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 a bit more exciting than planned when an earth slide stopped all traffic. As a result I had to walk the last kilometres to the starting point.

It was sometimes hard to identify where the Great Wall was and wasn’t today.  I spent time walking in the dried up river bed and on the top of the ridge. At the end of the day I came to a very large fortress that lies southeast of Jingbian. It will be fun to take a closer look at it tomorrow.

There were no busses to Jingbian this afternoon, so I ended up on the back of a motorbike. The driver was good, but sometimes he would be a little too creative. Like the time he decided to pass a lorry full of equipment, by driving up on the curb at full speed just in front of a cross…

21 kilometres today (That’s not including the 6 k spent getting to the starting point)