The Great Wall’ker

Mini Neverland by the Yellow river

A friend called me today. He got married in Turkey the day before. Congratulations John!!! Enjoy your Honeymoon!

John talked about the big day and towards the end he said: “By the way - Michael Jackson is dead”. Wow - somehow I didn’t think that he was ever going to die!! So sad.

I went on walking along the road parallel to the Yellow River thinking about Michael Jackson. Then I saw a building on the banks of the Yellow River. Looks like a miniature Neverland…

Mini Neverland by the Yellow river

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At seven o’clock I woke up because it was boiling hot inside the tent. There was not a cloud in the sky, so I knew it would be a warm day. I got up and started walking to get as far as possible before it got too hot.

There wasn’t much to take my attention from the road and the walking. Although there was a nice view of the desert, I had left the camera with the 5x zoom lens in Jingtai to save some weight.

As it got close to twelve o’clock, I started looking for a suitable place to have a siesta, but found nothing. So I carried on walking. When I got close to the Yellow River I saw some spruce trees like the ones we have in Norway. It was perfect to lie below them and the slight wind helped cool me down. Also, it made me feel a little closer to home. I miss the Norwegian forests and trees.

When I got to Shapotou after more than 30 kilometres in the heat, I decided enough was enough. From Shapotou place, I will starting walking in a north eastern direction to find the Great Wall again. I got a lift to Zhongwei (not Zhongning - the map has been updated) and left my sleeping bag, mattress and tent there. Then I took a three hour ride to Jingtai to collect the laptop and other things which I had left there.