Conquering The Great Wall of China

We did it!  We trekked, walked, ran (and climbed) the Great Wall of China!   I can't believe it's all over - all that fundraising and training over the past 10 months Mairi and I finally came to a conclusion as we climbed the last step of the stairway to heaven on the Great Wall of China last week.  That itself was emotional but having one of our new Scottish friends propose to his girlfriend at the top made us blubbering wrecks!  It was a week of the most glorious, steep, challenging, epic adventure of our lives.  Raising vital funds for the Beatson Cancer Unit (over £3,000 so far) and for Cervical Cancer (Jo's Trust) it was an amazing experience that we will never forget.  Below is just some excerpts of my diary that I kept....

Beijing  After a very long flight with the worst plane food ever (porridge with limp broccoli?!) we arrived in China's capital, Beijing.  With a population of around 24 million and with over 6 million cars, it was a far cry from Glasgow never mind Campbeltown!  The pollution smog was high, so much so you couldn't see far in front of you, and the streets were packed with people, cars and market eateries.  However, we were there on a challenge to run so we ran 3 times in Beijing despite the smog taking in the sights such as the Olympic Park, Forbidden City and even the Beijing Marathon (I'm ever so glad we didn't know this was on as I think we would've been too tempted to enter!) We also visited the Temple of Heaven which was an escape from the bustling crowds where locals congregated to sing, play music, games, knit, play cards and exercise.  It was like an adult playground - with swings, pull up bars, ping pong, keepy ups and tai chi.  Of course, it obviously had it's own tea house where we sampled some of the famous Chinese teas - jasmine, pu'er and jinseng which were all delicious (we are tea lovers) and had to buy some to take home.

Badaling  The first few days on sections around Badaling were my favourite.  Up in the early hours of the morning to see the sunrise over the mountains, we would run in the countryside before a quick shower and packing our rucksacks for the day of trekking and prepare for the cold in the mornings and the heat of the afternoon sun.  We were thrown into some steep and challenging climbs from day 1, with many uneven and large steps, it took us much longer to navigate our way up and down the wall - helping others in the group.  There were some crumbling and unrestored sections at times making it extra tricky to pass.  I found the downhill sections the hardest - choosing to bump down on my bum for some of it.  My legs were shaking at the bottom, reminding me how I felt from coming down from Ben Nevis.  Held 'hostage' in the cold for over an hour made our first day more interesting!  We were thankful of our wonderful Guide Chris who negotiated and spoke to the locals who eventually let us get past to go on to our next lodge for the evening after some calls to the British embassy!  We trekked for 5-6 hours per day on these sections but we also ran 6 miles each day on top of that as part of our personal challenge.  The tops of my thighs were burning for days!

My favourite lunch - after this decline we stopped on the wall for fresh food made by local farmers

Some of our days were forest walking up and around the mountains to get on or come down from the Wall.  There was no clear pathway and we had to scramble through woodlands and over rocks, therefore, lots of scrapes, scratches and bruises for me.  Working as a team, we met some fascinating and inspiring people in our group - all raising funds for various well deserving charities across the UK.  We helped each other and worked together as we scrambled up hillsides, under tree branches and through valleys.

Black Dragon Pools - these sections were to be a bit of a 'recovery' only trekking 5 hours so we awoke early to run through the countryside before our trek through a gorge, up  a mountain before carefully walking down a very thin unrestored part of the wall back down to a reservoir.  

However, we did find some parts of it quite tricky but Mairi and I powered on at the front, even managing to lead the group to a combat session at lunch (and before dinner!)  We were also treated to magnificent views across the beautiful mountains where you could see the wall for miles.

Gubeiko and Jinshanling - some of our longest days trekking where on these sections.  Some of the wall was narrow and crumbling so you had to watch every step.  There was so many steps and hills!  I vowed never to moan about Knockscalbert hill again! 

Mutianyu - this is a reconstructed section of the wall where most tourists near Beijing visit and heads of state are brought.  This was clear to see by the packed buses going up to view it, quite a change from the remote sections we were used to.  There was even a Subway at the bottom where we were given lunch!  1,000 steps to climb before we even got on the wall then it was a further 500 and 2 mile trek to get to the bottom of the 480 heavenly staircase.  We regrouped at the watchtower to take some pictures before tacking our big finish.  I attempted to run this last part and was the first to the top but I didn't break any records!  Of course, we then had over 2000 steps to walk down.  Some opted for the tourist cable car or toboggan down but Mairi and I wanted to finish it as we started - on our feet.

Almost at the finish....

looks disgusting but we devoured it!

Food - What can I say - any hope of us coming back thinner was long forgotten after our first meal!  The food was simply delicious. We are now pros at using chopsticks!  Breakfasts and lunches varied - some boiled eggs, rice, watermelon and sometimes bread.  China doesn't have many cows to graze so there isn't really any dairy products on offer.  Lunches - rice or bread with meat or salad and more boiled eggs.  Lots of nuts and the biggest apples you have ever seen!  We usually stopped at a watchtower for lunch that provided some shade and on one of the days we even stopped off at a local farmhouse where we bought some tea.  Everyday we drank over 2 litres of water from our rucksacks (in water bladders) and supplemented it with even more jasmine tea.  Dinner was served on round tables with 'lazy susans' where Chinese food such as sweet and sour pork, roast duck, stir fry veg, broccoli, pak choi, boiled rice, kung po chicken, beef in green peppers etc would get brought out for us to sample.  It was tastier than any takeaway I've ever had and after a day on the Wall we were ravenous.  There were no desserts (phew) but Mairi and I soon got into a routine of more tea and Chinese tea biscuits before bed.  And we were asleep in minutes - we were exhausted! 

Accommodation - all fine.  Some very basic and some very cold but all 'reasonably' comfortable.  Toilets that were western standards were few and far between - squatting over holes in the ground were normality so anti bacterial gel and tissues were always packed in our day sacks.  Staff at the lodges were always friendly even without any English tried to make our stay welcoming and even treated us to some of their crazy dancing around a bonfire.  And they all could make a good cup of tea so we didn't complain ;-)

I enjoyed everything about our challenge and I would encourage anyone to do something like this at least once in their lives - you can do anything you put your mind to!  I enjoyed the time meeting new people and hearing their inspiring charity stories of why they were there but I also enjoyed the peacefulness of the wall, giving me time to reflect and think.

Thank you to everyone who supported us and sponsored us or came to our fundraising events.  We have raised over £6,000 for the Beatson Cancer Centre and Jo's Cervical Cancer Trust already and overwhelmed by everyone's generosity and kindness.  This amount of money can help these charities so much and we are so glad we could do something so enjoyable and rewarding to help them.