The Great Wall’ker

Woke up to a really cold day. At the start of the day I wore everything I have with me but the Gore-Tex coat, and had to walk ‘full throttle’ just to get some heat in my body. There was a really cold wind, and it wasn’t blowing that hard at all.

I had some food at noon, and as I sat inside, I saw it had started to snow. Big fluffy white flakes. And there were a lot of them. When I left the eating place I put on all the clothes I have with me for this stretch of the walk. Upper body - two layers of wool, ‘dessert’ shirt, windproof jacket, Gore-Tex jacket and then the down vest. Head - woollen hat, ear warmers and the Gore-Tex coat hood, Lower body - short woollen underpants, woollen long johns, heavy duty trousers and Gore-Tex trousers. My knees have been hurting lately, so I used the jogging shoes today. A pair of thick fluffy woollen socks, and then two layers of ‘take away’ plastic bags did the trick on each foot. (These plastic bags are very thin) Since it was so cold, the snow that landed on the jogging shoes didn’t melt, but just froze.

I was quite disheartened again because of the bad weather, and had to call it a walking day at the 29 km mark. At that time about 7-8 cm’s (3 inches) of snow that had fallen in 3-4 hours. I was hoping for a 40+ km day so that I could have made it to the Hushan Great Wall within the day after tomorrow. That is not likely to happen now.

Really hoping for a good walking day tomorrow so that I can get a lot closer to the Hushan Great Wall, and the river that separates North-Korea and China.

29 kilometres today
About 55 kilometres to Hushan Great Wall close to Dandong

Woke up to about 7 cm’s (2-3 inches) of dry snow this morning. That was a surprise as there was no mention of it on the weather forecast just two days ago. It was a little disheartening to think I would have to drag my feet through snow all day long. I have brought my big boots on this last stretch, and put them on in the morning. I also used the good old plastic bag in the boot trick as the Gore-Tex fabric of my boots is not doing much good now. They are well beyond their “Use before” date, and will not be following me back to Norway.

Luckily, I saw a snow ploughing-car not long after I started walking. People were out early, and I walked past a long line of decorated cars getting ready for a wedding, by the looks of it. It was very cold, but bright and clean due to the newly fallen snow. For the first time since last winter, I used the down jacket (well - it’s a vest) all day long to stay warm. Tomorrow, I will wear two woollen tops to be warmer as it is supposed to get even colder then.

As Sue has picked up already, the Norwegian embassy in China has kindly written an article about the walk. You can read it in English or Chinese.

I made a mistake when entering the end point of today’s walk. The longitude is correct, but the latitude is the same as two days ago. My fault. Hopefully it will show up correctly tomorrow.

38 kilometres today
About 68 kilometres to Hushan Great Wall close to Dandong

Today was a media day. No interviews, but just trying to get things in order for when the trip is finished. As a result, I didn’t get to walk that far.

Highlight of the day was to see the first sign for Dandong!! Not sure if they are called districts or counties or something else, but I entered it today.

Really tired now, and am going to catch up on sleep and rest.

32 kilometres today
About 95 kilometres to Hushan close to Dandong.

By the looks of the walk the last days, you may think I have been celebrating the end of the walk too early. The reason for the criss-crossing is that at this point little is know about the Great Wall in the area. Because of this I am following a ‘best guess’ of where it once went. For every new find that is done, our understanding of the more exact route will increase. Because my visa runs out on the 5th of December, I need to keep a steady pace, and am therefore following roads at this point.

Today I walked almost directly eastwards, gaining only a couple of kilometres on the goal of the Hushan Great Wall close to Dandong. With that leg of the journey done, all is set for the final countdown to the Hushan Great Wall by North-Korea. Thanks to Vivian in Dandong for giving me the telephone number of the director of the wall at Hushan. If I get flagged down by police or military these last few days, it feels good to have a phone number to someone who is expecting me.

It was a cold day today, and the route took me through a high mountain pass. Beautiful, but pretty hard walking, and cold.

Can’t believe how tired I am in the evenings. Will send this off, and then go to bed.

A very very big thanks to Yang Li Li and Liu Wei at the one and only Bin Guan at Shanzuizi. Thanks so much for making this a very pleasant stay! It was fun autographing the wall in your stairs and the thirty photographs we took yesterday   

42 kilometres today
About 114 kilometres to Dandong as the crow flies.

