The Great Wall’ker

It was so warm last night that I kicked off my socks inside the sleeping bag. This morning I packed almost everything into the rucksack including the sleeping bag that goes at the bottom. Then I was ready to put on my socks, but couldn’t find them… Luckily I had an extra pair that were fairly easy to get to.

I slipped, going down one of the gullies. The ground had small rocks and dry earth on top. Luckily I had both walking sticks securely in the ground. I slid slowly downwards after having lost balance. It didn’t take long before the walking sticks took the load and stopped me. If one of them had also loosened I would have fallen 3-4 metres to the ground beneath.

Todays walk has brought me to the foot of some mountains the Great Wall goes through. The wind has been very strong, but has come from behind. It is strong enough to make me lose my balance. I really hope it dies down tomorrow as I don’t like dancing ballet on top of the Great Wall with a strong wind.

I bought 4 litres of bottled green tea and had a litre of Ice tea left, so I shouldn’t be thirsty going through the mountains tomorrow.

In only a few weeks, the days and nights will be warm enough so that I can shed a lot of equipment. That should make the mountain stretches that are coming up, easier to climb although I will have to start carrying more supplies.

It is blowing hard outside now. Just as I started setting up the tent, I saw a grey wall of dust coming towards me. Have fastened the tent very well. If it blows this hard tomorrow I may postpone walking.

21 kilometres today

Although it isn’t that far from Datong to the place by the Great Wall where I returned, it took a long time to get there. The bus left at one o’clock but then it drove around in Datong almost an hour before actually heading for the destination. If I had known it’s last place before leaving Datong, I could have saved an hour by going directly there.

I met the same old guys in the small village by the Great Wall. It has been a warm day. Along the small villages by the Great Wall people were sitting in groups. It was like a communal sigh of relief that the harsh winter has come to an end.

The Great Wall really hugs closely to the mountains here! There are mostly terraced fields here all the way up to the mountains. The visibilty has been bad - really grey. I’m hidden behind the Great Wall in cover from the wind just five metres from the blue mark on the map right now.

Time to eat and drink. As I was walking, I was thinking of the very mountainous areas of Hebei and Beijing. How to save weight but get enough energy. Wonder how Ice Tea mixed with oatmeal would taste when it is not boiled - just mixed. Only one way to find out I guess…

6 kilometres today

Here is another Wordle of this site. You can see a Wordle from October 2009 here. A wordle shows how often a word is used by it’s size in the illustration.

Looks like “Great” and “Wall” have been caught up by “Chinese”, “today” and “time”.

The big event of the day started after only a few hundred metres of leaving the camp site. I met a Chinese family that were celebrating those that had passed away. Having a celebration for this reason may sound a bit strange to our western ears, but I can’t find a better word for it than that.

It looked almost like a picnic, and a grandfather, his two sons, and their children were all there. The sun was warm, and for once there wasn’t a strong wind. They sat in a field gathered around fruit, biscuits and liquor that was placed on a blanket. There were five piles of soil in the field where members of the family were buried. This is not uncommon in China. As soon as they saw me, the grandfather literally ran over to greet me and asked if I wanted some liquor. I explained, much to their laughter, that drinking too much liquor so early in the day would make my effort of following the Great Wall in vain.

I stayed for a while, and we had a good talk. They had brought a spade and the daughter had put fresh soil from the surroundings on the piles to freshen them. They had placed biscuits, fresh fruit, peanuts and liquor on a small altar by each grave. The grandfather told me that his fathers and grandfathers generation were buried there.

The Qingming festival is held on the 104th day after winter solstice and is a time for families to enjoy the greenery of the spring and tend to the graves of those that have passed away. You can read more about the Qingming festival here.

When I started walking again, I couldn’t help but think what a good way it was of remembering those that have passed away, and also to include death into life as something natural, and not something that should be hidden away. The grandfather (he had drunk quite a bit, so he stood for a lot of the talking) told me that they do this twice a year in China, and today was one of those days.

I saw several more Chinese visiting their families graves. One guy I spoke to had visited his older brother’s grave that lay beautifully situated looking over the Great Wall as far as the eye could see.

Will be working on pictures for a newspaper article tomorrow, and am trying to arrange for a longer than one-month visa. It is a shame to leave the Great Wall in such nice conditions, but it isn’t going anywhere.

