The Great Wall’ker

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

Today I walked as far north in the Liaoning loop as I had planned. As I made the turn southwards, I got the sun in my face - a nice change. Heading straight for the end point of the walk, I started thinking about Norway and all the people I am longing to meet again after almost two years in China. It was fitting that the landscape changed to match that of Nordmarka to the North of Oslo. A fairly soft landscape with hills covered with pine trees. All with a generous sprinkle of snow on top today.

I chose to follow small roads, and for many kilometres I was balancing in the tracks of a single vehicle that had used the dirt road. About 7-8 cm’s of snow. It was wet and slippery. The walking sticks came in handy.

As you can see, I have passed a small section of the Great Wall route today. The green line on the map in Liaoning depicts an educated guess on where the Great Wall used to go during the Ming Dynasty. The findings are few and far between, but confirm the general layout of the route I am following, which is based on a map from the Ming Dynasty. Thanks again to Kim of the Great Wall Forum for sharing his knowledge about the Great Wall in Liaoning.

Following the route closely in this section would have added a day or two with walking (this part is mountainous) and I decided to save time. I need to attend a newspaper ‘do’ this Friday.

Started walking early today, and kept going till an hour after the sun had set. At this time of year, it isn’t easy to get much more walking crammed in to a day. Time to wash socks now, and take a shower. I am very tired.

46 kilometres today

First a big thanks to my girlfriend Trude. She has been ever supportive of this project, and always offers encouragement and understanding when we speak, mail or text. Thanks for waiting for me all this time! She has also visited me in China twice on my trip, and apart from herself, brought vital equipment for the walk. Many many thanks! I’m looking so much forward to seeing you again in less than a month!!

As predicted by the forecast, about 3 cm (more than an inch) of wet snow fell this morning. I am still in very lightweight mode, and am still using jogging shoes. I waited until it had stopped snowing and started walking a little after noon. I got wet, but with nice thick woollen socks, it wasn’t too bad. The last three days, I have lost two walking days because of the weather.

From now on it should be good for a number of days. All systems working OK today. (That’s another way of saying that my body is still hanging together in one piece) The days seem to blend into each other, but as long as I use every daylight hour to walk, I should make it to Dandong before my Visa runs out.

I will bring boots for the final stretch to Dandong in about a week’s time. I mostly walk on hard surfaces now however, and therefore prefer lighter shoes to the heavy boots.

22 kilometres today

Note on the Great Wall route page - This page may not be updated for a couple of days. My brother is taking a well deserved break.
Note on pictures - because of the pace I have now, I have not been able to produce enough pictures for every day out walking. The ‘resting days’ / ‘walking days’ ratio is way too low. Will try to upload some more pictures at the end of next week.

11th of november

Today was cold, very windy with a mixture of rain, sleet and snow. I decided to stay where I was. Slept, drank and ate a lot, and then slept some more. Wouldn’t you know, the place I am staying has HBO on TV, so I saw the films Fargo, the Dark Knight and Into the Storm.

The latter one was timely as it is Rememberance Day today.  In the UK people commemorate the soldiers who fell during active service in war and wear their red poppies. Into the Storm is a convincing portrayal of Winston Churchill during the war years. What a colourful and eccentric guy he was. Good film.

12th of November

The day started wet and gray. I waited a while to decide what to do. At noon I started walking. The route of the Great Wall has gone close to a large river lately, and today I crossed it for the third and final time. As you can see on the map, I am pretty far away from the Great Wall route, which is necessary to get over the river.

Although it was wet and cold, it was quite comfortable to walk. Not too much wind. Looks like there may be more snow tomorrow morning, but then hopefully some better walking weather.

27 kilometers today

For 10th of november

It’s getting to the point now, where I have to portion out my energy for the remainder of the walk. Some days it feels like I can walk hard endlessly, but other days my body kindly asks me to slow down a little. Today was such a day, with 10 km less than I had hoped for. Not far to go now, but I don’t want to walk ‘crazy’ distances until I’m a little closer to Dandong.

Lately I have felt a tingling in my right achilles tendon. Not much, but it has been there for many days. If this is the start of an injury, and it is developing slowly, it could take a long time to heal, so I don’t want to overdo things, too much, too soon…

Forgot my walking sticks at the guesthouse this morning, and walked the whole day without them. It felt very strange after having walked more then 5000 kilometres with them. I hardly knew what to do with my hands! Although the speed only dropped slightly, I really felt awkward as if I had less control over my stride. I retrieved the walking sticks yesterday evening.

23 kilometers today

Started walking early, and for once was finished before sunset. I hopped on a bus quite spontaneously without really knowing where it was going. Got to a large hotel and have had an evening eating good food, taking my first bath in a very long time and relaxing.

Fantastic weather today. Although the smaller lakes have acquired a thin hard shell of ice, it was pleasantly warm. Much due to the lack of wind. Beautiful blue sky with fluffy clouds flying by that made photographing a pleasure.

