The Great Wall’ker

13 - 14 km today, but I’m happy considering the late start and pretty hilly terrain. (This is nothing compared to when I get closer to Beijing, mind you)

I didn’t start walking until three in the afternoon. The Great Wall goes through a fairly hilly area here and steeper than before. I followed The Wall and was happy to see the first stones, so far, which were used for building the Great Wall! There was still rammed earth in the middle but in the steeper sections, they had used stones on each side to give better strength and longevity, I suspect. Some places where it was very steep, there was only a small stone wall remaining, but that is probably all they needed in these sections since the steepest places are difficult to get over in the first place.

It was fun to see something different along The Wall. A little later, The Wall entered a large open mine. They were mining what looked like iron ore in some areas, but the rocks were black in other places. I didn’t see any people where I was walking, but heard a mighty dynamite blast go off in another area. It was difficult to follow The Wall because I had to make several detours on the roads in the mine. The Wall was completely gone in some places.

Bjartman - Thanks for the comment yesterday! Congratulations with the baby!! I am deeply honoured that you have named her after me!! At least with two letters as you mentioned. I’ll go for three lettters next time

Dark clouds started rolling in from the west and I decided to set up the tent. Just before I got to a good camp site, I saw my first snake along the Great Wall. I stopped immediately and was happy to have the walking sticks between me and it. It wasn’t very big - about four and a half metres long, thicker than my thigh and had eyes bigger than tea saucers… Haha… Well - that’s what it felt like It was tiny and it lay still, so I got some good shots of it. I wasn’t expecting to see snakes this far west on the Great Wall. Right now I am about 1.800 metres above sea level.

I’ve left the stove behing this time and stocked up with small dumplings with meat, corn on the cob, chocolates and peanuts. So I’m going to have myself a little feast in the tent now and wash it all down with Ice Tea. It has been hot and humid today, with pretty heavy clouds and wind. It has just started drizzling outside now. I’m sitting here in just my underpants because it is still warm now at 9 o’clock in the evening.

I have been relaxing today and working on the GPS tracks for the trip. Thanks for the tips Bryan.

Have also been tracking the parcel containing the new GPS, which Jon sent by courier.  This afternoon the status was that it was delivered to the hotel. They had even written the name of the person that signed for it. I went down to the reception like a little boy on Christmas morning, eagerly looking for my ‘present’. But the receptionist didn’t understand what I was trying to say.

Later, my brother offered to talk to the receptionist and it seems that no parcel was delivered today.  In addition there is no person working at the hotel with the name that was given in the tracking system. A bit of a bummer to say the least. So - I’m going to continue walking tomorrow and hope that it will show up. If it isn’t here within a day or two, we’ll have to contact the courier company.

This picture was placed on the top of a cake at DnB NOR, in the department where I have worked the last six years. It was fun to see that they are following the status of this project too. Thanks very much to Torbjørn for sending the picture - it is really good to stay in touch with you guys!! (And girls  :)   Wishing you all a good summer vacation.

I have spent the day in Jintai sleeping late, eating good food, drinking Ice tea and trying to calculate how far I have walked so far. Haven’t come up with a figure yet, but I’m getting there. It’s kind of fun to go through the entire trip so far, through the GPS tracks, but also a bit irritating since every time I have switched off the GPS, had to change batteries or lost satellite reception, it has started a new track log. So I have to add them all up for a day. And to sweeten things even more, the timestamps for the tracks look strange. Perhaps because it still thinks I want to use Norwegian time, while it should know that I am in China. Anyway - I’ll get there in the end.

This has been a non walking day. I took the bus back to Jintai with the equipment I had placed there. This evening I have been working with a search engine plug-in for the website, so it should be easier to find information here now. The GPS will hopefully be arriving tomorrow, so to keep things simple, I have decided to stay here to collect it.

I am really looking forward to the project for tomorrow: Calculate how far my brother and I have walked from Jiayuguan. I think it is more than a thousand kilometres, but am not sure.

Today’s mission was to get the address of the hotel in Jintai to send to my brother and to get myself to Wuwei to pick up the PC and other equipment.

