Sleep Walling

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We woke in Dark Tower this morning around 630am to a foggy very cool and still morning. After a quick breakfast of bananas and cereal we started a slow walk punctuated by many photo sessions. The wall is long, we all know that, but until your on the wall its hard to get a grasp of the size and the enormity of the effort gone into building even short sections.The wall is around 3m wide and what struck me most was the size of the watchtowers. Most of these on their own are very impressive buildings that are very solid, multi storey and would have taken considerable resources. Dark Tower where we slept was huge, these buildings were as little as 60m apart. For enemies approaching this line of defence it must have been utterly demoralising. Of course the wall is built in and over the most inhospitable terrain. This too wear the invaders out before they even make it to the wall.

We booked a tour to the wall and spent the night with a great group of Australians and Americans and Italians. 14 in all. We pretty much had the wall (our 2-3 km section) to ourselves for nearly 15 hours. In the evening after a dinner cooked by a local family out the front of their little shop we climbed the wall in the dark. Our guide Judy thought this was hilarious as we had to descend and climb a different section at which to sleep.

Apart from several locals who ply their wares, water, souvenir books etc we had the wall to ourselves. It made the rough nights sleep well worth the effort. Although covered in fog the whole morning, with visibility mostly around 1-2km or less the wall was still so incredibly impressive. To see it on a clear day with it winding into the distance would be worth another trip!

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Photos

Sleeping Quarters
Dark Tower. A 3 storey very solid buidling. We slept on mats on the floor just like the Ming soldiers of 600 years ago. Well perhaps our sleeping bags were a little more comfortable!

Night Walling!
Our group was the first for this tour company to climb the wall at night. It was quite unique. Later we went to a different section to sleep.

G.W.B
Great Wall Bar. A few quick ones on the wall, helped ward off the cold night air.

Hard Going... Up and Down!
This section of the wall is 643 years old this year.