First - A big thanks to YOU! The reader of this blog.

When friends that I could communicate properly with have been few and far between here in China, this blog has been my refuge and at times vent. It has been nice to know that so many people have taken part in this journey (from the comfort of a warm and dry place most probably!)  Thank you all for encouraging messages and e-mails. They have kept me going!

Thanks also to my brother for helping with sewing parts of the techy stuff together here, and also for giving me a kind brotherly reminder from time to time that I have to make more pictures for the picture gallery! Also to my mother for looking through every sentence I have written, and corectimg speling mitakes! (That will be corrected in no time at all!) (WRONG - I’m going to leave it just as it is !!!!  People have to read your words, not mine.  Love mamma)

Most of the world probably woke up to the news that North Korea bombarded a South Korean island yesterday. A tragedy, within a larger tragedy of a split nation. I am currently only 116 km’s from North-Korea - far closer than Seoul on the other side. Being on the Chinese side makes me feel a lot safer. During the last couple of days walking, I have observed more green vehicles in the area, which is only natural. As I get closer to the border, chances are pretty high that I will get the question ‘what (on earth) are you doing’. In addition to my official papers describing the walk, I will get in touch with the leader of the Hushan Great Wall on the border to North-Korea so that a quick phone call to him should sort out things if I get stopped.

I am hoping, with the rest of the world, that the situation does not spiral out of control.

Today’s walk was hard. From noon there was a lot of snow, and the wind picked up quite a bit. Am very happy with today’s effort despite the weather. Really really tired now. Walking such long distances most days zaps my head in addition to the body. Good night.

31 kilometres today
About 116 kilometres to Dandong as the crow flies.

First - a big thanks to my two weather reporters! Bjoern Sindre and John. When I am not able to get a good weather report, I send a text message to them asking for the latest news. As you can imagine - this is pretty important so that I can avoid potentially dangerous weather, and walk half days if possible. Many thanks to both of you for sending the weather reports I also want to thank Bjoern Sindre’s friend Alfredo for purchasing audio books for me, and sending them here.

Also a big big thanks to Oeystein (or Einstein amongst friends) for patiently taking backups of the more than 100 GB’s of photographs I have taken while walking the Great Wall. It feels reassuring to know I have a full set of pictures back home in Norway.

Got going at around eight this morning. It was cold. I had to walk for a long time before warming properly up. The plan was to hike a record long stretch.

During the day, I stopped several times to buy fluids. I have made a habit of asking people in the small shops if they have heard of any Great Wall in the area - any signs at all.

Well - today I struck gold. While asking a lady for shoe laces, a guy came in and we got talking. I told him what I was doing, and he said there was Ming Dynasty Great Wall in the area! I was SO excited and together we walked to the site.

Sure enough there was a 2-3 metre high Wall following a ridge upwards, and beyond. We walked it together for a while, and I photographed The Wall from near, far and several angles. There was no brickwork to be seen - especially with the layer of snow. He said few people in the village actually knew that this was Ming Dynasty Great Wall.

I have been eagerly hoping to find signs of Great Wall here in the mountains, and was extremely happy with today’s find. Have had a big grin on my face the rest of the day! This find feels like the icing on top of the Great Wall cake. Now ‘all’ I need to do is keep up the high pace for about another week. Thanks a lot to Frank for helping with translation today.

If it had not been for the Great Wall find, I think it could have ended up as a record long haul. There may be some bad weather rolling in tomorrow. Will have to confer with my professional weather reporting team…

44 kilometres today
About 137 kilometres to Dandong as the crow flies.

Have had a very good walking day today. Although I got off to a late start after 9 am, I was able to cover a long distance. This is simply done by keeping a high speed, and stop having any breaks! Not something I can recommend in the long run. Only one break where I actually sat down today.

I am asking people if they have heard of any Great Wall in the area, but no positive response I’m afraid. It would have made my day if an old guy lightened up, took me for a walk into the hills and showed me a ten metre stretch of something that resembled an old wall. Still some days to go.