I got to the bus stop around half past nine and was told the bus would be there at ten. Well - it got there half past eleven, but that was OK because the Chinese people sitting at the ticket office were nice and we managed to communicate. Speaking of communication - I have bought an English - Chinese dictionary for the htc telephone.  It is great to be able to look up words quickly to answer questions and more importantly to understand them! The problem however is that I don’t have Chinese characters on the phone, so therefore I cannot show them the character, but have to read the pinyin in order for them to understand. So I will have a look around for Chinese characters for the phone! The bonus of course is that it doesn’t weigh anything since I am already carrying the phone.

Then followed a four hour bus journey to get to Wuwei. I used the well tested tactic of keeping my sunglasses on and also had the ear plugs for the mp3 player mounted in my skull   :-)   That way I didn’t have to answer questions about what I was doing in China. Nice to be able to space out now and again. As on the last bus ride, to backtrack, I kept my eyes open for the Great Wall the whole way. I was sort of happy to see that there was a strong wind, and lots of sand in the air. My father sent a weather forecast a couple of days ago that predicted this. It was nice to sit on the bus and not be walking along some ridge of the Great Wall.

Towards the end of the ride my brother called and asked for the address of the hotel. I had the card, but it was written with Chinese characters, so I asked the lady beside me.  She kindly spend quite some time shouting the characters to the Chinese woman Jon had recruited on the other end, to write down the characters. The bus was noisy and they were playing the TV too. To make sure, I asked another person to repeat the characters once I got off the bus.   Jon was then ready to send the parcel with the new GPS and deodorant to the hotel.

But no - things are never as simple as they seem. The attendant at the post office got suspicious of this deodorant thing as Chinese don’t use them. She decided it might be explosive in some way and didn’t allow it in the parcel! If she only had the sense to send it, she could have made life so much easier for a lot of fellow Chinese people the following few weeks!! I’ll have to have a look around in Wuwei after deo tomorrow, but after searching the net extensively for deodorant and ANY expat information in Wuwei, I’m not optimistic…

Thank you for sending the GPS Jon, and have a safe journey home to Scotland!!

21 km today where three were not walking the Great Wall. I started the day by visiting the small village to buy water and food. Unfortunately there were no restaurants there, so I got instant noodles at the shop instead.

Todays walk took me to about 2200 metres. When I got to the top and started walking down the other side, I could see the valley that leads to Ningxia which is the next province along the route.

The GPS I have been using is starting to disintegrate. The rubber protection has loosened and the glue underneath is all over the place. This is the GPS I used when kayaking the entire length of Norway in 2005. Brother Jon has kindly found a replacement in Beijing today and will send it to the next town,  Jintai tomorrow. Because of this, I have hitched a ride to Jintai to get the address of a hotel. The GPS Jon is sending has a pretty good road map of China on it and a lot more memory than the old one. This will make life, whilst I’m walking the Great Wall, a lot easier!! Thank you Jon!

In Jintai I had a big meal.  Then I looked for an internet cafe. After asking around, I met four young students and they told me that all the internet cafes in Jintai are closed next week because of exams in town! I don’t know why - is it so they can concentrate on their exams, or to stop them from cheating somehow. It was fun speaking to them as they knew about as much English as I knew Chinese, so we used both languages to fill in the gaps.

I will head back to Wuwei tomorrow to pick up the excess equipment. Might spend one day there too to get things sorted on the web site.

19 km yesterday where 3 were not along the Great Wall. 28 km today.

I’m lying in the tent now with the tent doors completely open. At 2.000 metres above sea level I can see the green valley I walked through today, to the west. To the north, in the distance, I can see the amazing Tengger Desert. The sand dunes look like waves in the ocean. There is also a very large Great Wall beacon tower on a hill in front of the desert.

