Midget Skimming Stones

Becca's alarm went off just after 7am. Time to enjoy that last shower I would have for 4 days!

Our bags were more of less packed so we headed down to breakfast for 8am.

Breakfast:

'Traditional' Cold Meats

Cucumber

Tomato

Sweet Bread

Hard Boiled Eggs

Spicy Tofu

Egg Fried Rice 

Other Chinese Stir Fry dishes/ Things I couldn't work out!

After trying a bits and pieces, I played it safe and made myself 'cucumber and tomato toast'. 

Stony met us in the lobby at 9am and after a quick team photo we headed to meet Mr How for our 3hour journey to Gubeikou, where we would have lunch before walking on the wall.

minus John

As we were driving through Beijing, Stony told us some of the history/facts behind 'The Great Wall' and some more Chinese.

Stony taught us to count to 10 with our hands, something I will have to show you in person.

(ling, yee, aur, san, suu, woo, liu, chee, ba, jio, shu)

NEWSFLASH: YOU CAN'T SEE THE WALL FROM SPACE!

He also told us a Chinese Folktale known as Lady Meng Jiang (Meng Jiang Nü) set in set in the Qin dynasty. 

Lady Meng Jiang's husband sent to help build the Great Wall and when she heard nothing after his departure she set out to take him some winter clothes. Unfortunately, by the time she reached the Great Wall, her husband had already died due to the hard labour and great heights. Hearing the bad news, she wept so bitterly that a part of the Great Wall collapsed, revealing his bones. 

Lady Meng then goes on to kill herself.

Story time finished just before we joined the Expressway. At this point we were advised to 'buckle up'.

It was still the public holiday so the roads were REALLY busy. It was fascinating watching the Chinese drive. They just seem to make the rules up as they go along. Swapping lanes whenever (even if there is a car there), stopping in the middle of the road and getting out for some air, reversing whenever etc! 

I took advantage of the back seat and lay down for a nap.

I successfully managed to sleep for about an hour and a half.  When I did wake up we were pulling in or a comfort break. Stony warned us that these toilets were nicer than the ones at lunch. 

They were STINKING!

Thankfully we had all poured tea tree oil on our buffers and headed in armed with wet wipes and hand sanitizer.

There weren't any western toilets in the ladies, it was time to SQUAT! (Apparently Chinese women don't mind peeing (and other thins) with the door wide open).

Before getting back on the bus, Justina led our first yoga session, in the middle of the car park! It didn't take long for us to have a small audience, snapping away on their cameras.

According to Mr How we had about 40 minutes left of our journey to lunch. By this point we were off the Expressway but the driving was WORSE. At one point we had a lorry driving straight towards us. I was sure it was going to hit us. Justina said that if we had have died, I would have died with my mouth wide open!

Lunch was in a strange, local restaurant where a man was walking around with a tray of live Guinea Pigs (deja vu).

We had two tables and began lunch with a jasmine tea:

Melon and Egg

Spicy Beans

Potato and Green Pepper

Tofu and Cabbage

Beef and Potato

Spicy Chicken

Rice.

 *I'm pleased to say this was the worst meal of the journey.

Eventhough Stony had warned us about the toilets I had to check them out. Again armed with tea tree oil and wet wipes I went off the squatter.

After lunch Mr Jong handed out water for our camel backs and off we went.

We could see the wall from the restaurant, so we had a focus but we had quite a hike to do first. 

The terrain was loose and rocky. It certainly didn't look like the wall does in pictures, in fact it didn't even look like a wall! 

I couldn't tell you how long it took us to reach the top (tower) but what a view!

Lorraine took this chance to go for a wee on the wall and asked Becca to stand gaurd. Not that she did a very good job as a Chinese family caught her! The lady asked her if she had cut her legs and said it was good that she was watering the plants.

On our walk backdown, along the wall Stony told us that 'you are not a great hero until you have touched (walked) the Great Wall'. (hence the blog name).

At the end of our walk there was tiny bus waiting for us which took 8 of us to camp. The others had to walk to the Police check because Mr Huh had forgotten his papers.

The bus was tiny. In the back there were seats for 7 people. If you wanted anymore in the back you had to sit on a little stool.

The camp was a 5 minute drive away, through a small village and onto farmland.

Mr Jong and his family had our camp set up and welcomed us with fresh watermelon and tea.

As we were all sat around the table in our dining tent, John introduced 'The favourite part of the day' where we took it in turns to go round and share stories but you weren't allowed to repeat a story.

The temperature dropped quite quickly so we made sure we were wrapped up and wearing our head torches. 

 Dinner was served at around 6:30.

Tea

Steamed Bread

Tofu

Cold Chicken and Sausage

Chilli Nuts (YUM)

Pak Choi

Green Beans

Spicy Cauliflower

Lotus Root

Chicken Soup 

Rice

Sprite/ Coke 5 Yuan (50p)

Beer 10 Yuan (£1)

After dinner we had a brief with Stony before saying goodbye to Mr Jong and family for the night. (Thankfully the 'honesty' bar was still open).

We stayed in the dining tent and played a TV Quiz (courtesy of Muriel) and charades.

As the QM Phil set out some rules before starting, one being that you had to answer in 5 seconds. 

Justina: "We're menopausal, we need more than 5 seconds, what about 10?"

 We divided the table into three sections and all came up with our own buzz. 

Bing/Shit/(can't remember)

I can't lie, the quiz was VERY competitive.

Muriel: "YOU'RE SHITTING TOO EARLY"

We tried swapping QM to lower the tension but it didn't work. (Muriel was CRAP at it and I was being accused of handing out easy questions to a particular team). 

We decided to take a quick toilet break before starting Charades.

As we were walking to the toilet tent, Muriel began a chorus of 'Kookaburra Sits In The Old Gum Tree'.

I could write another blog for the game of charades so I will just share one highlight.

Lorraine picked 'Bridget Jones Diary' and acted it out as 'Midget Skimming Stones Diary'. I'll let you use your imagination.