Always look at your feet when you're walking on the wall!

Insert swearing here!

What a night! I went to sleep in my sleeping bag and liner wearing my thermals and my buffer and it was ABSOLUTELY FREEZING. In fact it was so cold that I genuinely dreamt we were trekking in the Arctic. How I hadn't missed camping!

When you're camping, a zip has a domino effect. We had laughed about it all night. As soon as one tent decides to go for a midnight night wee, every other tent decides that they need one too. Some people *cough* Phil and Chris* even think that it is acceptable to have a conversation about mobiles and network at 3am! My teacher training came in well here as I SHHH'd them.

I woke up (if you can say that when you haven't slept) at 7:10 am and began my wet wipe bath (3'Fs: face, *cough*, feet) before getting dressed as quickly as possible. There was still quite a chill in the air. 

Everyone had had a similar night so John suggested that we try and sleep with less clothing on because our bodies need to heat our sleeping bags up in order to keep the heat in. Thermals create a 'protective' layer so the sleeping bag never heats up.

We gathered at the tent with our pockets full of VIA at 8am, eager to see what breakfast would consist of:

Hot Water

Tea

Watermelon

Oreos (all different kinds)

HUGE puff cakes (which were delicious with Peanut Butter)

Porridge 

Noodles with Pak Choi, Egg & Tomato (YUM!)

After breakfast the conversation quickly turned to poo! Rules were laid down and we all went off for some alone time. One day in and I missed western toilets already!

Before leaving camp, we needed to make our packed lunch:

Bread

Tuna 

Ham

Peanut Butter

Jam

Sweet Mayonnaise

Oreos

Crackers

Green Sultanas

Nuts

Water

Once we had made ours Stony and Neal made theirs, a tuna and jam sandwich!

(Phil made one to try)

Justina and John led a quick yoga lesson before we got on the bus. Mr How dropped us off at a chicken farm 10minutes away from camp. 

The climb began instantly. Minutes into the walk about one of my walking poles decided to break!

Our aim was the tower. It would be the 'highest point of the day' and it also meant LUNCH.

The walk was steep and the path was narrow. There wasn't much of the wall left, although you could make it out, unlike yesterday.

On the way up to the tower, to honour Edgar, we picked a rock the size of our sins to place, in a pile, at the top.

We arrived at the tower at 11:30am and stopped for a 30minute lunch break.

Phil shared his tuna and jam sandwich with the group and I was shocked to find that it tasted quite nice. (If you are going to try this at home, DO NOT season the tuna and use strawberry jam).

How could I forget?! I haven't introduced you to Mr Lee, a 67yo, family friend. Mr Lee walked with us nearly everyday dressed in his plimsoles, dress pants, shirt and bomber jacket carrying a mysterious pink 'canvas'. It also worth mentioning that Mr Lee was a heavy smoker but was always in front.

Mr Lee didn't join us for lunch he sat on his own eating his biscuits and smoking his head off.

After lunch we carried on climbing but the path was a lot more defined. Muriel, Justina and Lorraine started a chorus of 'The Sound of Music', much to Stony's amusement. 

The rest of the group were on wildlife watch. We found Lizards, Stinky Bugs, Grasshoppers, Preying Mantis, HUGE Hornets and a snake. Becca and Phil even spotted the famous [imaginary] Wall Goats.

Stony had warned us that today was going to be the most challenging due to the terrain. The walk after lunch was the start of the entertainment I like to call, FALLING.

The walk back to flat ground was really quick. We were back to camp by around 2pm.

As we were driving up the track we could spot Mr Jong & co and the dining table full of snacks. It was a gorgeous day so we were pleased to see that they had moved the table out of the tent. 

We were tucking into the crackers and nuts when Mr Jong came over with a mountain of hot, salty chips and tomato ketchup. This was when I first fell for Mr Jong!

Chips, píjiu (beer) and good company, perfect way to end a day on the Wall.

They all stood at the kitchen, staring at us, they were fascinated by a table of Brits, stuffing their faces and drinking beer after beer.

Mr Lee went off to bury the toilets whilst the others set up a Great Wall gift shop.

We were allowed to either buy now or place an order for pick up on Friday.

Earlier in the day I had been singing "It's going down, I'm yelling TINDER" and Neal corrected me (as if I didn't know the words). 

Once the shop had closed, Neal came over to show me the lyrics of Timber to prove that I had been singing the wrong words. 

He sat with us for the rest of the afternoon, teaching us Chinese in exchange for help with his oral English. 

Hello - Nǐ Hǎo

Thank You - Xièxie

Ice (cold) - Bīng

Water - Shuǐ

Cheers - Gān Bēi

Magpie (bird of happiness) - Xǐquè

Turns out Neal is studying Engineering at University and is on this trip to boost his confidence. He struggles with English, face to face, LOVES basketball and singing. 

Mr Jong served dinner just before 7pm:

Rice

Tomato and Egg

Aubergine

Mushroom and Egg

Spicy Cauliflower

Chicken/Sausage

Chill Nuts

Pak Choi

Soup

After dinner we had a did 'My Favourite Part of the Day'. Most of us were happy for a quick sentence but not Lorraine and Ali. They had written a song, to the the tune of "Always look on the bright side of life".

(forgive me if the words are wrong, I'm reading 'strange' handwriting)

Life is full of shit when you look at it.
It's important to go to the right toilet too.
But when life throws you an adventure you don't cry you just laugh and say...
Always look at your feet when you're walking up the wall.

Don't worry if you stumble, your friends will always catch you if you fall.

And at the end of the day, when we come out to play.
Out come all the beers and chips.

So always walk on the East side of the wall.

 Stony 

After a quick briefing from Stony it was time for Charades. 

Everyone wrote down a book, song title and movie an placed them in a left over sandwich bags.

Some of the best ones:

Karma Sutra

Frozen

Let It Go

Build Me Up Butterfly (buttercup)

[The] Bible

The gang went to bed just after 9pm, leaving Becca, Chris, Jessica, Phil and I in the tent with Neal and Stony.

Chris had a small bluetooth speaker (which you can only have if you have a fridge or a new fangled radiator) so we put on some background music and taught Neal how to play charades.

We swapped stories and asked Neal to sing for us.

He sang a lovely sounding song called 'A Funeral for a Rose' and we sang 'The Blaydon Races'.