Behind me to the south is a beautifully situated Temple. It has several buildings that are placed on the ridges of the mountain it lies on. The mountain is covered with trees that seem to grow naturally. If I had had the extra energy, it would have been fun to climb the mountain to ask if I could spend the night at this Temple. I miss the forests in Norway. Out here almost all the trees have been planted manually, to break the wind and thus the sand. They usually stand in lines along roads and fields where the water runs in irrigation channels.

I have started listening to the Fluenz Mandarin language course on the mp3 player. When I get to Jintai and can recharge the phone, I’ll watch the actual course on the htc mobile phone too.

Luckily there was both a wind and some clouds today, so walking the Great Wall has been good. After crossing the valley, I got to a large irrigation channel that was too wide to cross and had to make a detour to get to where the Great Wall continued.

Towards the end of the day, I got to a place where they are building a natural gas pipeline from Xian to Shanghai! (Jon and I heard a couple of days ago that it goes all the way from a country who’s name begins with ‘Kirg’, and ends with ’stan’. Any suggestions?) It is at least a metre in diameter. They must have had some massive machines to dig the hole, because many places it is 15 metres deep and then the pipeline is another 4-5 metres lower down. Sad to say - in this section, the Great Wall was smaller than the earth that was moved away for the pipeline. I tried to follow the Great Wall and had to take several detours to get past valleys that have been formed because of water erosion.

I got to a dead end once, because the loose gravel from the pipeline had cut off my detour route. I had to backtrack and ended up talking with a gang of workers for the pipeline, who pointed me in the right direction to get out of the maze.

It feels good to lie in the tent looking out at the surroundings. There is a small village to the north which I may visit tomorrow morning to buy some more food.

Some days are more sad than others and this morning was like that. Jon walked with me to The Wall and we said our goodbyes and ’see you in a year’. Then I started walking the Great Wall while Jon stood there until I was out of sight.

I am very grateful that my brother Jon and I have had the chance to spend two months together along The Wall. It is pretty rare that brothers, above the age of 40, spend as much as a week together and rarely under these conditions.

I am going to miss his sense of humour and good company. His excellent Chinese knowledge has made it relatively easy to communicate with the Chinese and there have been few misunderstandings. There are a lot of dialects here. This is something that will probably be quite frustrating the next months.

Here is a list of the things Jon left me:
- Some salt and it’s practical container for making oat meal
- A solid drink of his remaining water
- What was left of his deoderant
- The Chinese words for “Road” and “Direction”

He also offered to loan me his small binoculars and dictionary, but I said ‘no thanks’ due to the weight. The Chinese don’t use deoderant because they sweat differently. So if you walk into a Chinese pharmacy and gesticulate that you want to buy deoderant, they just look at you. For a very long time…

There were no clouds today, so it was hotter than yesterday. After a couple of hours, I got to a place where they gave me some kai shui - boiled drinking water. Later I got to a shop and drank 1.5 litres of Ice Tea and ate a noodle meal.

I started speaking to some 14 year old girls and boys in the shop.  It was fun because we actually had a good talk! Every time they asked a question I didn’t understand, they got visibly irritated and started to mime what they meant, which made it easier to understand.

The terrain was not as hilly as yesterday. The only downside was that there were no trees to shelter under, to get a break from the sun and heat.

I was a bit foolish and walked too fast. Perhaps because I wanted to get as much distance between me and the sad farewell with my brother. I carried 6 litres of water and noticed that my right ankle started to hurt more than usual. I sprained it a couple of years ago and it has been painful, now and again, on this trip. This afternoon it was a little worse than usual, so when I saw the town I am on the outskirts of now, I found a place to rest and spend the night. It was only 3 o’clock when I got here, so I have washed my shirt and socks - Jon will be proud to read this

Time to sleep. Have made a deal with the guy at the neighbouring restaurant, that I’ll be there 7.30 to eat breakfast and make an early start tomorrow. It looks like there are another three-four days left of these hills before I get closer to Jintai. I plan to carry less water the next few days than the previous three. Four litres should do the trick. There are usually some shepherds around and they know where to get water.

I have spoken to Jon tonight.  He took a bus to the people we stayed with yesterday. The Bride and Groom had unfortunately left the party, but there were still a hundred guests there, so he has had a very good day! He heads for Beijing tomorrow, and then back to Scotland after a couple of days.

