The Great Wall’ker

A short update for today. Clear blue sky, but very windy. So windy that I lost balance a few times. The walking sticks were a good help. I’m happy I wasn’t walking on steep and narrow sheep tracks today. The terrain was flat and beautiful. If this terrain continues to Yulin, I’ll be a happy man!

The wind speed was about 40 km/h with the gusts up to 70 km/h.  As the wind is predicted to be 70 km/h and the gusts over 100 km/h., in two day’s time, I plan to go to Yulin tomorrow to work on the computer and upload more pictures.

26 kilometres today

Woke to a very cold room. From now on I’m using rooms pointing southwards. Also woke to the sound of thunder and wet streets outside. I waited to see what the weather was planning to do. By midday, I took the chance and got to the Great Wall by hiking a motorbike ride.

The first stretch was hilly and crossed a river. I had to look closely to find the path of the Great Wall. It is pretty easy to be fooled by the free standing watchtowers that often stand on higher ground behind the Great Wall in this area.

The last stretch was fantastic (and flat )

About half of the houses scattered along The Wall on this stretch, were abandoned. Some of the dwellings were carved into The Great Wall. I entered a few of them and took pictures. One still had posters hanging on the walls.

Unfortunately, I had to break off just as the fun was beginning. The stretch in front of me would have taken three-four hours, and I only had two hours light left.

13 kilometres today

I’m happy to report that I am more or less clear of the mountains after the last days walking. It feels good and I am looking forward to experiencing the desert in colder conditions once I have walked around Jingbian.

The trip back to where I left off yesterday became a bit more exciting than planned when an earth slide stopped all traffic. As a result I had to walk the last kilometres to the starting point.

It was sometimes hard to identify where the Great Wall was and wasn’t today.  I spent time walking in the dried up river bed and on the top of the ridge. At the end of the day I came to a very large fortress that lies southeast of Jingbian. It will be fun to take a closer look at it tomorrow.

There were no busses to Jingbian this afternoon, so I ended up on the back of a motorbike. The driver was good, but sometimes he would be a little too creative. Like the time he decided to pass a lorry full of equipment, by driving up on the curb at full speed just in front of a cross…

21 kilometres today (That’s not including the 6 k spent getting to the starting point)

Just a hundred metres north of my camping site, I saw a beacon tower right on the edge of the river bed. The Great Wall probably once ran along the entire eastern side of the river I walked along today. Because of erosion, most of it has disappeared as the river bed has slowly expanded.

The stretch I walked today was very beautiful. Happy farmers in many of the fields and nice autumn colours on the trees. I got to a village and found a small restaurant where I had my first proper dinner for five days.

North of the village, the landscape became less hilly which made me a very happy man. This part of The Great Wall has been more demanding than I expected and the short distances I have covered have been somewhat demotivating.

I planned to go by bus to Jingbian in the late afternoon to shower and wash clothes. I asked when the bus passed by and was told there was only one bus a day which left 8.30 in the morning. Whilst walking along a small road which followed the river bed, a car stopped and the driver kindly offered to drive me to Jingbian. It was only a little past two o’clock so I could still have walked another 3-4 hours but the prospect of a warm shower and guaranteed transport was too great a temptation. I will return by bus tomorrow and walk back to just south of Jingbian.

The last couple of nights have been pretty cool in my 6 month-old three season sleeping bag. Therefore, I went out to buy some long underwear today. Bought a full kit with what they call ‘Bambus fiber’. It looks like a thin fleece to me and should work great until it gets so cold that I have to start using the winter sleeping bag. I have also washed my clothes and bought more food for the next stretch to Yulin.

I’m sitting at a small, cosy and very noisy eating place in Jingbian enjoying a Xi Hong Shi Chao Ji Dan (egg and tomato) meal now, before going to bed.

12 kilometres today

As I hoped, there was a small shop just by my campsite yesterday. It would prove difficult though, to buy the water. I got to the shop. walked in and looked around. It mostly sold hardware for farmers, but I saw both bottled water and Ice Tea. I asked for six bottles of water.  The woman behind the counter just shook her head and pointed to the door, wanting me to leave the shop. Then she called someone on her phone and walked to the door to close and lock the shop. Not exactly what I had planned.

So I stood my ground and after a while a man came and helped me with water and Ice Tea. Strange thing though is that he only repeated what I was saying. I’ve experienced this sometimes that the person I’m speaking to just freezes up and almost ‘decides’ not to understand what I’m saying. Anyway, we were friends after I had bought water and Ice Tea. After drinking and talking to a couple of chaps I walked on with lots of water.

I have passed some incredibly beautiful places today!! The farmers are harvesting corn now and here and there I have seen big towers of bright yellow corn. I have also seen large storage rooms dug straight in the ground filled with potatoes. One place I saw a smaller cave dug out to house apples.

