I left Jingbian at about eleven o’clock this morning. Because of heavy traffic in Yulin, a few police controls and picking up more passengers en route, I was not at the Great Wall before a little past three o’clock. The shop where I had planned to buy water was closed. […]
Congratulations on your engagement! I was so happy to hear about it 🙂 Wish you both all the best and look forward to meeting you Steph! Paul is my English cousin, and Steph is his beautiful, intellectual and cool wife to be…
I went back to the visa office and picked up my passport this afternoon. So now I have a visa that lasts for one month. My friend John sent this graphical representation of which words are used on this website right now. The more often a word is used, the […]
Yesterday the wind was incredibly strong with gusts of more than 100 km/h! I’m glad I was in Yulin. I visited the local Police Station today to get an extension for the visa. They gave me a one month extension. I will return tomorrow afternoon to pick up the passport. […]
A short update for today. Clear blue sky, but very windy. So windy that I lost balance a few times. The walking sticks were a good help. I’m happy I wasn’t walking on steep and narrow sheep tracks today. The terrain was flat and beautiful. If this terrain continues to […]
Woke to a very cold room. From now on I’m using rooms pointing southwards. Also woke to the sound of thunder and wet streets outside. I waited to see what the weather was planning to do. By midday, I took the chance and got to the Great Wall by hiking […]
I’m happy to report that I am more or less clear of the mountains after the last days walking. It feels good and I am looking forward to experiencing the desert in colder conditions once I have walked around Jingbian. The trip back to where I left off yesterday became […]
Just a hundred metres north of my camping site, I saw a beacon tower right on the edge of the river bed. The Great Wall probably once ran along the entire eastern side of the river I walked along today. Because of erosion, most of it has disappeared as the […]
As I hoped, there was a small shop just by my campsite yesterday. It would prove difficult though, to buy the water. I got to the shop. walked in and looked around. It mostly sold hardware for farmers, but I saw both bottled water and Ice Tea. I asked for […]
Because I ‘only’ have jogging shoes, I didn’t want to start walking until the wet grass had dried up a bit. At about midday, I got up and made an oatmeal lunch with lots of brown sugar. Then I packed the tent and set off. Just before I started walking […]