Takk for følget Jon!!

We were up at 7.30 a.m. and ate breakfast with Gao Jia’s family. Since they were expecting 100 guests, there was a lot of activity going on. After breakfast we took pictures of her family in different variations and will send them to her when we get to an internet connection.

Right now I am sitting on the top of the Great Wall sending the update on our position. Our camp site is about 50 metres away.  It’s also about 50 metres below me too.

We were very lucky with the weather today. It started off grey with a bit of wind.  At about 3 p.m. the sun came out. Today has been the first hilly day along The Wall. In this section it follows the contours of the landscape, using them to gain even more height.

Our bodies have done well, much thanks to the cool weather. We both started with about 6 litres of water and have about 3-4 litres left. We have not re-filled water anywhere, but hope to get the chance tomorrow.

Because of the heavy erosion in the area, we have had to take detours to get past massive valleys in the terrain. Other than that it has been good walking, despite the hills.

It was great to set up camp before the sun set too. Now we can relax and talk a bit before going to sleep in the tents. Jon is going back to Europe soon and will leave The Wall (this time) either tomorrow or the day after. It has been so good to walk together with him.  It will be very strange to be by myself soon and know that from now on I will be mostly alone.

We covered 23 km today and 22 yesterday.

Full moon tonight I think…

Yesterday: I got a blood blister on my left foot and was fried by the sun two days ago. In order to cool down and get things sorted out on the picture gallery, we spent yesterday in Wuwei.

There were many young students staying at the hotel and Jon learnt that three days of exams start tomorrow, throughout the whole of China.

Our friendly taxi driver friends drove us to the last starting point.  We were given a delicious water melon and other fruits as a farewell gift. They didn’t want payment for the trip either, which was very generous of them.

The Wall was easy to follow today, but the sun was taking it’s job seriously. After 1.30 pm it got very hot. It still felt very hot at 7 pm.  Now that the evenings are getting lighter,  we may take a longer break at noon to stay out of the sun at the hottest part of the day.

As we closed in on the mountains, which we will be crossing tomorrow, we heard a friendly voice saying: Hello - how are you? This was 25 year old Gao Jia.  She asked if we wanted to have a drink at her parent’s house. In the same breath, she said that she was getting married tomorrow (!) We thanked her and accepted her offer. It was a real treat to speak to her and to meet her family.

Emma and Brendan - if you are reading this, we have met the same lovely girl that you met on your 2007 walk! And she’s getting married tomorrow!

They are expecting about 100 guests and as tradition will have it, she was spending her last night at home with her parents before she moves in with her husband after the wedding tomorrow. Although a lot was happening, she still had time to ask if we wanted a shower. We gratefully said yes and were driven to her Uncle’s place where they had a shower complex.

We made sure to make an early exit from the scene so that Gao Jia had time to finish her arrangements and to get some sleep tonight. We are sleeping at her Aunt’s house.

To other Great Wall walkers: The Wall passes Tumen, so there should not be a problem stocking up on water before going in to the mountainous section.

Trude: Imorgen er det fullmåne!

On this walk along the Great Wall of China, we need to celebrate as often as possible.  Here is a reason for celebration - the end-point today is the place where the Great Wall leaves the Hexi Corridor. The Hexi Corridor is a geographical feature in Gansu province where the Silk Route used to go.

When we continue the walk, we will go eastwards away from the Hexi Corridor. Another reason for celebration is that we are soon finished with the Gansu Province part of the Ming Dynasty Great Wall!! I remember when I kayaked the length of Norway how I used to tell myself, for each County I passed “At least now I can say I have done x Counties”. Well - now we can soon say that we have done Gansu Province  

Today was very hot -  very sweaty hot that made me feel a bit out of balance in the middle of the day. My brother Jon decided to stay in Wuwei as he needed to make arrangements for his return to Europe in about a week. I went for the umbrella tactic again today and it definitely helps. But, when there isn’t a lot of wind and the temperature is well above 30 degrees centigrade, an umbrella doesn’t seem to be enough. Although I used factor 30 suncream, my head feels like a radiator right now.

