i survived the...

in comparison to yesterday, we might say that today seems a little bit bland.

i told you about the dude i met in the coffee shop with the too good to be true offer of a random trip to the best part of the great wall for the hike of a lifetime, right? well... yesterday morning at 7am... another lazy sunday... i met with him and 4 others at a bus stop. after some get to know each other name games to pass the time, we hopped onto a bus for an hour into a town called huairo. from there, these 5 amazing chinese speaking, internationally travelled, young, enthusiastic, grab life by the horns, adventuresome, and kind strangers bargained with a taxi driver to take us another hour to the foot of the wall.

after stopping for oreos, red bull, and some peanuts, the driver dropped us on a bumpy dirt road and we began what would become a 7 hour hike of a lifetime. up this trail to the edge of the wall where a thimbly ladder helped us up. to stand. on the great wall of china. invisible from space, but the crumbling bricks and stones felt very real under my fingers as i grasped onto them for dear life a few hours later. our journey spanned for what felt like millions of miles, but due to the fact that you had to climb up up up one side of a cliff, and then scale back down down down the other side, and although your breath was taken after 10 seconds, the distance between watchtowers looked much smaller than it felt. however, i would say we probably went more than 5 kilometres of the wall, maybe?

it was such a gorgeous day for it though. i cannot believe how lucky i am. to meet these amazing people, get to go to the great wall with them, in a completely non touristic way. the sun shining, the wind gently blowing, smiles all around, good conversation (although i kept quiet most of the time just trying to focus on my knees that were slowly turning to jelly), and the most amazing, jaw dropping scenery. it was not cold enough to be called winter, and not luscious or green enough to be spring. the result was this dry, ancient feel to an arid mountainous land. my favourite description as we passed along the rolling structure, through tunnels, over staircases, and to ledges where the wall had suddenly given way and dropped into the abyss, was that the metaphor that the wall is like a dragon's back, spanning across china. and it truly does look like it. the walls conform to the contour of the mountain, rather than being level like a picket fence or something. the backbone of this country, pride and strength stemming from its core. telling stories and keeping secrets simultaneously. forever trapping away the bones and blood of workers fallen victim to its dragonous belly.

i kept hoping to find some love letter hidden in a crevass in the stones, but alas... not this time. we stopped for lunch and i ravenously attacked my water bottle, my plum, granola bar, and a few oreos too. the wind was harsh at that point, but we were tucked away in one of the watchtowers. six 20 somethings with the world in front of us... our leader, calum, has done this hike 6 times in the last 6 months. he pushed us forth. with knowledge, and enthusiasm. i can't describe how it felt to be there. and i can't try. pictures can't explain it either, but i'll add some regardless.

today feels bland to say the least. but it was nice to be in the fresh mountain air, enjoying life. feeling like i was in the right place. no people around, plenty of trees, and then a nice hot pot dinner once we got back to town.

well wishes,

yours truly.

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