The Great Wall’ker

The mist has set it’s mark on today. After walking a road for a few kilometres, I headed eastward along the Great Wall. The visibility was bad - at times less than a hundred metres.

They inserted the end of the pump under the skin of the pig, and started pumping while whacking it with a stick.

I followed a large dirt road at first. It followed the track of the Great Wall that was clinging to the steep sides of cliffs. I passed a whole family working together to slaughter a big pig. The further up I climbed, the smaller the track became, but it still followed the remains of the Great Wall. Soon I was on a small path that ended up in a small valley. I continued, following the tracks of 2-3 sheep and one person. The I lost the tracks of the person and went on following the sheep tracks. Toward the end, they also disappeared and I found myself contemplating on the sanity of the fact that the only tracks I had left to follow were those of a pheasant on a frozen river. In the end I got to the top.

I tried to head in the right direction, but didn’t want to walk off the small track. Alone in zero degrees and poor visibility, I don’t want to end up in a maze of deep valleys without being able to see where I should go. This decision left me walking further north than I wanted, as you can see on the map.

Lying in the tent now, and it is cold. Looking forward to testing the sleeping bag properly! I also have two sleeping mattresses. Have boiled water and eaten noodles and will eat some biscuits and drink almost iced Ice Tea. I really hope the visibility will pick up tomorrow so I can get back on track.

What I repeated to myself a number of times as I got frustrated that all tracks went north and not east was: Rather walk two extra hours, and be safe, than … (fill in the blank)

24 kilometres today

Started walking at about eleven o’clock. Had a solid breakfast in my stomach and 3 litres boiling hot water in my rucksack. Also half a litre of Bing Hong Cha - or Ice tea.

Due to the cold (Cough cough cold. Not Brrrr brrrr) I was breathing through my mouth the entire day. Hope it gets better soon.

The terrain today was desert with at times dense scrubs up to one and a half metres high. The Great Wall was buried in sand dunes more often than it was visible. I saw something and was fooled and walked too far south. It turned out to be a distant watchtower behind the actual Wall.

The greatest experience of the day was definately when I saw a magnificent Great Wall watchtower that had a rammed earth core, and bricks on every side. The brick wall was about 40 cm thick and even formed some window like shapes at the top. In one corner part of the brick wall had fallen down exposing the core. This is the best naturally preserved watchtower I have seen so far and was a great experience to see

The change of temperature has given me some unexpected challenges. A top down approach: First there is a layer of snow. It is only a few cm thick, and only on the slopes facing northwards. Some places the snow covers scrubs ten to twenty cm above the ground. This makes it hard to guess when the foot lands and made me almost fall a couple of times. There is ice under the snow sometimes.

Then the sand. Regardless of whether there is snow above, some places the humidity on top of the sand has frozen and turned to very slippery ice.

So, when walking down a slope there were a lot of possibilities of falling. Half the time I must have looked like a drunken man walking the Great Wall!

As you may have guessed, I’m not sitting in the tent now. It would have been too cold to write this much. Towards the end of the walk I got to a road and flagged down a guy and asked if he knew of any (very) simple accommodation. He offered to drive me about 4 kilometres south to a small village where I have got a (very) simple room for the night.

Am sitting in a small local restaurant now with a coal fire in the middle and a screaming young mischievous boy running around keeping everybody busy. A wonder that he hasn’t approached the fire yet, but he’s probably done that already and learnt his lesson.

(Later) Sitting in bed with my fantastic four season sleeping bag around my legs. After dinner I was an English teacher for four girls and a boy for three quarters of an hour. No spelling though! Only oral excercises. One of the girls lives there with her Grandmother - the owner of this guesthouse. It seems pretty common for children to live with their grandparents while their parents perhaps work in another town.

22 kilometres today

Got up at half past five this morning and got on the train at 7 am - fifteen minutes before it was supposed to depart. It departed on the minute 7.15 which leaves me wondering why I was told it was too late to catch the train at 7.05 yesterday. Never mind…

I got a bad cold yesterday, so my nose has been either running or clogged up the whole day.

