A lovely warm shower 1


Monday the 21st of June
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I’ve just had a fantastic shower…

There is a very inquisitive guy sitting less than a metre from me on a bed now. He is speaking loudly asking questions that I don’t understand.  Doesn’t help much that he is slightly drunk. I have explained I can speak a little, but my understanding is limited. He still keeps asking though… 🙂

Back to the shower…

I ended up very close to the Great Wall today, and was set to camp right by it. As I climbed a small road I passed a lively and fun group of people, we got talking. It was getting dark, but there were street lights. I explained what I was doing, and they all shook their heads, and started telling me something that seemed important which I couldn’t understand.

I phoned a Chinese friend, and asked her to translate what they were saying. It turned out that there will probably be very very heavy rain tonight and this area is known for flash floods and landslides. They said it would be safer to stay indoors.

I remember passing a sign in Chinese and English, but I didn’t quite understand the meaning at the time. The English translation said: “Caution! Area Prone to Debris Flow Hazards”. I was invited to spend the night at one of the lively women in the gang for a fair price. I was grateful both for the warning and offer.

When I got to their home, I was shown into a separate room for me, and then her husband showed me their shower!!! This is the first time I have used a shower in a private home for a very very long time. There was no lack of hot water as they had a device on the roof harnessing sun rays to warm up water. It feels good to be clean again!

Some snippets from the day:

Just after I woke up this morning, a farmer started working in the field nearby. A very nice and quiet man. He gave me some walnuts for the road which tasted good. I gave him an Ice Tea, but he shook his head and said he already had boiling water in a flask. I tried again, but there was no way he was accepting the gift.

Just after I left a town called Se Hai today, there was a small thunderstorm. I hid under a bridge and was accompanied by a farmer for the duration of the storm.

In the afternoon I met a young boy who spoke really good English and wasn’t afraid to use it. He was thirteen years old. I taught him the difference in pronounciation between thirteen and thirty.

I saw some bee keepers while I was resting. I slipped my mosquito net over my hat and joined them, and took some bee pictures of the slices (combs) that make up the bee hive.

After Se Hai, I could have gone north to join up with The Wall earlier than where I am now, but there were dark clouds close by and I didn’t want to risk being on The Wall if there was another storm.

Thanks to Cherry for translating the warning which the people I met this evening gave me.

19 kilometres today


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