The Great Wall’ker

Trude is in Beijing now, and we will meet up tomorrow  

I will not be writing regularly the next week, but will upload some pictures from the last days of walking the Great Wall here, and there will be a new picture and saying every day as usual.

Yesterday I used my feet, a motorbike, two cars and a bus to get to Yulin to sort out last minute things before my girlfriend comes to visit.

The road I hit when leaving the Great Wall was about as far away from the main road as possible. I asked a woman what was the best way to get to Jingtai which was the biggest place in the area. She said 5 kilometres walk. I started walking and stopped a couple of other people on the road to ask the same question. One said five kilometres and another ten. After walking about ten kilometres, a guy on his motorbike offered to give me a lift to the closest village. After ten kilometres with him, I got into a very small taxi and drove to the main road between Jingtai and Dingbian. There I got another car to Jingtai, and from there the bus to Yulin.

Made a deal to contact the first taxi driver when I return after Trude’s visit. That will save a lot of hassle and time.

I have taken a lot of pictures lately. About 6,5 GB, so I plan to spend the evening deleting the ones I don’t need.

Wishing you a good weekend!

This has been a crazy day. I have walked a fair distance, little of it being flat. But in a straight line I have moved only 7.5 kilometres. A bit discouraging.

There have been deep scars in the landscape. In a couple of places, where the landscape around the Great Wall has been very steep, The Wall disappeared from my view.

A couple of times I have been using all fours to climb up and down places that have been extremely steep. One place I was following a sheep (or goat) trail that was only about thirty cm wide with a drop of many tens of metres at the side. This would have been impossible if it had rained the last couple of days.

I was lucky to find a very small shop to stock up on water. The take-away meal from yesterday has lasted all day, but tomorrow it is oatmeal again.

When following a dirt road today I came to a few houses in a row. I saw an old well with a wrench to pull up the water. While I was photographing it, an old lady stepped out of her fenced backyard. Quite a few of the people here, and particularly single women get scared when they see me coming.

This lady however, came straight over and started talking. I got her to stand by the well, and took some pictures. Then I asked her if there was a shop nearby. Unfortunately she didn’t understand. I could not understand her either. Quite a few of the people I have met lately have had a special dialect I think. When I asked how old she was, she lit up and answered 89 !

She led me into her house. There she had a frame full of mostly old black and white photographs. One of them was from when she was a young girl. Another of her and her husband. It was fun to think that she had photographs from almost a century in a frame on her wall.

Towards the end of the day I got to another steep valley and thought I would try my luck and get straight over. The river bed was about ten metres wide, but only running water in two or three metres width. I used the walking sticks every step of the way down. Then I started looking for a narrow spot to get over. When I thought I had found a good spot, I tested with a walking stick, and it immediately sank more than two feet! This was just the muddy section before the water in the river. I thought: No thanks. I didn’t want to walk back, so started to climb up again and had to use my knees a couple of times. I happily didn’t slip at all.

Just before I was going to set up the tent, a young shepherd came to greet me. He asked where I came from and told me I was the first white man he had ever seen before. Then he asked if I could take a picture of the two of us, and if I could send it to him. By the time we were finished it was almost dark. He asked if I wanted to spend the night at his family’s house, which was very kind, but the thought of walking down the hill with the rucksack in so dark conditions was not tempting, as I would have to return again tomorrow.

Staying on this top also let me send off the GPS signal for the day. I hope you are enjoying them, because I had to climb the beacon tower close by to find a spot with good ’satellite visability’. It was very dark, and I lost the device climbing down, and almost slipped in the process.

22 kilometres today

So far on this walk, I have been most concerned about having enough water with me. Now though I long for food, other than oatmeal, and lots of it!

Today I got to a village called Chang Cheng. That’s the same as The Great Wall in Chinese. I asked for a xi hong shi dish - my favourite with eggs, tomatoes and other goodies. The one I was served today had, in addition, lots of large noodles in it. The portion was gigantic, and I ate it all save the last three mouthfuls. Then I asked the chief to make another one for ‘the road’. So I have the smell of delicious food in my tent now, and will eat some before sleeping.

While he made the second meal, I slipped by the neighbouring barbers shop. They removed my longish beard there. I don’t want to scare my girlfriend when she comes, in less than a week…

The terrain has been great today! I am looking forward to posting some pictures on the website. It was hilly, and if I wasn’t climbing up a steep hill, I was going down the other side. It is first now, the last few kilometres, that the valleys between the hills have had the good sense of not being quite so steep so now there is some semi flat terrain in between.

I want to write about an eleven year old girl who charmed me to bits, but am too tired now. Time to eat, drink and sleep…

16 kilometres today

Got off to a good start at 8 this morning. The scenery was truly beautiful with hills in every direction I looked. Most of them were green and a lot of them had farmers who were harvesting. Just right for some good pictures.

