Day 1 Trekking

Ok - I know that I have got soft in my old age and through living in the South but that night it was COLD!!! I put my sleeping bag over my duvet to keep me warm... I was also sharing a room with a lady who managed to colour coordinate her thermals in the dark.. that is what you call a super power...

Toady the plan was to get to the part of the wall that would be our starting point and then do a gentle walk in the afternoon. To get us started and to give us an idea of what the trek would be like....although its not as though we could go back at this stage....

We had been warned that the rooms would be basic but they were far better than I had imagined although you couldnt stand directly on the tile floor unless you had feet like a hobbit and could take that level of cold, numb pain...

We could actually see part of the wall from our rooms which just increased the entire level of excitement and nerves.. I had been lent a walking pole a few days before I set off. I have never used one before and I can honestly say I felt so much love and appreciation towards that pole by the end of the trek that I could have maried it.. However at this point I didnt even know how to use it let alone how to walk, what to carry with me etc...

And so like Frodo I set off in the afternoon with my fellow trekkers to go up a part of the wall on a big adventure... I did think I was hallucinating at the end of it when I saw a tethered camel....but no .. that was real...part of the joy of China is the unexpected...and that is before you hit the tequila and fire water...