I still have flat terrain on both sides, but in the distance I can see mountains both to the east and north west.

39 kilometers today

No rain this morning, and although I thought there would be a lot less dust, I was wrong. I have chunks of dust in both eyes, and am patiently trying to dislodge it without losing my contact lenses.

It was very windy from the word go, and it felt like I spent as much energy making sure I walked in a fairly straight line as walking forwards. Twice, and this is funny to write, but it did happen, the wind blew so hard that I was stopped by sudden gusts of wind so that I stood still with one foot in the air. Must have been a funny sight.

My comfort for the day was that in only a few days time, I swing back to a southward direction. From then on, any cold wind from the North will be blowing me in the right direction!

Have found out that Snickers Bars are becoming more popular in China now, and have been feeding on them as small energy meals. When I have none left, I visit about 4-6 shops before finding a place that sells them, and I can stock up. Have had two warm meals, and quite a few bananas today - and the Snickers Bars.

43 kilometres today (The point for today was registered before I was finished walking. I do this now and again to save some time)

The forecast said rain all day long. There was no sign of it when I started walking this morning. I asked a guy if he thought there would be rain, and he said yes - but just a small drizzle he had read on the net. That was good news as a small drizzle is not a bad thing to walk in.

There was a thick fog. I passed a lot of small oil pumps. They looked like retired giant robots, their large counterweights spinning silently around in the fog.

At a little over one PM I was happy having covered a good distance, and still no sign of rain. Twenty minutes later, it started raining lightly. I continued, wanting to reach a road crossing before deciding what to do next. Then the drizzle became rain, and by the time I got to the crossing, my clothes were wet through.

I found a small restaurant that served me some yummy hot food, and I took the liberty to take off my wet trousers, wind jacket and shirt. Then I put on my down vest to keep warm. There is a pretty high acceptance to walking around in your pyjamas in China, and I had my long johns on and got no reaction. I asked if there were any guesthouses in the area, and they said there was a nice place three kilometres down the road.

I got a taxi, and in no time I was in a nice WARM room under a duvet after having taken a long shower. It has been raining hard all evening. I’m listening to Michael Palin’s Pacific Adventure on audio book and eating Snickers bars. Couldn’t be much better! Just hoping the rain has passed by by tomorrow morning. It came half a day later than expected, so it may hang around tomorrow morning.

—

Did you go for seemingly endless walks with your parents when you were young? You got tired and asked in a resigned voice: How far is it till we get there? They answered: ‘Not far honey - just around the next corner’…

Well - that’s where I am now. One rather large corner from the goal of this walk!

32 kilometers today

Got back to the route today at noon. Surprisingly warm weather, and a wind from behind.

The forecast says rain all day tomorrow. I’ll wait until tomorrow to see what to do. If it is close to zero and raining heavily, I’ll wait a day for better weather.

The observant among you will see I spent two days in Shenyang. One day was too little. There was a lot of mail to catch up with, and I wanted some rest too. I washed all my clothes and fixed the windproof jacket.

28 kilometres today.

The going has been very good lately, as has the weather. After two weeks of walking, I decided to take a breather in Shenyang. Tomorrow morning I head back to Liaozhong which is where I left the route.

Walking pretty long distances for a long time is tiring. I’m noticing how there are not really that many hours of light. I’m trying to eat and drink plenty to keep the old machine working properly. In the evenings I eat a large meal and then check my feet, massage my legs, talcum powder sore places and use cream to moisturize the dry skin on my feet. Skin is cracking on my hands also because I’m using walking sticks, so I put on plasters here and there, just to keep the skin humid enough so it doesn’t hurt too much. Sometimes I wonder if I am on an adventure, or in a beauty parlour.

I don’t think many white people have been in this area before me.  Very often, I am the center of attention wherever I go. Cars come to a halt on the road side. Some follow me for a long time, and it becomes slightly irritating. It also creates some dangerous situations as it means the flow of traffic is hindered. Sometimes people ask if I want a lift. I thank them and explain that I have to walk, and therefore cannot take a car ride.

Sometimes mothers will run into their houses and drag out their baby or child so they can get a glimpse of this foreign novelty moving slowly through the terrain. Once I was sitting in a little shop at the end of the day eating and drinking. I was speaking to the owner of the shop when a girl of 12-14 years came in to buy some sweets. She didn’t see me until she turned around to go out. She got the shock of her life and started crying and screaming loudly! I didn’t know what I could do to make the situation any better. So I just sat there quietly until the owner explained that I wasn’t a dangerous man. A little too much attention sometimes.

Now and again I ask people if they have heard about any signs of the Great Wall here, but they just laugh and talk about Shanhaiguan. The area I am walking through is completely flat, and has been an agricultural area for many centuries since the end of the Ming Dynasty. Perhaps when I hit the mountains to the north of Shenyang, the chances of finding or hearing of something interesting may improve.

33, 32 and 31 kilometres the last three days.