Chapter 4 - Pain

Another uphill ride and a climb up the wall.

With a new tyre and a good night’s sleep, yesterday's problems are forgotten. After a breakfast - which is a most ridiculous fiasco that defies written description (look for a guest blog from Karen on this) things look even better. In the light of day, we find our way to the Goose N Duck Ranch. We are the only residents in this huge facility . It is two days into the "low" season. This is a bit the same as the "high" season. The rates are the same, but there are no guests, no hot water, no towels and you have to make your own bed. Many hotels turn off their hot water in the "low" season. It seems to the locals like a perfectly rational action. Karen and I just don't get it.

I have been constantly told by the locals that I am "strong". The man from the bike shop, people in the streets, up on the wall. "Oooh Strong" they say. This flatters me, until I find out that I am too "strong" to ride on the same gondola chair on the cable ride up to the wall with Karen. Now I get it. This polite Chinese euphemisms has mislead me. Now when they tell me I am strong, I get self conscious and try to shrink, but it is pointless really.....

Now some really interesting news about Karen. SHE IS STIFF AND SORE!!! Karen has whinged, whined, harped, complained, moaned groaned and bitched about sore muscles all day. Tibialis anterior, gastrocnemius, soleus and quadriceps muscles are all mentioned by name. I am not saying that I am not sore after four days of riding and stair climbing, but it is such a pleasure to see Karen suffer in this way. Those of you that are also happy to hear this will know why.

The ride up to Mutianyu section of the great wall is a mild 5-10% grade (except for the last 500 metres, which is a bit steeper). It is a constant pattern of climbs and short flat runs over a distance of about 20 km from Houairou. The road is wide, with good, clear shoulders and it is (mercifully) free of traffic but then again, this is the "low" season). With legs burning, we arrive at the bottom of the great wall. I feel like I have hit the wall in more ways than one.

After a 500 metre chairlift ride up to the wall, we walk about 2 km along the wall, much of it uphill. Now it's my turn to complain.

The trip down off the great wall is by toboggan. A 1.5 kilometre steel track winds down the hillside. Apparently used to the more restrained Chinese tourists, the toboggan police shout at us to slow down as we shoot down the track at Australian tobogganing speeds. One guard loses a leg as he sticks it out into the slide way to slow Karen down. I hope that he had a good health plan.

The ride down from Mutianyu is all downhill and fast. It is late afternoon and getting cold. We must be ten kilometres from the hotel. I have a puncture. SSSSSSSSS! I'm getting to hate that noise.

Anyway - here's a nice photo of what happens when you hit the wall ......

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