After six and a half hours on the train, I hitched a taxi for half an hour to Shenmu. From there I made a deal with a taxi driver to drive me to where I am now, only a few kilometres from the Great Wall. He laughed to his friends about the good price he had got from the way guo ren - foreigner. By the time we got here though the smile was not as wide. It took quite a long time, and the road was bumpy and curvy. And he still had the return trip to do in the dark.

I decided it was better to stay the night at a simple guesthouse and eat a good meal than to walk only half an hour before setting up the tent.

These daily reports are going to get shorter soon. It is so cold that my fingers may start dropping off while writing them in the tent…

Got up early today to head off to Shaanxi and continue walking the Great Wall. I like to travel by train. Although it is slower than a bus, it is more comfortable. Yesterday I confirmed that the train left 7.15 am. At 7 o’clock I was at the ticket counter and said the name of my destination: Shenmu Bei. The woman looked a little awkward and informed me that the train had already left. I didn’t understand and asked - When did the train leave?

She could speak a little English, and told me the train had already left. I showed her my mobile phone showing 7.05 am, and probably looked like a big question mark. There was nothing more I could do, so I ordered a ticket for tomorrow. When inspecting the ticket it read 7.15 am as expected. I asked the lady at the counter when the train left tomorrow, but got no answer. So I will get to the station half an hour early tomorrow to make sure the train doesn’t leave without me.

My only consolation today was that there must have been many Chinese people that got the same shock as I did. I have seen quite a few things in China, but never experienced a train leaving fifteen minutes before schedule. In fact - they normally leave exactly on schedule.

Many thanks to Lenovo Technology Norway for sponsoring a laptop for this project.

Many thanks to colleague Christian Haug at DnB NOR for putting me in contact with Lenovo. In 2004 IBM sold it’s PC division to Chinese Lenovo. I am very happy to be using a Chinese laptop while walking the entire Great Wall of China.

The ThinkPad is a solid workhorse with a conservative design, but lots of horsepower under the keyboard. It is one of the most reliable laptops out there. My Lenovo came with a solid state disk (SSD) which means that it is far less vulnerable to sudden movements or being dropped, than those with moving parts in hard disks. My version weighs just above 1,5 kilos. I have a slightly larger battery than standard. This gives me five hours operation. If I turn down the brightness of the screen, even longer.

Absolutely all pictures on this, the Chinese and www.picturesfromchina.com are made using this laptop. I have taken several thousand pictures and more than 90% of them are taken in the RAW format. Each picture is about 12 MB big when imported from the cameras and 50 to 100 MB big when I have finished editing them. I use advanced photographic editing programs in my workflow, and thanks to the X200 this is no problem at all. With 4 GB of memory, a fast processor and disk, it happily churns away although the workload is high.

When I kayaked the length of the Norwegian coast, I also used a ThinkPad. Small details like a LED light to illuminate the keyboard in dark conditions and a system to easily drain water away from the keyboard make this a good companion on a long walk like this.

It is difficult to get much more functionality out of such a small lightweight laptop. A bigger SSD disk would be practical, but this is a matter only of cost. Also a screen that separates colours a little more would be nice.

All together, I would be very happy to recommend this computer to other adventurers looking for a laptop they can trust.

I picked up the new visa today and head back to China tomorrow. The flights do not correspond, so I will have to spend a night in Beijing before returning to Datong. I will visit the visa office the day after to make sure they agree to extend my visa in one month’s time.

The stay at Ascension House in Hong Kong has been great. It is located on a pretty steep hillside looking down over Sha Tin north of Hong Kong. It is peaceful here, in contrast to Hong Kong. Thanks Birgitte for your hospitality! And to Leif and Gustaf and wife - it has been interesting to get to know you better, and I wish you all the best for the rest of your stay in Hong Kong. It has been great fun and I hope to meet you again either in HK or Sweden.

