On Friday the fifth of March I set off walking the Great Wall after spending yet another day weather bound in the tent due to snow. Things were going well. I knew I was a little low on food and liquids and was on the lookout  for a village with people which I knew I would find when I entered the next valley, if not before.

After walking about 7 kilometres, I stood in front of the final ascent before entering the valley. Behind me in the distance, I could see a small village, but no people. It was hidden in a valley, which is the reason I had not seen it before. I didn’t want to backtrack just to find out that there were no people there

I was at a little less than 1700 meters above sea level.  It was about -10C, and almost no wind. I sat down to eat, drink and rest knowing it would do me good before the final ascent.

I rose, packed all the equipment, and started on the climb. It was fairly steep and long. The newly fallen snow didn’t help either. As I walked, I noticed that the walking stick handles had become very cold after the break, but I thought I would warm them up again as soon as I got warm.

As I got further up, the wind got stronger. After a while it was making my face very cold. I had to start taking rests increasingly often. It felt like my energy had disappeared as I was standing there. At this point I was getting pretty close to the top. I thought if I could get over it, the wind would probably get weaker as I descended.

My condition then started to deteriorate very quickly. I started walking with shorter paces, couldn’t follow a straight line and noticed I was losing the feeling in my fingers. The rest of my body was also losing heat due to all the pauses, exposed in the wind. What was worse was that I was starting to lose my ability to reason properly.

Soon I felt like I had to throw up, and soon after, as though I had bad diarrhea. Then came the worst part - I noticed I was losing consciousness. I had to drop quickly down to my knees in order not to pass out. I stood up again, but just ten meters further on, I had to kneel down so as not to lose consciousness.

I then realized what was happening and knew the only way to manage was to set up the tent.

Luckily there was a little area big enough to set up the tent only 3-4 metres behind me. When I took off my rucksack, I noticed that I had almost no feeling left in my fingers. At this point it was a race against time. I had to drop to my knees twice more as I set up the tent, and just hoped I would manage to get myself and my equipment into it in time.

I did, but didn’t have strength to use any tent plugs. The tent has a very sturdy dome construction, and I was pretty sure it would manage the high winds without the plugs. I was incredibly grateful when I managed to zip down the outer tent door to get completely out of the wind. I got both sleeping mattresses ready. It was a battle just to pull out the sleeping bag from the rucksack.

I was very very cold, but no longer afraid of passing out. It didn’t take long before I fell asleep. I slept for two hours, and woke up shivering at 4 PM.

—

Quick note. Got back to Datong the day after. Went straight to bed, and have been there ever since because of a virus. High temperature, feeling cold, very hot, sweating, no appetite etc. That’s why I have not written before. It is probably also the reason why I lost all my energy so incredibly fast.

Have thought a lot about the incident. Will write more tomorrow. Time to rest now.

After many days and nights of snow and cold conditions, I returned to Datong on Saturday. I had a pretty frightening experience while walking on the Friday which I will write more about tomorrow. After returning to Datong, I’ve been in bed with the flu. I hope the worst is over now.

My Neo-Air inflatable sleeping mattress has a puncture. No big surprise as this landscape has a lot of sticky thorn shrubs that I have to walk through. There are also thorns on the ground that are hard to detect before setting up the tent.

Because of the cold I am using a traditional Ridgerest sleeping mattress under the inflatable one to keep warm. It takes about five hours for the Neo-Air to deflate so that my hip touches the bottom one. I will have to repair the puncture soon. When it gets a little warmer, I will stop using the large Ridgerest to save weight and space. It is large and dangles at the bottom of the rucksack when I am walking. I will write a review of the two sleeping mattresses soon.

The clouds have cleared up this evening, and expect -16C tonight. I am happy I have two mattresses for the time being.

After sucking up the atmosphere and taking some pictures, I sat on a bus heading north of Youyu. From there I could get the right bus to Shahukou.

Although the terrain here often looks comfortably flat from a distance, or even from just 50 metres away, there are some pretty deep and steep valleys to cross in order to walk the Great Wall. After the first ascent, I got to the second largest windmill farm I have seen so far.

The walking went easily today. Like flowing slowly through the landscape. As I got to the most northern part of this section of the Great Wall I saw a large flat valley to the north. It was so beautiful that I decided to spend the night there. The ground is perfectly flat also, which makes for a change as I have had no  option in choosing my camp sites the last few nights.  I can hear dogs barking in the valley, but other than that just the weak wind blowing in the trees. Very peaceful. The tent is situated so that the sun will wake me up tomorrow morning. (If there is one…)

15 kilometres today

I use a down winter sleeping bag and the down has a tendency to move to the top part of the sleeping bag after some days usage. Before I went to sleep yesterday, I knocked some down to the bottom part. Looks like I did the job too well, because it was cold on the top last night for the first time ever.

This morning my feet became wet when the boots warmed up. My boots had a thick layer of melted snow and mud on them last evening. This morning they were rock solid ice.

I had placed them so as to stop the tent entrance flapping too much in the strong wind. There was no snow last night, but I wonder if the humidity inside the boots turned to ice before it evaporated. The other alternative is that they are not as Gore-Tex’y now as when I started using them. I hope for the first option. They are beside me now above a radiator slowly drying out.

The goal for the day was Shahukou as I could hitch a ride to a place where I could stock up on food both in the rucksack and in my stomach. At what I thought was the end of the day, a middle sized river separated me from Shahukou. By this time my cold and wet feet made me feel cold as soon as I stopped. I walked along the river looking for a place to get over. Got over to an island half way, but found no crossing point to the last half. I considered taking off the boots and wading, but there was still ice on the river in places, and I didn’t like the prospect of standing on ice as it broke under my bare feet. Ice can be as sharp as glass if one is unlucky. I took the safe (and boring) alternative and walked 5-6 kilometres crossing over a bridge to the north.

By the time I got to a guesthouse, all I could think of was warming my feet. Luckily, the Chinese always have hot water at hand, so soon I had both feet in a bucket of hot water. Felt like a lovely spa.

I have just finished two whole dinners, and have drunk 2.5 litres after arriving at Shahukou. Starting to feel normal again.

My mind has played a trick on me. I have started calling Shanxi Shaanxi. The former is the province I am in now. It is pronounced with the first tone (high and flat), and this seems longer to me than Shaanxi which is written with the third tone (low falling and then rising). Next time, I’ll just have to remember the first sign of Shanxi which means mountain and is pronounced with the first tone. (This won’t make that much sense to those that don’t understand a little Chinese.)

Speaking of mountains. I descended from 1750 metres above sea level to about 1450 today. In only a few days time, I will see the flat plains north of Datong in front of me. With a few exceptions, they last until Hebei - the next province.

24 kilometres today