A great Wall in China

I finally got out of Beijing (it's not that I didn't like it there, just think a week is too long especially when you're used to moving around a lot) and headed 3hours north to Simatai to spend some time with the Great Wall. For fear of being unoriginal, I'm just going to quote and confirm Lonely Planet's description of this line of bricks and rubble "...this 19k section is an invigorating stretch of watchtowers, precarious plunges and scrambling ascents. This rugged section of wall can be heart-thumpingly steep and the scenery exhilarating. The eastern section of wall at Simatai is the most treacherous."

On arrival the the staired climb up the mountain side to the wall was initially shock to the systems of many but once up there, the first few k was pretty easy going. The wall was in good condition and still had all it's brick sides to the path intact. It wasn't long however, until the sides had crumbled away soon followed by much of the path and steps. The reasonably flat level had also gone so the steep staircases and slopes made an appearence. Getting tougher under foot, afer 10k we made to our hostel at the wall just as the mountains started to do their worst. The hostel was is a great location at the bottom of a vally and a farmer prepared us dinner not too long after we arrived. The accomdation wasn't up to much but I guess finding the odd bug or two just about everywhere in the room didn't hurt anyone.

The next morning, 4 out of 16 of us decided it would be worth getting up at 4am to continue East to complete the last half of wall that was still passable, in time for sunrise. Anyone who knows me will be impressed to hear that I managed getting up that early and will perhaps see it as a greater acheivement than the climb itself. Whilst the others slept, we set off at 5am and were immediately stopped by 'security guard' that made us pay him but refused to give us a ticket or open the gate and just gestured that we went away as he walked off. undetered, we jumped over the fence in the pitch black and continued our assent with just one headtorch to guide the way.

Immediately after reaching the wall it was clearly going to be a completely different terrain to what we were dealing with yesterday, and now we couldn't see a thing. In the daylight, as the sections got steeper, all focus had to be placed upon my feet as each step was different. One as high as my knee, the next barely a step at all, and everything height in between. Often steps would barely be wide enough to fit my toes on, and even more often on this harder section, the steps weren't there at all.

Shining the torch up gave just enough light to present a skijump like ascent to the next tower that was perched way above us. After each tower that we thought should have surely been our last, another steep ascent waited. At no point did we walk on a level for more than a few meters and the path quickly closed in to be just a couple of meters in width with a close to vertical drop each side. There're aren't any side walls at all now.

The previous day there was barely anyone else there, and this morning there's even less, just a couple of lights in the distance going up and up. Near the end, parts of the wall had deteriated too much and we followed a rocky climb forwards and up around it until we could find where to rejoin. We made it to the end of the route by 6.30am before being forced to stop as the next sections were deemed too dangerous even by the Chinese! We messed about up there for a few group pictures, even one that nearly saw my SLR camera find the fastest route down (fortuanlty i'd tied it to the post with the strap of the headtorch), and then watched the sun come up before returning for beakfast. The journey down, now light was more terrifying as we could see how treacherous conditions were and how small a margin of error layed either side. Still not fully used to my boots, my heel would occasionally clip a step on the way down giving a few real heart-in-mouth moments, if I fell, these'd be nothing to break my fall anytime soon. The farmer cooked us breakfast.