The area I have moved into is stunningly beautiful. I said this to a local guy today, but he just shook his head. Perhaps he was thinking of the harsh winters they have here. The precipitation that fell yesterday covered this area with snow. Lots and lots of pine forrests here. I have seen the processing of so many products on this walk. To mention a few: several sorts of nuts, cotton, coal and other minerals, peppers, corn, rice, several fruits and now wood. Taking a deep sniff of the recently cut pine wood as I pass by reminds me of home. The hills that reminded me of Nordmarka have become mountains now.

Home… To illustrate what I am feeling about approaching the end of this walk: today I found myself shaking my head because it is going to be sad when this part of my life is over, and at the same time smiling because I am looking so much forward to meeting everybody in Norway. (well - not EVERYbody). That’s what they mean by mixed emotions.

I’m hoping for a monster long walk tomorrow as the forecast says the day after will have up to an inch of snow. That will slow me down.

40 kilometres today
About 155 kilometres to Dandong as the crow flies.

I got back to the walking today and had high expectations of doing some good walking, but they were stopped by terrible weather.

Early on it started raining hard, and at times it beltet down. It was very cold, and just on the verge of snowing.

I was following a road that at times turned into a big mud hole. The sides of the road had several cm’s of water and mud at times.

After more than an hour, I passed by a lady sitting motionless on the other side of the road. At first I didn’t react - probably because I’ve seen so many farmers in their fields lately. But there was something out of place, so I stopped and turned around.

She was older than I thought - older than 75. She was thinly dressed, and she had modern jogging shoes on. This made even less sense, so I crossed the road, and that is when I started realizing what was wrong.

She was covered in mud and freezing cold. I tried to make contact with her, but she didn’t answer. I pulled her carefully to her feet, and that’s when I understood the poor lady must have been there a fairly long time. She was shivering uncontrollably, and had no energy to get to her feet by herself.

From the effort of standing up, she bent over as to throw up, but nothing came. She had saliva coming down from her mouth. Then I noticed she had a new cut on her cheekbone. From this, and the fact she wasn’t answering any questions about where her house was I gathered she must have slipped and got severely shaken, perhaps even had a mild stroke. She held hard on to me as we stood there together in the rain. She swayed from side to side trying to find her balance.

There were plenty of cars driving slowly past and I tried to flag down quite a few, but none stopped. I asked her many times which way her home was. She pointed one way, but a minute later started walking the other. She held a firm grip onto me, and together we slowly got to a house.

We entered, but the woman there said she didn’t know who the old lady was. I said she must be from the area. Together, we walked further up the sidestreet and ended up at a home for old aged. Nobody recognized her there either, and they seemed eager to get rid of the problem. I said that was not happening as long as I was there, and told a guy to call the police.

He called, and started talking to them. I saw that the old lady was sitting in a warm room and out of immediate danger. Then I thought it best to vacate the premises to avoid a long talk with the police about a situation I couldn’t help them with. I went out to discover it had started snowing heavily.

I would rather not think what would have happened if I had not passed by her when I did, and this evening my thoughts go out to her hoping she has a hot meal in her stomach, shelter above her head, and hopefully some family around her.

10 kilometres today

Yesterday I bought the tickets back home to Norway. A very strange feeling really. I am looking very much forward to coming home - no doubt about it.    At the same time though, I have a growing understanding (and perhaps fear) of how drastically my life is going to change from the life I have lived here in China.

I arrive at Gardermoen on Sunday the 5th of December at 18.25!

I have taken a semi relaxing day today, washing lots of clothes, answering mails and then attending a net meeting in a Norwegian newspaper. You can read the questions and answer here. (They are in Norwegian)

For dere i Norge - imorgen stiller jeg opp i NRK Nitimen. Tror det begynner i nitiden   

Update - I forgot to mention that I have now reached Fushun which is the town that Sue comes from. Sue is a Chinese living in Denmark, and has been helping me a lot with practical matters since she heard about this walk. Thanks for all your help Sue    :-)    It’s too bad you are not in Fushun now.

After a long stint along the Great Wall route, I went in to Shenyang today.

Tomorrow - Friday at 1PM - I will be participating in an online Q&A session for a newspaper in Oslo. If you want to send in a question, and speak Norwegian, here is the place to go.

Can’t wait to catch up on some sleep, and then get the last things sorted on this site and other things before heading back for the last stretch.