The other consequence of all these hills was that I was walking either up or down them! The terrain has changed and now I understand why there are no large roads here. It is very hilly.

The larger hills consist of two parts. The upper part is the hill itself and the lower is where the water erosion has washed away the terrain. The two parts are sometimes of equal height.

After going down the deepest valley and up the other side, I was completely fatigued. Had eaten too little. I took out the stove and cooked oatmeal with lots of brown sugar using the last of my water. That helped and I went on, hoping to see some sort of shop. I found a shop and bought more water there.

I am on another top now and hope there will be no thunder tonight. There was no other place to put the tent than right by the highest point. After putting up the tent, I made another portion of oatmeal that I plan to eat now. Have not been this exhausted for a very very long time.

I have been disappointed at my progress today. 22 km in this terrain is ok, but in a straight line I have only moved 14 km because of the hills… Thats one in three steps ‘wasted’. So far it has been half that or less.

22 kilometres today

24 Yesterday - forgot to write it

I started walking after noon today. There are a lot of fields along the Great Wall. This has made following the Great Wall difficult at times since I have to make constant detours as walking through the crops of farmers is not so popular. Luckily more and more fields are being harvested, so this problem has soon gone.

It was dark by the time I set up the tent. A little earlier, I walked by a Chinese lady working alone in a field. I raised my hand and said hello, but it seemed she thought I was about to attack her, so she screamed and walked backwards away from me. I was at least thirty metres away from her and was not even heading her way, but following the Great Wall.

When I had passed her and I figured I would soon be out of her sight, I turned around and waved as a friendly gesture, indicating I was a ‘good guy’. She looked angrily at me and waved back with her scythe.  I guess it was a while since last she had seen a foreigner.

It is getting colder at night now. I am wearing the ‘desert shirt’ on my upper body, and it is too cold now. My hands will take time to warm up too after writing this.  So - these texts will get shorter and shorter the colder it becomes … I like the cold though - much easier to get a good nights sleep, and fewer bugs and such.

Walking the Great Wall was easy today as it has been more or less continuous. I have risen a couple of hundred metres today to about 1.700 metres. Only thought to check on my GPS when both my ears popped.

Can hear a dog barking in the distance, but apart from that, it is quiet.

For Norwegian readers: Idag var det nettmøte i Nordre Aker Budstikke - du kan lese mer her.

Well - the rainy period is over now, so tomorrow I head back for the last place I was and start walking the day after. That should give me enough time to get to Jingbian before Trude comes to China   

I was able to use a computer for three minutes last night, and the forecast said steady rain for the next 4-5 days. The clouds outside are of the sort that just stay put and contain impressive amounts of very wet rain.

Since I still only have jogging shoes without any sort of protection against rain, I have decided to take a short break. Walking in the rain or at least wet conditions for many hours a day, many days in a row are not too good for morale. So to put it another way - I am really looking forward to using the walking boots that Trude is bringing with her from Norway.

Here follows a graphical representation of the conditions over the next days. Although there is only light rain some days, it still would have meant walking in squishy squashy shoes for many days in a row…

After about five minutes walk today, my shoes started making a squishy squashy sound, and that went on for the rest of the day.Trude is bringing some proper boots in two weeks time, but until then I will have to make do with what I have.

The highlight of the day was when, after walking for several hours, I saw a small make-do tent belonging to a beekeeper. I hoped to be able to rest there, but as I drew nearer I was greeted by a guard dog and saw no people, so my heart sank. But then, a guy came out of the back entrance and kindly let me eat my food in shelter from the rain while the dog stood outside barking the whole time.

It was dark by the time I got to my intended end point of the day - Anbian. I booked in at a small guesthouse and showered the mud and sand off my shoes and hope they will be dry by tomorrow.

24 kilometres today.

For Norwegian readers: Det blir nettmøte i Nordre Aker Budstikke på fredag om en uke. Hvis dere har spørsmål kan dere sende de dit. Sjekk www.nordreakerbudstikke.no for mer informasjon.

I have spent several hours today listening to “The Hobbit” by JRR Tolkien. I am on a long journey just like he and his 13 dwarf companions, so I find it amusing listening to all the emotions Mr Bilbo Baggins goes through. Many times a week he daydreams about sitting in his favourite chair at home eating his second breakfast. (Hobbits like their meals)

I can sense a change in the scenery now. It has become softer and greener, more like “The Shire” where Bilbo lives, than places I have walked through the last months.

There is still plenty of sand around, but I see a lot more grass than before. There are trees here that don’t look like they have been planted manually.

I found the Great Wall without too much difficulty south of Dingbian today, luckily. A few kilometres later to the east, I lost it because it was replaced by farmers fields, but by following it’s approximate course, I hooked up with it later.

I passed an enormous fortress today. Mighty, but difficult to photograph.

