On the move.

Posted by Mark on Dec 10, 02:53 AM

It was great to be back on the wall today. Although the area is still quite mountainous, there has been a lot less scrub to contend with. It’s still bitterly cold though. On the way back to my last end point I passed a small river that was almost entirely frozen over. The ice must have been fairly thick since more then a dozen children from the local village were having a ball running and sliding around on the ice.

I’m happy to say that I didn’t fall apart on my first day back walking in four days. My muscles and feet are complaining a bit but otherwise I’m in better form then I expected.

It was a shame that it was so foggy today. The wall looked fairly impressive in areas but it wasn’t a great day for photos. For the first half of the day I couldn’t believe how fortunate I was that the wall was actually walkable. Certainly much easier then the past few weeks. Unfortunately things changed in the afternoon.

I had made it to a tower perched high on a peak and realised I had no chance of getting down the other side due to an extremely steep cliff like drop. I had to backtrack to a previous tower where I had seen a goat track that seemed to head in a direction that would take me past the treacherous section. Luckily it did without adding too much extra walking.

By the time I had got back onto the wall the fog had started to close in and it was difficult to make out the path of the wall. All I could see was the wall heading ever upwards along a ridge. I had no idea how steep it became near the top or if there were any significant cliffs that would prevent my progress.

Consulting my map I could see that a road was marked that ran along the base of the mountain range where the wall was perched. Since it basically ran 500m parallel to the wall and due to the difficulties of walking in the fog I opted for the road.

It was an interesting and amusing walk. At one point I came across a young boy and girl who were chasing a cow whilst dragging a sack behind them. They were an energetic couple and shouted frequent war like cries in an attempt to spur the cow on. They were doing a good job of it too. I could see the whites of the cows eyes as they rolled back trying to see how close its pursuers where.

Further down the road a man passes me on an old bike that had seen better days. Both the wheels were buckled and as he picked up speed going down hill the bike wobbled with enough force to register on the Richter scale.

Somewhere along the line I must have missed a turnoff and ended up about 2km further south then I had anticipated. It was already getting dark at 4.30pm and I started looking for a campsite. Not an easy task. Even the smallest patch of level ground had been cultivated for crops or orchards. At one point I thought I was in luck. There was a large plantation of trees that were evenly spaced with sufficient room to pitch a tent. As I got closer however there was an overwhelming stench of blood and bone that had been used as a fertiliser.

So I pressed on. I made it to the small town of Jianchangying by about 5.30pm. It was well and truly dark by now. Unfortunately there was no guest house. When I asked a few people where the closest guest house was located they pointed at a small dot on my map, a village much smaller then Jianchangying.

Earlier in the week, when I was looking for a place to hole up for a while as I tried to kick the flu, a man had pointed at this same village. He also made a gesture with his hands – forming a circle with a finger and thumb on his left hand and then repeatedly inserting a finger from his right hand. The ‘guest house’ was a brothel.

The only thing to do was to head back to Qian’an. It wasn’t too far away – about 30km. Standing on the side of the road under a dimly lit street light I tried to wave down a ride. No luck. I then walked over to a nearby petrol station and figured that I would try to prey on stationery motorists. Luckily the first guy that pulled in agreed to take me to Qian’an for a reasonable price.

More fog has been forecast for tomorrow and snow is expected early next week. But I’m on the move and closing in.