A Walk on the Wall

Left the hostel at 6.30am this morning to go to see the Great Wall. I can't remember what section it was, but it was J...... to Simatai, a non-touristy bit and a 10km hike.

Got to J...... at about 10.30am and decided to take the cable car to cut 40 minutes off. Thank goodness we did because it was quite some walk ahead.

The wall is fantastic - it's so hard to believe you're actually there. We walked 30 watchtowers in total, and quite a few of them were extremely steep. The first half of the walk was in blazing sunshine. It was tiring and pushed you quite hard physically. A couple of Mongolian ladies latched on to us hoping to sell souvenirs. But they were not overt about it and walked with us for about 40 minutes being very pleasant, so when the time came to leave them we agreed to buy a T-shirt for the startlingly high price (for China) of 100 yuan (8 pounds)

As the day wore on the weather began to turn bad and a storm closed in around us with fork lightening. It wasn't too bad until we got to a section that had no wall on either side, it was basically sheer drops on each side. Although I am not great with heights, this became the least of my worries as the storm was now directly overhead. The thunder boomed so loudly that a couple of American girls on the same section and me instinctively fell to our knees and covered our heads with our hands.

Barry had chosen this moment to bugger off(!) so I was left to scramble on my own on my back down the dangerous section and then sprint the last section with the American girls. Fork lightening struck close by and an older American lady's metal cane was flung out of her hand, attracted by the pull of the storm. Not the best place to be in a storm!

Torrential rain was falling by this point and in the absence of Barry I linked up with some Australians. It was all OK though and we reached the 30th watchtower safely, if a little wet and tired. I think Barry knew I was cross with him and he has been trying to make it up to me ever since(!)

The day wasn't over yet as now we had the option of either walking another 40 minutes to the bus or sliding down a death slide high, high over a river and dam. After a bit of deliberation we decided to go for the death slide! I was a bit apprehensive but once I had struck off it was fine and very enjoyable!

The wall experience overall was really fantastic, and I guess it was good that we saw it both in sunshine and at its moodiest best. Thank goodness I had bought the T-shirt off the Mongolian woman cos it meant I had some at least dry clothes to change into!

Will try to post some pictures soon.