Arrived in Bejing last night a bit later than planned, epic journey, it had everything - loads of flights, delays, running through airports, donuts, lightning and meeting so many new people! Spotted a couple of people on our trek at Newcastle airport... small world! Donut time with them at Heathrow waiting to meet the big group (think there are 64 people on the trek). Flight to Istanbul delayed causing the next flight to wait for us, so had to hurry onto the plane so we could make it to Bejing. As the plane was going up there was a massive flash of light and a rumble as we were hit by lightning - that woke me up!
Staying at Jinshan hotel for two nights 20mins from the wall. Fabulous shower facilities above the toilet and first glimps at the giant beetles which are everywhere! £1 beer!! whoo! Last ones to bed, first ones up - hardcore hehe.
Day 1 of 5 complete now, 5hrs trekking 11 miles constantly climbing up steps then down steps just to go back up again a few mins later, it got really tiring. Did 15 towers today new and old bits of the wall, shame is was a bit foggy, hopefully blue sky tomorrow so we can see the views. Really hurts everywhere & I did spend a lot of the time on my hands and knees crawling up big steps, running away from flying things...oh the giant black and white spider incident on another woman's back was a bit eee!
Knew it was going to be a bad day when I was knackard climbing the path just to get to the wall! Dreading 2moro a bit as it gets harder n harder but it'll be worth it :). Stalked by Wallcatchers all day, they're farmer's wives who follow you along this section of the wall and offer to carry your bag for money and sell your souvenirs, so they're constantly waiting for you to give up the entire way - very tempting on a day like today! Made it all the way through the day saying no to help and "later later" for souvenirs so at the end mine was really bugging me to buy something. My wallcatcher gave up in the end but we didnt realise the wallcatchers have teeny shops opposite our hotel so now i'm being stalked by this woman!
Today included the "OMG steps" 103 very steep n massive steps - I was crawling up on my hands and knees by the end of them! My face apparently matched my hair i was that poofed and it attracted the wallcatchers and one Chinese tourist who thought it would be nice to video my red face and make me wave and say "ellooo" at the camera - YouTube nightmare!
