Camping on the Great Wall

24 – 25 May 2014 –

Ever since moving to China I've missed one thing. Well, if I'm with myself there are many things that I miss BUT let's get back to THAT one thing, shall we?

What is that one thing???

Hiking and camping.

Oops.

So, technically that's TWO things. Not one.

Anyway… I miss being out on the land and stretching my legs. I miss the smell of dirt, GREEN (you know what green smells like, right???), and let's be honest…the smell of sweat. And I miss that awesome feeling of feeling tired because you've physically exerted yourself. And that feeling of having your legs ON FIRE from all the walking. Oh yeah. LOVE IT!!!

So when Rachel invited us to go with them on an overnight camping trip ON THE GREAT WALL OF CHINA (!!!!!!) I naturally jumped at the chance and signed us up…IMMEDIATELY!

On May 24th we drove to TEDA to meet up with the rest of the group. Oh my! Rachel said it was going to be a big group of people going on this excursion and she wasn't kidding! There were more than FIFTY of us! Mostly kids! This is going to be AWESOME!!!! We loaded up on the giant tour bus Rachel had kindly arranged for us…and off we went.

Now, all I know is that we're going to a part of the Wall that isn't restored or as well-known to the general public as the parts we usually visit. Rachel said it's about a three-hour or so drive to the start of our hike. As it is it looks like we're driving north of Beijing.

Hey! We're finally somewhere. No clue WHERE we are but the bus has stopped in what looks like a small town and it's apparently time for us to gather our backpacks and start marching.

Looks like a millstone of sorts:

and here's a little animal pen of sorts (with a few geese and chickens ..that I could see anyway):

I just love observing how people live…just imagining what their lives must be like. I also have a small obsession with doors.

Off we go!

A garden?

Okay..a little side note: this is a GUIDED tour. Our guide is also providing us with all the camping gear we've managed to leave behind (because who would have thought you could go camping in China?). For us that means they're supplying nearly everything – tents, sleeping bags, and sleeping pads. The girls have their sleeping bags but Mark and I have ours stashed away in the storage facility somewhere in Wisconsin. Here's something we missed though…we thought that we had to carry everything ourselves which is why we didn't haul some convenience items with us…like a roll of toilet paper or camping chairs. Turns out we were wrong! The guides drove all the supplies to our camp ground. We could have totally brought with us our camping chairs to sit and relax in. Oh well. No biggie! Here's a link to the guides we used – Fred and Heidi. They're TOTALLY awesome and I highly recommend them!!!

So..where was I???

Oh yeah. It's time to start marching!

However, it's a little past lunch time and seeing as how half of our group are kids we're going to stop for a quick picnic lunch next to this lake (?).

Done with lunch? I am! I am SOOOOOO ready to start hiking! LET'S GO!!!

an abandoned millstone:

Look at that crumbling down house….wonder if it's as old as it looks. You never can tell here.

Up, up, up we climb! Yeah, my legs are TOTALLY feeling this. Yeoucch! Oh, that's right! It's only been ONE WEEK since I finished the half marathon. No wonder my legs are feeling on fire.

Ssssssh…did you just heard that sound? Listen! ….There! That sound. Did you hear it??? Oh yeah! I recognize it! It's a cuckoo bird!!! I haven't heard one of them since our hiking days in Austria many years ago! Cooooool!!!!!! How awesome is that????

The misty mountains! Oh, did I mention that it was raining this morning as we were leaving TEDA? It rained for quite a bit of the drive and we were all kind of wondering if we'd have to hike in the rain too. Mercifully the rain stopped but it's still rather….moist. Nice, really. Makes the green earth smell even better.

Up we go to the Wall:

Check the line of people crawling up the hill to get to the top:

GREEN! Gorgeous GREEN! The smell of plants…oh. I could be in Heaven!

Annika and I made it to the top:

and…how are you doing???

Here I'm saying "Na nu na nu!". I'm Mork from Ork:

Hiking on the wall:

Some steep bits:

some extremely narrow bits that require holding hands:

Eeeeep!!!!!