It was easy to follow the Great Wall today.  Some places there wasn’t that much left of The Wall, and here it had a dirt road on top of it. I stopped at midday and was consoled when I saw local farmers lying in the shade of the trees resting, at the hottest part of the day.

In the afternoon I took another rest and a farmer came over. He offered me some pea pods from his field which tasted great. A nice variation from biscuits. He was very kind and offered me some of his food. At the end of the walking day, I got to a resort where they had big tents in an enormous area with apple trees. They served food in the tents. I sat down and started chatting a bit and soon heard that several Great Wallker’s had been here before. Amongst others Mark Scholinz exactly two years ago.

A guy that had just ordered some food sat down beside me and despite my limited knowledge of Chinese, we managed to have a conversation. It turned out he had a management position in the local Wine Company. It also turned out that the two chickens I watched being slaughtered were for his dinner. Then he kindly asked me to eat together with him. I even got to taste the wine and it was really good! It was great to get some food in my stomach immediately after I had finished walking. Many thanks!!

Jon and I have been using the same taxi driver in and around Wuwei lately.  We invited him and his wife to dinner this evening.  This was our way of saying thank you for his help. He and his wife are both taxi drivers. They have one taxi and they share the driving. It was fun to show them pictures from Norway of friends, family, work colleagues and my girlfriend. In fact it was fun for us to see the pictures again, since neither of us have been home for a couple of months.

After two pretty long walking days, we decided to take some time off this morning and keep the walk fairly short. We skipped the breakfast at the hotel since it doesn’t seem to give us the energy we need.  We went to a local dumplings (Bao Zi) restaurant instead. Well - not exactly a restaurant, but they have really good meat dumplings there that fill up the stomach, and give  a lot of energy.

We walked an enjoyable 14 km, walking mostly along the Great Wall. We walked several kilometres on the top of The Wall too. The umbrellas we mentioned yesterday, were used for about half of the walk and they worked well, keeping us out of the direct sun.

Here is a picture of Jon in a fortress which we passed yesterday.  As you can see, it is half filled with sand.

We have had a really long and hot day today. It was 30+ C and in the sections where we walked by the desert sand dunes, it felt like we were in an oven. We just got back an hour ago.  After walking all day with too little food we have now eaten a solid dinner, and it’s time to go to bed. Will write more about the day tomorrow!

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Written the day after: We were at the starting point for the day at 10.30 and we both had 3 litres of water in our rucksacks, as we knew it was going to be a hot day. We started walking southwards to the east of Hong Shui He (The Red Water River). We found the Great Wall and it more or less skirted on the eastern edge of the river for many kilometres. In many places the river took a bend to the east and had eaten away at the Great Wall.  In a few more places we had to divert into the desert to get to the next section where The Wall was intact.

It was very hot and we noticed the difference between walking in the desert with the sand radiating heat from beneath, and in farm land. Many places, there were cultivated fields and the sand dunes abruptly stopped where the fields began. It was a strange sight and I wonder how quickly the desert can engulf a whole field. Or perhaps the desert is expanding in the opposite direction?

We stopped for a rest in a Great Wall fortress and more than half of the inside was full of fine sand. It would make for a great sandbox!

Most of the time we passed irrigation dikes where we dipped out hats in the cold water to cool down.  We took a rest a little later and cooled our feet in the clear streaming water. The lesson for the day was: Umbrellas! Yes - it probably doesn’t look very cool to walk around on a 6.000 km/4.000 mile hike with an umbrella over your head, but in 30+ C it makes a lot of sense!

At one o’clock we found some trees and had a rest and sleep. It was the hottest time of the day. Towards the end of the day, we got to a place called: Chang Cheng which means the Great Wall! We found a shop and bought some more fluids. The shop owner was a 28 year old woman who had run the shop since she was 22. When we asked why she had the shop, she was quick to tell us, with a smile, that it was to make money. Smart girl.