It has been pretty easy to see the route of the Great Wall lately. Today however the trail went cold after I crossed a wide river bed. I asked several locals and was pointed in two different directions. I sent a text message to Andreas who knows a lot about the Great Wall and he suggested following the side of the river bed. I did and found The Wall again.

It has not been easy to follow though. Because it clings to the main river bed, many smaller river beds cut through it meaning a lot of climbing up and down to follow it.

Dinner in the tent this evening: Three freshly boiled eggs (saving the fourth one for tomorrow morning) half a litre of oatmeal with lots of brown sugar, and Ice Tea and a Snickers Bar

19 kilometres today

Because I ‘only’ have jogging shoes, I didn’t want to start walking until the wet grass had dried up a bit. At about midday, I got up and made an oatmeal lunch with lots of brown sugar. Then I packed the tent and set off. Just before I started walking the rain came again. Luckily not for long. The whole day has been humid and cool.

Because of an extra day in the tent, I ran low on water. When I took a detour to get around a dam, I met four guys looking at another poor guy setting out fishing nets in the dam. They kindly donated two litres of water!!, so I’m having a drinking feast in the tent now. The guy laying out the nets used a rubber wheel from a tractor as his boat! The wheel was just wide enough to go under him when he had his legs crossed. I was pretty impressed by his balance and courage, because the water is very cold.

I am once again camped on a top right by a beacon tower. Before going into the tent, I had a peep into the valley to the east and saw a village that just might be big enough to have a small shop. I hope it does… Once I got into the tent I was very cold and spent about an hour in the sleeping bag feeling how the different parts of my body warmed up. Torso and head, then my legs, then the ice block hands and finally my feet.

12 kilometres today which I am happy with considering the hills and also that I started walking at 1 p.m.

Just as I turn around to switch on the mobile phone 6 am, I hear the first drops of rain on my tent. The text message from John in the UK confirms my fears. Rain all day long. It is now close to 2 pm and has been raining steadily since I woke.

Being in the confines of this small tent reminds me of the many days I spent weather bound when kayaking the length of Norway. With only a pair of jogging shoes, I hope for better weather tomorrow. I need to go to the ‘bathroom’, but hope for a break in the rain to do so. No such luck yet.

Luckily, I charged the mp3 player before leaving, and have just finished listening to Michael Palins brilliant Pole to Pole adventure.

Thanks for the weather forecast John!

I’m happy to be back on the Great Wall. It has not changed. The weather has.

Getting off to a late start, I enjoyed walking up and down some steep hills by The Wall without sweating too much. Feels good. The evenings are a lot cooler. The leaves on the trees have changed colour.

I’m lying in a new tent, on a new sleeping mattress. I used more robust trousers for the first time today, and also a new GPS with a map giving a lot of information about roads, rivers and villages close by.

More about this later. Right now I just want to remind you of the article Bryan at the Great Wall Forum has written about the Great Wall Sections. You can see the link under this post.

6 kilometres today

As I have written several times before, the Great Wall Forum has been of great help in the planning of this walk. Bryan from the Forum has kindly agreed to write an article about the various sections of the Great Wall.

I can highly recommend reading this article as it is very informative and gives a lot of information about all the sections of the Great Wall. You can find it here: Great Wall Sections.

Many many thanks Bryan!!

I’m off to the Great Wall now. 14 new pictures have been uploaded to the website, so there is a new picture every day for the next two weeks. Before they run out I will have to make more pictures.

Have a good weekend!

Yesterday I was interviewed by NRK - the national broadcasting TV company in Norway. You can see the interview here.

I wanted to get moving today, but because of a mix up with busses, I was unable to go, although I got up at 6 o’clock this morning, so I have spent the day making a lot of new pictures for the site.

The last weeks have been pretty slow on the website. The break, together with my girlfriend, was a good breather. I decided to spend as much time as possible with her while she was here in China, rather than work on the site. Also, I have experienced quite a few problems accessing the website the last days, but hope this will sort itself out.

I am very eager to get back to my home (Yes - the Great Wall) and continue walking, taking pictures and writing regular reports on this site

I am back close to the Great Wall and hope to start walking it in a couple of days time.

For Norwegian readers: I will participate on the TV program called Sveip on NRK 2 today Tuesday. The program starts 17.10, and I will probably be interviewed fairly early on.

It is getting cooler now and I am eager to get back to the Great Wall to do some serious walking.

Trude arrived safely home in Norway a few hours ago. We have had a great time together and soon we both go back to work. I am going to have a couple of interviews soon, but will be back to where I left off along the Great Wall in a matter of a few days. The picture is taken from a section of the Great Wall that Trude and I visited while she was in China.

 
Wishing you all a good weekend!