We woke to rain would you believe it… the place where we were this morning it rained only three times during the whole of last year . So far on our trip, Jon and I have have had rain just as many times. Anyway – we had a good breakfast and set off a little later than usual. A little footnote about the breakfast: Just before our food was served, four trailer drivers came in. In the dining room they started washing themselves, taking off their shirts and washing everything above the waist. Snorting, brushing their teeth etc. Not a very apetizing sight…

Jon heard yesterday that there was “Cao yuan” which means grassland outside of Shandan and that is where we headed today. A beautiful landscape with gentle hills covered mostly with grass, with snow capped mountains. Todays walk should be among the top ten stretches along the Great Wall.

We were at about 2.150 metres above sea level and lost for words, just taking in the beauty of the 360 degree view.

After a couple of hours walking we saw dark clouds behind us heading our way. As they got closer we heard thunder, so we found ourselves a couple of Great Wall caves and spent one and a half hours there. Most of the bad weather went west for us, but there was some rain.

Because of the above, plus the late start, we only got 17 km further today. The weather is supposed to be better tomorrow and I can’t wait to see more of the Great Wall and landscape.

Heia GP Alexander!!! 🙂