I took my time walking the Great Wall today as I knew it would be a shortish day so I could get back to Datong. Have to mention the end of the walk too.

I came to a small village, and it was only from following the line of the Great Wall through terraced fields for a few hundred metres that I was lucky to see remains of the Great Wall among the houses of the village. Anyhow - there was a bunch of 4-5 old Chinese guys there, sitting on a long bench. They were so cheerful. We had a good talk, and I explained what I was doing. Then I got to take quite a few pictures of them. They looked like they had been waiting for this day the last six months, and now they could finally sit on their bench enjoying the warmth of the spring.

14 kilometres today

(Written late because the mobile connectivity was unstable)

Thanks brother Jon for changing month in the picture gallery!

The day started off as I feared with deep canyons. After a few kilometres the Great Wall changed direction, lining up for a different group of mountains. I was double lucky because the valleys, due to erosion, were much smaller, and there was a dirt road that followed the Great Wall closely.

After a while two donkeys came pulling two carts and their owners. We pretty much made exactly the same speed, so I had my first company along the Great Wall for a long time. But when it got a bit hilly, I passed them and went on alone. Shot a video that I will try to upload.

For the first time I have seen other people walking the Great Wall!! Unfortunately I didn’t get to speak to them. By the time we saw each other, we were on opposite sides of a valley having taken different tracks to get across it. We were heading in opposite directions. I shouted to them, and heard they were Chinese. There were five of them with rucksacks and walking sticks.Would have been so much fun to have talked with them. I could hear talking and some shouting as I went down into the valley, but I suspected it was from local people.

The mobile phone signal is strong here, but it falls out every couple of minutes. I will have to wait posting this until it is more stable, or later.

I have eaten and drunk a lot today. Slept really well last night and hope for the same now.

21 kilometres today

Got little sleep last night. It was colder than expected and I had eaten far too little.

Today I stopped at a village by a road before the Great Wall took off north-eastwards towards the mountains.

I struck lucky and got to a place with a shop and a makeshift eating place in the same house. They had yummy jaoze (small dumplings) and plenty of drink. In addition they made a salad, and I asked them to hard boil ten eggs. I ate almost one portion of dumplings and asked for another to take with me.

As I left I noticed my tripod had gone missing. It was not in their house, so it must have fallen off before I got there. It was in really really bad shape, and nut and bolts were falling off it often, But it still hung together enough for a camera to stand still long enough for a picture. I have been taking pictures of myself on and by the Great Wall lately for newspapers.

The Great Wall clings to the sides of the mountains here. Walking in hilly terrain is one thing, but water from the mountains has dug deep canyons / trenches / valleys into its sides. The Great Wall crosses them all… They are deep, 30 to 50 meters. Most of the time these canyons etc. are deeper than they are wide and are often 100% vertical.

Some places there are narrow tracks made by crazy kamikaze sheep. I follow them if I can get a good idea of how steep the track is before committing, and if it looks dry. It rained a lot four days ago and I don’t want to be in a too steep spot that is slippery. Also, the sun melts ice under the surface exposing running water.

Sometimes there is just a sheer drop. At the end of today, I had to start taking longish detours to get past the worst places which are often very close together, so you have to climb three of them for every kilometre.

I don’t think tomorrow is going to be any better. The 18 km today have been a lot harder than the 25 yesterday.

18 kilometres today

I came to China one year ago today. After thinking about it a little today, what strikes me most is that when I arrived I knew so little Chinese that it was confusing just to take a bus or taxi somewhere. But NOW I know enough Chinese to confuse everybody else instead

The truth though, is that without my brother Jon’s company those first weeks, the “coming to China” experience would have been a lot harder. So thanks Jon!

Out of the 12 months, I have spent about nine of them alone.

It is also another anniversary, as today I (finally!!!) came to the place where my girlfriend Trude and I visited the Great Wall, north of Datong. I called her to tell her as I was sitting at the same spot we visited together. Thanks for the visit!

This winter has been a hard one. The walking has been hard, as have the freezing cold nights. But it has been hardest mentally. The progress this winter has been far slower than I anticipated which has stretched my patience a long way.

It is good to be heading towards another summer. I am aware though that I am also heading towards the rugged terrain of Hebei and Beijing and believe this will be one of the last challenges of the walk.

25 kilometres today