I woke up two days ago thinking: The problem of getting a visa for only one month (plus possibly two more) is a lot less than walking about 2.500 kilometres alone along the Great Wall during the winter. So I’ll just figure it out somehow, and keep on walking.

While staying in Hong Kong I have met some very nice people at the place I am staying and have been to several of the enormous shopping centres here and bought a little bit of equipment. It is very cold for the season here now, so I plan to do the sight seeing next time around.

For Norwegian readers: There will be an interview about the walk in AFTENPOSTEN on Saturday.

Have been to the visa office in Hong Kong now.

They could ‘only’ offer me a one month visa with the possibility to extend it twice by a total of two months. I was hoping for a lot more.

Now there is a small, but vital, administrative task I must do about every three weeks, and if I get a rejection to the extension application I suddenly have to rush off to Hong Kong.

Andreas went to Yinchuan yesterday to examine several Great Walls there. It was pretty cold today he said. And it is cold here too. I left Yulin for Datong today. Datong is where I have stored a very warm sleeping bag, extra sleeping mattress and warm down coat. I spent a couple of hours on a bus, and then about six hours on the train. Have just booked tickets to get to Hong Kong to get a new visa. The plane leaves tomorrow morning.

It is going to be minus 19 degrees C tonight (-2 F) which is about the limit of what the warm sleeping bag, the tent and I can handle. Tomorrow evening, I will experience about plus 20 degrees C (+68 F)   Sounds perfect!

As Sue mentioned in comments, there has been extreme weather in Northern China recently, and unfortunately quite a few deaths as a result. About half of them due to traffic accidents. The province Andreas and I walked in - Shaanxi - was also hit, so it was probably wise to stop walking when we did.  The snow fall is the heaviest since keeping records began in 1949.

The English version

The Norwegian version

There was continuous snow all day yesterday. Andreas and I spread our equipment out to dry and had a couple of good meals together. He has a lot of knowledge and love for Chinese food. Later we spent some time looking at Google Earth, talking about the route for my walk over the next month or two, and then Andreas made some GPS points for the walk he is doing soon to explore more Great Wall in western Ningxia.

Andreas was going to set off to Yinchuan - the capital of Ningxia - early this morning, but because of all the snow yesterday it looks like the bus station is going to be closed all day long. So he will have to postpone till tomorrow.

I am in limbo now. Have to either try to get a one month extension of my existing visa here in Yulin, or go to Datong to get the warm sleeping bag, and then go abroad for a few days to get the extension there. By this evening I hope to have settled for one of the two options.

About three o’clock this morning, a thunderstorm passed by. I woke and started counting seconds. The closest strike was about three seconds, or a kilometre, away and the following roar resonated in my chest. There was some anxiety from that moment and the remainder of the night and today.

Andreas likes to keep his pack as light as possible. Therefore he uses a groundsheet as protection against rain. And rain is rare in these parts - particularly at this time of year. It turned out that the groundsheet was not completely waterproof and during the early hours of this morning the water had made the lower part of his sleeping bag wet.

When we woke he was pretty cold and found shelter in a small cave, while I packed up my tent. We sat in the cave together talking about our options. Andreas decided to return to Yulin after getting warm again, while I decided to walk on and see how the weather developed. We parted not knowing quite where or when we would meet again.

I back-tracked to the last place we had contact with The Wall, and turned northwards following it. The wet snow became dryer, but on higher ground the strong wind was blowing, so I needed to keep walking to stay warm. The visibility wworsdened as the snow got thicker. I saw some more earth erosion to the east of the Great Wall and followed a track going in the same direction to the north of it. After a while I hit a road with some abandoned houses and headed for them to get refuge from the wind and snow. Then I heard a bus beeping it’s horn behind me. I let it pass by without flagging it down, but not without a little regret.