31 kilometres today
About 189 kilometres in a straight line to Dandong

Started walking at 8 in the morning. Walked more or less non-stop. I sat down only once, at a small shop to eat some peanuts and drink. It was warmer than usual, and no wind.

There are some aches and pains in this travel stained body now, but none that seem to stay. Today my knees asked me to slow down the pace a bit, which I did. When I hit 40 kilometres, I was still feeling OK so I went on for another hour.

Towards the end of today’s walk I passed a beautiful agricultural area. The sun was setting in the direction I was walking. The fields had hundreds of Van Gogh-like stacks of sunflower stems placed together to dry. There was a fine sprinkle of snow covering the landscape. It made for a beautiful and serene view.

I pulled out my camera, and started taking pictures. This went fine for a while, but then I got a ‘Re-insert memory card’ error message. Have received quite a few of them lately, and it is worrying me. I just hope pictures I have already taken won’t be damaged or deleted. Not sure why this is happening. It happens on both memory cards, which seems to indicate it has to do with the camera unfortunately. Not much I can do with the camera to solve the problem at this point.

I might buy a third small memory card in Shenyang to reduce the risk of losing pictures on the last stretch coming up.

45 kilometres today
About 204 kilometres to Dandong as the crow flies.

First a big thanks to my parents Jean and Tor. They have put up with quite a lot from me already. Like when I bought an extremely warm sleeping bag in my early teens and insisted on sleeping outside on the coldest nights in wintertime.

After an initial ‘are you nuts?’ reaction, my parents have been very supportive, and have contributed greatly to this project. It feels like their house has become the headquarters of the Norway branch of the Great Wall. It would have been a nightmare to have done this without you!

So - thank you for all the new equipment to replace the old, the countless pairs of jogging shoes, Fantomet, shoe soles, size 47 socks, lithium batteries, gps, camera’s… The list is long. Thanks also for keeping the taxman off my back, and aiding with banking, financial and practical matters back home in Norway.

This evening, I was intervued by Nitimen Radio. The interview will air in Norway Saturday coming up. Tune in! I was kindly invited to visit their studio again after Christmas which I am looking forward to. They are a very funny bunch

I’m at a guesthouse now, and the electricity has just died. Was hoping to charge the phone as it is near the end of it’s life too.

Started walking at 8 today, and had a good day’s walk. The snow is still all over, and they don’t plough the roads. That means wet walking for me, and often dirt and water from the road is flung all over me as trucks drive past. Not very Great Wall romantic. Bought a face mask yesterday which helps a bit. They are popular here. Only problem is it is too small, so my ears stick out and get cold even while wearing a woollen hat.

Now that I’m in mountainous terrain, I have to walk further to find food. Ended up eating instant noodles and salty peanuts at a small shop. The daughter of the owner was a real charmer - five years old and full of beans Sometimes, I find it easier to have fun with kids, than the grown ups. Perhaps I need to grow up a little myself?

For some reason I couldn’t fall asleep last night. Now that the end of this adventure is getting ever closer, a lot of thoughts are surfacing. Even some feelings!! Scary creatures… I think it will take a week or two to fully understand that the walk is over. Also to sit back and understand what I have achieved. Not just the physical task of walking, but fulfilling a dream I have had my entire (semi) grown up life.

Time to sleep.

40 kilometres today
About 233 kilometres to Dandong as the crow flies. (That’s in a straight line.)

On this last stretch on the eastern most part of my route, the terrain is getting more mountainous. This is good news, as it means the chances of finding intact parts of the Great Wall are greater than the flat agricultural plains I have passed. The Great Wall in this area was not a massive structure like parts of the Beijing Great Wall where many horses could ride abreast on top. Instead, it was probably a slender structure perhaps with a pyramid shaped profile like that of Zhangjiakou.

Now that I am in mountain terrain, I will ask more people if they have heard talk of any remains of the Ming Dynasty Great Wall in the area. There are a couple of inches of snow on the ground, so it is near impossible for me to discover anything unless I literally stumble on top of the find.

After the long walk yesterday, I had a late start today, and I am happy with the resulting mileage.

Thanks for the talk this morning Kim, and congratulations on the rare Great Wall find in Liaoning

31 kilometres today