Post 112 - Day 3 First sight of the Great Wall at Gubeikou

We were promised just a short stroll today to warm us up for the rest of the week.... note to self.. never believe an Ozzie when he tells you you are going for a short stroll......

We were up early for breakfast today and ironically it was a mixture of yellow bread, very sweet jam and the contents of the left overs from last nights "take-away" - bucket loads of Chinese food spread out buffet style for us to choose from.. the smell alone at 6am was just a little too much to handle.  Have you ever tried to spread jam on a bit of yellow bread using a chop-stick?  My breakfast consisted of a hard boiled egg, this sweet sweet awful jam (especially as I had become accustomed to Andrew's home made jam) and a plate full of garlic broccoli washed down with copious amounts of Jasmine Tea.  I managed to sneak my Herbalife special energy tea down to breakfast with me and locate a flask full of boiling water so all was good and I was raring to go... literally.

We drove and drove in our air conditioned coach, Andrew & I were at the helm (good ol Andrew, he was always looking out for me and managed to nab the front seat and claim it for our own throughout the entire trip - this enabled us to see straight out to the ciaos of the roads, have a little more leg room and chat nonchalantly to Ken, gaining untold amount of information on China).

We finally arrived at a rather dilapidated noodle restaurant where we found ourselves looking at each other nervously.  Some needed to the toilet due to our long coach drive and on inspection came out still needing the toilet.  Now, seeing as these people made the i-phone, it baffled me how they were just not capable to either clean a toilet or have one that you didn't need to use every leg muscle and the balancing skill of an acrobat in order to just do a pee.  I did contemplate getting out the she wee but having no change of clothes and no where to change them, it was not an option.  I decided that after lunch I would find a friendly bush!




Lunch consisted of noodles, great big thick juicy ones that had absolutely no taste whatsoever but were quite good to get you used to using chop-sticks.  I slurped them into my mouth like I hadn't eaten for weeks with the on look of a rather disapproving Pam....

We were off to our wall... I was so excited I felt like Barbie with a constant grin that I just couldn't remove!!

We trekked and trekked up rocky pastures and steep inclines before we even managed to get to the wall.  I strode with confidence with my new purple walking sticks until Andrew told me I was holding them all wrong (I don't usually go to Pinner with them so how was I supposed to know?).  He carefully and considerately showed me how I was supposed to grip them so that it didn't break my wrist if I were to fall off the wall.... I was a little more concerned about breaking my neck if I fell but I listened intently and followed his lead.  I did promise Savannah that I wouldn't die after all.

Doctor Alison

It was tough, it was very tough, IT WASN'T A GENTLE STROLL.  The heat was intense in the 30's and the humidity was a challenge in inself, the sweat was dripping off us.  One of our party was violently sick half way up and another, very fit police lady Lorraine had disco leg where the muscle in her leg jumped violently and uncontrollably and she was unable to walk.  This day proved challenging for our "on tour" Doctor Alison who was literally running from the front of the group to the back to tend the sick!  She was remarkable.

Half way to the wall, James stopped us all, he looked back at our red blotchy faces and said, or what we thought he said was "there will be lots of RATS", we were not yet used to his accent and in turn we all looked back at each other in wonderment... it transpired that what he actually said was "you don't need to rush".  It was my first real game of Chinese Whispers!!!

After what seemed like hours, we all managed to reach the point where we could see the wall for the first time.... words just can't describe what we saw before us.... silence overcame us all and we just stood, all 42 of us with our parched mouths open, starring in amazement at the height we had just climbed and the shear extent to our walk ahead... and of course the beauty of it all - it was stupendous!!!

The photos do this no justice at all!

Andrew:  He was like my big brother & looked after me!

James & Tom (Camelot) clearly up to the top before me.... actually, to be honest... I ran back down to take the picture and went back up again!!!

Everyone was sucking on their water bottles which looked like they were on oxygen (most of us wished it was).  For some reason my bladder was rather hard to suck, I don't usually have a problem with sucking but I do recall thinking that I would end up with a lot of wind at this rate with all the power sucking through a little tube for a dribble of water.  I asked Andrew to see if the tube had twisted or indeed if I had finished my 2ltrs already!  On closer inspection and rather a lot of laughter to my expense, Andrew exclaimed "you stupid tart... it's upside down"

After 5 hours of trekking (certainly not strolling) we arrived back at the campsite at Gubeikou, our first Camp of the week.  The little yellow tents in the woods looked like aliens had landed from out of space and the looks from the locals seemed to emulate this.  Camping in China is somewhat strange to the locals, they stopped and stared in wonderment at these strange people who had funny eyes and smelt of milk!

                                                                                                                      Kieron - The camp comedian
                                                                                                                          (funny, not camp!)

Was a luxury to have a portable shower to wash our hair
Abbie-Anne 

This was like Tequilla 45% rice wine.. yum

We all chose our tents for the night, ours was by the toilets as we thought we were being clever.... not clever at all it turned out!!!!  We were exhausted, mats and sleeping bags out first, a wet wipe wash and we were ready for dinner.  Chinese on the menu again tonight... yum.

It was delicious for camp food... it made me wonder what we would feed the Chinese if they were to come camping in London..... scramble egg and bacon wouldn't really match up to the mark!

We played a few games and had a giggle before crashing for the night...