THE GREAT WALL

morning awakening

Day 4 - Sat. April 7

What a day! I was picked up at the crack of dawn (6:25) and then we picked up another guy, David from Perth and we headed out of town to the Great Wall of China!  We arrived about 8 and hardly anyone was there. The sun had risen and the sky was blue.

We intelligently agreed to take the cable car up to the wall, instead of climbing the 1000 steps. We had enough steps to climb in our trek, thank goodness we did do that.  We began at Mutiayu Great Wall.
At the top we started at tower 14 and here our guide Tommy left us to hike to tower 20 on our own (and back again).

 David and I got on really well. We both loved to stop and take photos and our pace was the same. David has two daughters 26 and 29 and a wife which permits him to go on his own holidays to places he wants to go. So here he is and she is doing some B&Bs around Perth!

Again because we were the only ones on our section of the wall it was fantastic! The crisp morning air and the bright blue sky made wonderful photo ops. The wall kept going and going and so did we.
Our guide Tommy did say one could possibly go all the way to tower 23 but after tower 20 the wall has not been restored. Tower 23 was on top of the mountain and so that was David and my goal.  Though the steps to tower 20 were brutal, so steep and they kept on going.  It took us about 50 minutes to get tower 20. But with the Chinese flag flying in the sun and the view it kept us going.

After tower 20 it still was restored though the wall just kept going up and up. But at tower 21 then it looked almost impassable  but we kept going.  Though we did have cling to the wall and the few trees to help us and keep our balance. Two hours later, we finally succeeded!!!  The view at the top was amazing!  The wall kept going and going and going!

We had to call Tommy to tell him we would be late as we were suppose to meet him at 11:00 and it was just 11:00 when we reached tower 23!  So 2 hours later we were down at the bottom of the hill. Obviously as we retracted our steps back the sun was higher and it was getting hotter. I cant  imagine doing this in the summer. We had then most perfect day.

We then drove to a place for lunch and when we got back to the city we went for a neck and shoulder massage and then a great foot massage.

Really spectacular day!