Falling down parts of the wall….which make it seem more real than anything we've seen yet:

This "charming" fellow sitting up there told us "The wall is dangerous". Sucker! Maybe it is for YOU…but we …and more importantly the kids …did a fantastic job walking on the wall. I think scarier than the actual wall is the notion of raising children who are too timid and scared to take risks. Now THAT would be honestly dangerous! Hmpf…blptptptpt (sticking my tongue out him..figuratively):

It just seems to keep going…

Hi, Mark!

Oh, hey again!

Looking green…very green.

And…meet Indiana Jones.

Well…Indiana MARK Jones.

Naturally Mark had to bring his whip with him. And of course he had to try it out! Watch out for Indy, everyone!!!

Pretty flowers along the way:

Hey! Look up ahead: that's our campsite for the night!

and it looks like they've got our tents already set up! Schawaeeet!!!

Watching the guides and their helpers transform this newly carved platform into tent city. We heard the following day that the guides with help from the people living in the village below (which you can't really see from our position here) helped carve out terraces THAT morning just for our massive group. Hey, Thank you!!!! I forgot to count but we had a LOT of tents up…need a lot to house fifty + people!!!

I hate selfies..but I took one …here's Mark and me:

Ava in front of her tent:

Astrid, you're looking a little ragged:

So…here's the scoop on what's going on. We just figured out that today is the only day we're doing any actual hiking. We're at an end point – even though you can't see it we're sitting just above a village. We're walking down the hill to the cars parked below to help retrieve things for either the other campers or for the guides. While we brought all of our stuff with us in our packs (which we lugged here) many people had their stuff driven to this end point. We're helping carry up camping chairs, tents, sleeping bags…etc.

Also, while the guides and their helpers are working on setting up the tents this lovely lady (she's in the village below us) is cooking our evening meal:

It's dinner time! A wide assortment of all sorts of Chinese dishes. All of them YUMMY!!!!

The girls poking their heads out of the tent: (the girls shared a tent while Mark and I shared another tent)

A view of Tent City. The kids played and played …and ran and ran. Many fun games were played. Those kids should sleep well tonight!

Mark taking our tent for a test drive (yep. It works! We'll stay warm and dry for tonight. Although, here's hoping it doesn't rain.):

The girls racing at dusk:

FIRE!!!!

Everyone LOVES a campfire, right????

And what could possibly make it better???? Marshmallows! Thank you to all the lovely ladies that remembered to bring marshmallows with them. I completely and totally forgot to bring any. Thank you!

Oh…several of the adults brought interesting boozy drinks with them. Interesting Danish alcohol….and lovely wine. Oh, what a nice way to end the evening! I'm absolutely exhausted. I'm off to bed..I can't stand being awake any longer. Mark is still up chatting with the guys.

Good night y'all!

Apparently Annika had a good night:

It's still misty and gray.

Rachel and her family are off hiding a geocache box on the wall. Cool! They love to go geocaching in the USA…and they're adding another one to their ever expanding list. :-)

A panoramic view:

Breakfast!

The group is eating breakfast down in the village (this is the same place where the lady was cooking our evening meal last night):

Mmmm…hard boiled eggs, fried breads filled with either sweet lotus paste or red bean paste and a variety of other Chinese dishes:

The girls enjoying breakfast with a new friend (Anika) …

Peanuts, fried bread, apple slices and cabbage with bacon. Yum!

One of the guides also brought with them a GIANT jar of Nutella. Oh my. Fried bread with Nutella = instant hit with the kids!!! What a smart idea!!!!

We were last out of the breakfast area as all the girls/females in the party were waiting patiently in line to use the western style potty. So Anika and her family and us were the last to leave.

Here's Fred (one of the guides) with ALL the cameras!

here's what Fred was trying to take a photo of. That's a gigantic group!

And today we're walking out to the bus (short hike) …and then it's time to leave:

watching this gardener weed his patch:

Check out the village houses (anyone else amused at the satellite dish sitting in the otherwise extremely rustic looking house?):

Here's another animal pen….and here's something we learned. See all those old looking bricks? Can you guess where they come from???? If you guessed the Great Wall…give yourself a pat on the back! Yep. They took them from the wall. At least that's what I call recycling!