Being led into slavery??!

Welcome to entry #3...The Wall

Beep Beep Beep - the alarm goes off - its 5:45am...that's right, that hour does exist in mine and Amy's world! We dragged ourselves out of bed and manage to make it to breakfast across the way in the hotel - eggs, ham, bread/toast, bananas and curried potatoes!! Nice! We ordered some sandwiches - the vegeatable sandwich = bread and lettuce, tasty!

The bus ride took three hours and was a good opportunity to meet some folk, there is a fairly random assortment of people here, David some dude from Melbourne, a guy- Eric from Minnesota another one from Chicago/Limp bizkit, an older lady and a couple of older guys. All travelling on their own.

The tour started at Jingshanling which for us wasn't a car park full of tourist buses and hundreds of people milling about but a dirt track on the way up the mountain - confusion sets in but the driver quickly clears things up by pointing in the direction of the mountain. So we set off, not sure what to expect but soon realise we have to walk up the mountain to get to the wall - this wasn't an easy start to the day and should have prepared us for what was to come! On the way up the path a bunch of chinese people seemed to latch onto our group - were they another tour group? were they guiding us up the mountain? Well, they followed us up the mountain and halfway along the wall and then turned on us with their bags full of books and tee shirts and postcards. We ended up with a few postcards, which should be winging their way to you as we speak!

The first part of the wall was fairly easy, some big steps and steep climbs but all in all it was pleasant and the views were amazing. At the point when the Chinese folk left us, the wall seemed to become this crumbling mess of stones, at some points there was barely even a path - I think from this point on I spent most of the time looking at my feet trying not to trip over! We reached one tower and usually there is a step that leads down to the next section of wall - not this one, this one had a steep hill and a small ledge. To avoid falling into Mongolia Eric and David jumped down onto the ledge and then it was mine and Amy's turn, we had David propped against the wall and Eric on the ledge ready to grab us as we jumped...(Note to Amy's Dad - I know we agreed after the last piggy back incident that I wouldn't jump on anymore boys - but this was necessary!) Everyone survived unscathed though! So once we were all safely down we look up to see one of our group strolling round the side of the tower along a path!? "There's a path you know" Yeah brilliant - thanks for that!

The rest of the wall was the same, rockery ground, steep climbs...then very wobbly bridge which we had to pay to cross! At Simitai - the walking wasn't over just yet - there was the walk down the other side to get to the bus, improved only by the Chinese-English signs who have been translated by some imbecile - remember the fire is heartless, the scenery is beautiful because of our cherish, in thunderstorm weather do not stay overnight on the wall!

The bus ride home consisted of sleeping. The legs and feet just havent been the same since!