After eating and drinking, I spent quite a while looking at my options. The snow that came today was forecast to come tomorrow. That made me concerned that perhaps the forecasted cold weather would come a day earlier too. The GPS map showed that there was a pretty long distance to the next potential place to get out of the area. All the same, I started walking along the Great Wall. But after only a short distance, I decided the snow had won the day and headed for the road. I tried to stop a small car, as these often function as taxis in rural areas. It drove past. A little later, the same small car came back with Andreas in the front seat! He had heard the taxi driver mentioning another foreigner, and Andreas asked him to head back. Thank you Andreas!

We got back to Yulin, and are now both dry and warm. We also had a good meal together tonight.

10 kilometres today.

The area we have passed the last days has been heavily impacted by earth erosion as you can see on this picture.

Andreas took a night ’sleeper’ bus from Beijing to Yulin, and then a taxi to Ma Huo Liang where I spent the night. It was good to see Andreas again. By relaying my GPS position to him, his taxi stopped ten metres from where I spent the night. After buying a few last minute provisions and adjusting some equipment we set off.

One of the three most common questions when walking the Great Wall is if I am walking alone. This was the first time since brother Jon returned to Europe I could answer that we are now two.

Following the Great Wall was easy to start off with but grew progressively harder as the valleys created by earth erosion grew deeper and deeper, and also closer to each other. We had to take regular detours.

Andreas is a Great Wall enthusiast (to say the least), and we spent most of the time talking about the sections to the west that we have both walked, and upcoming sections to the east.

We also spent some time talking about our limitations. My sleeping bag isn’t good for much colder weather, and Andreas is not too well equipped for sustained rain. The forecast ‘busts’ both of our limitations within two to four days, but hey - you can’t always trust a forecast

We covered a good distance today, but the last couple of kilometres were not following the Great Wall. We entered a valley to seek out a potential place to spend the night in a shelter. We found nothing suitable in time and are now getting ready for the night on a secluded field.

27 kilometres today

It was warm today. Sun, no clouds and no shade. That will not last long though! The weather forecast says both rain and six cm of wet snow the next 4-5 days. I have spoken to Andreas. He will be in Yulin tomorrow morning and then come here by bus. He sure knows how to pick the right days to walk the Great Wall. It is going to be fun to walk together.

The walking was good today. When I walk on a predictable surface all is well. But the blisters get closer when the boots land in unpredictable ways and the feet slide around a bit.

In 5-6 days time, the temperatures drop to about minus 12 degrees C at night. That is too much for this old sleeping bag and means I need to get to Datong to pick up the new one, plus a warm lightweight down vest and an extra sleeping mattress. Once that is done, I should be pretty much set for the first part of the cold season. The second part begins when the day temperatures drop below about minus 10 degrees C.

Right now I am snuggled in the sleeping bag at a nice and clean guest house. Time to sleep.

20 kilometres today

I started at about two o’clock this afternoon. It was nice and warm, but now - an hour after the sun has gone down - it is cold. In fact today was the first day I took off my shirt and walked without anything on my upper body. It was comfortable, and I hope the few Chinese people I met did not find the sight too uncomfortable!  Although my arms, face and neck are pretty tanned, the rest is as white as ever.

I was excited about testing the new boots. My feet noticed the harder surroundings and although there were no blisters, there was more friction than they are used to. It’s too early to see how they will work in the long run.

Walking the Great Wall was pleasant today. Desert like landscape, but fields here and there. Don’t know if you are reading this John M, but I passed three places today that all had a ‘School of agriculture’ look and feel. Have taken some pictures that I will pass on.

I ordered three meals before setting off today and ate less than one, so food will not be a problem the next few days.

The hydration system I have been using got a leak at the connection between the water bag and the pipe. I’m half to blame because I filled it with boiling water to wash it. It can withstand boiling water, but when I was letting the water flow through the pipe, the pipe was bent at an awkward angle and the connection gave way. Luckily Trude brought an insulated hydration bag, so I will start using that soon.

Time to eat a little and put on some more wool. It is pretty chilly. My winter sleeping bag is in Datong in the Eastern part of the next province Shanxi. I’m hoping to get as far as possible before going there to pick it up.

13 kilometres today