Have been trying to plan the rest of this stretch to get to Jingbian. It is quite discouraging looking at the provincial map knowing the scale is the double of that of the last province, Ningxia. The Great Wall soon turns southwards for a couple of days before going back north towards Jingbian. I am excited to see the landscape in the area. Although it was a bit misty today, I could see hills on the horizon.

27 kilometres today.

Todays picture is the same as yesterdays because internet stopped working last night before I was able to upload new pictures. There are 11 pictures in the queue now, which means I can walk eleven days before having to make and upload more pictures.

A girl at the reception had made a graphical weather forecast for the next three days, as I cannot read Chinese. Today has been very gray, but no rain. They expect a thunderstorm and plenty of rain tomorrow and rain again the day after. Sweet.

At Dingbian the Great Wall goes all the way up to the edge of the town. I found small remnants of it in three places after that and walked through the town. Dingbian is not very large.  It is in the middle of a transformation. Old buildings are being levelled with the ground. New and modern buildings are built big time. It was fun to see the old buildings in between. I think they often are far more charming than the new ones. Todays end point was by the southern edge of town. Unfortunately I lost the trail of the Great Wall because of the town and darkness. Will have to find it again tomorrow. It went southwards in Dingbian, but then heads east shortly afterwards. Should be easy enough to ask some locals about it.

I’m eagerly waiting to see what that thunderstorm plans on doing tomorrow…

8 kilometres today.

For today, I have zoomed out the default view of the Great Wall Route to give a better impression of how far I have walked. You can read more about this under the picture.

This will be the last day in Yinchuan, as I continue walking the Great Wall tomorrow. I had a really good session on the Chinese website yesterday and hope to finish off a lot of things there today so that it goes into ‘production mode’ rather than development. Many thanks to Xiaoli, Frank and Jon for helping to get this together. And thanks also to Fay in Norway who has offered assistance in running the site!

A happy man showing the provincial maps of Gansu and Ningxia. They will from now on mostly be used for looking back

Several people have asked how far I have walked, and the truth is I have not sat down and calculated this. It’s all on my GPS and laptop. I keep asking myself why the number of kilometres I have walked are so important? Perhaps I am reluctant to find out, because I don’t want number-crunching geeks to start calculating averages, predict when I will arrive, or if this month was more, or less, efficient than the last. Averages don’t count for that much out here because each section and season have their particular challenges.

Since I have no absolute date to be finished by, I want to experience all the pleasant (and some times unpleasant) moments along the Great Wall without a sense of haste in having to meet some imaginary deadline. I have stated I think the trip will take about a year, but this is a prediction.

Aaaaaanyway… Enough self therapy for one day!!  
Here are some statistics (All distances as the crow flies. Yes - that’s in a straight line)

Distance from starting point to here: 845 kilometres
Distance from here to end point: 1479 kilometres
Distance from here to Beijing: 805 kilometres
Distance from here to Home: 6.832 kilometres

I have added pictures to previous posts, so scroll down to see more!!

Still in Yinchuan and waiting to hear about the hotel in Datong where I will stay when my girlfriend comes. I hope to make more progress with the Chinese website today and make many more pictures.

Just for the fun of it I have written a list of the most regular things I do when in a town. Most of these activities can ONLY be dealt with when I am in a town. The list is not complete, but gives an idea of how I spend my ‘rest days’.

• Check and answer mails, pay bills etc.
• Wash clothes, MSR water bag, clean equipment and make any necessary repairs.
• Go out and eat a fatty meal before restaurants close. I usually get to a town in the evening.
• Transfer pictures from cameras to PC, delete all the useless ones to save space and rename them. I take very many pictures. Yesterday I deleted more than a GB of pictures.
• Select pictures for website, edit, upload and put comments to them on www.picturesfromchina.com
• Write and insert pictures in missing blogg entries.
• Make sure the Great Wall route map is correct and make changes if needed. The personal beacon sender I use is not 100% reliable. There are currently two days missing that I have to correct.
• Edit and send pictures to Chinese people I have met.
• Work on the Chinese version of the website.
• Keep in contact with media back home in Norway.
• Plan the route for the next stretch of the walk. This includes studying Google Earth, the Great Wall Forum map of the Great Wall and the provincial map. Then I make meaningful waypoints on the GPS so that I can make good decisions while walking the Great Wall.
• Try and keep up with mails from friends and family.
• Stay in more than touch with my ever so patient girlfriend.
• Respond to other peoples comments on the site, and mails regarding the walk.
• Order and follow up the winter equipment that my girlfriend will be bringing to China. My parents are helping out here.
• Make online backup of all pictures and other valuable information.
• Charge batteries: camera (3), mobile (3) and mp3 player (1)
• Buy food and other items for the next stretch
• Oh yes - and of course try and get some rest…

These are my three top priorities apart from actually walking the Great Wall!

1. Get ready for a great time with Trude in Datong in three weeks time
2. Finish the Chinese website
3. Start focusing on the fund raising aspect of this walk