rainy day."
We didn't like the sound of being sent to public security organs so we kept away from the vegetation!
We ate lunch in a small picnic spot in a wooded area seemingly in the middle of nowhere. There were 2 huge picnic tables and benches, as well as a 3-seater swinging seat which Dean, Sarah and I liked the look of. What a random place to have a swinging seat!
We gently swung to and fro as we munched our way through our lunch.
Sarah had chosen a ‘lion’ sausage to eat with her lunch and Dean challenged her to open it without the aid of a sharp object. She failed and ate her egg instead! Everyone had sandwiches for lunch which they had made at breakfast-time but Leroy and I, being the only gluten-freers, had a tub of egg fried rice each. The weather was warm and sunny; perfect! Whilst sitting on this swinging seat we first used the expression “When in Peru” which we decided we’d include in as many sentences as we could during the rest of the trip!
Just before we continued on our way a local attendant wearing orange overalls asked me to have my photo taken with him. It seems to be very common for Chinese people to ask Westerners (particularly women and especially blonde women) to have their photo taken with them.
A few moments later I was to have my most embarrassing event of the trip. I really needed to go to the loo and was delighted to see a portaloo on the edge of this picnic area. Well, I was delighted until I opened the door to find it was filthy. Oh well, when you gotta go, you gotta go. I slid the bolt across and got on with it and all was going fine until I tried to open the door again. The bolt wouldn't budge. After struggling for about a minute I decided I needed to call for help. How embarrassing! So I shouted and Shaun, my hero, came to my rescue by using brute strength to pull the door open (and bending the bolt). From then on I didn't bother bolting loo doors unless I absolutely had to!
Dean was again kept busy giving a helping hand on the difficult bits of path
Mike and Brenda spent most of the day walking hand in hand! Mike gave his calm support for almost the entire day. Such a gentleman.
Again, we were treated to the most stunning views
Today was quite a challenge for
those in the group who are scared of heights because we were walking along
uneven paths that were sometimes very narrow and with sheer drops of 400 feet on both sides. I was surprised at how comfortable I felt and not a little bit proud of myself. Compared to the paths in Peru though, this was easy.
This bit of path was really difficult as the rocks were big and loose so it was sometimes difficult to get your footing.
Pack horse Dean ended up with a few extra bags to carry!
We reached the home-stay after about a 20 minute walk up a tarmac road, along which we saw local villagers going about their chores and I spotted this young lad playing with his dog.
We walked past these kennels, which we think were for breeding dogs. It was difficult to see dogs shut up in cages but they looked healthy enough.
There weren’t enough rooms available at the home-stay for us to share in pairs so the guys
(Mike, Shaun, Leroy & Kevin) all shared one large sleeping platform, which
was a concrete structure with a thin mattress laid on top, the underneath of
which could be accessed from the outside to light a fire under to warm the
platform. The jokes about the 4 of them sharing a bed continued all evening and into the next day! All the other rooms contained a double bed and a single bed and 3 of
them had to contain the full complement of 3 people so that we all had
somewhere to sleep.
We had an hour before we needed to be down for dinner so I had a shower
and then it was Sarah's turn. Our Bathroom contained a
water tank on the wall which was our allocated water for the night. Just as Sarah was
covered in soapy shower gel, there were big bangs and cracks from outside and the
electricity went off. Sarah was left to shower in the dark! Luckily most of us
had a torch, either head-torch or on our phones so we could see what we were doing. There were quite a few Chinese
people also staying at the home-stay and there was lots of animated
conversation in the corridor when the lights went out!
Our pet room bug for the night, no idea
what it was!
At 19:00 we went down to the dining room and filled our bowls from the
selection of dishes available. I had rice with pork and potatoes, which was
delicious. The owners had made a big bonfire outside which we all sat around to eat.
We stayed up chatting, laughing and joking
around the fire. A kindly man from the home-stay kept the bonfire topped up
with wood. Sarah and others were drinking local beers, big bottles for 10YN
(about £1). Some of the Chinese people came over to talk to us (with no
English!) or to have their photo taken with us. It was such good fun.
When you have beer you don't need to speak the same language!
It was
brilliant that everyone stayed outside round the fire for a good while. There
were jokes about cheese, we toasted marshmallows and there was one communal
glass of rice wine, well it was communal until it got to Sarah who downed it in one! The first
people went in about 21:00, then a few more about 21:30, leaving just Sarah,
Kevin, Leroy, Mike, Shaun and me.
The fire kept us toasty and warm and the conversation got deeper as the
night went on. I went to bed
at 23:00, leaving Sarah still outside with the guys. Our room was pretty darn
freezing so I wore my pyjamas, fluffy socks and my down jacket. After last night's shenanigans, I let Sarah have the spare duvet! I was so
pleased that I had brought my down jacket with me because I wore it loads on this trip, even
though the kit list said we wouldn’t need them. Today was the toughest walking
day of the trip and I loved it. It was a perfect day for me: good exercise,
good food, good company and good fun.
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