Got off to a good start and continued walking along the Great Wall. In this terrain with very thick foliage it means walking on top of the Great Wall. Sometimes the Great Wall was the ‘pile of rocks’ I have seen for a long time, and sometimes, it was still intact. The walls were neat rock structures of 3-4 metres. Walking on the top of the Great Wall is good now as it lets me see above most of the foliage, and if there is a wind, it cools me down a bit.

With this introduction, you might have guessed that I ended up spending a fair part of the day digging my way around in the bushes and trees. I came to a beautiful spot where there was a large watchtower. I could see the Great Wall continuing down a sharp ridge about a hundred metres away. However, I had to climb from the plateau I was on to the ridge, and it looked impossible. The drop was far deeper and steeper than I have seen before.

The steep part to the right I didn't climb down. The Great Wall following the ridge in the background

Instead, I carefully climbed down a steep hill at the foot of the watchtower. The plan was to traverse a couple of hundred metres and join up with The Wall again. No such luck. The hill was very steep and because of rain lately, I had to dig my feet into the ground to avoid falling. I used the walking sticks all the time to steady the descent. I managed to get quite close once, but the foliage was so thick that even if I had used all my weight against the branches, the next second the branches would have pushed me back again! Doing this made me fall once. Not a pleasant experience in such hilly terrain.

This captures how I felt after too long beating around in the bush without getting anywhere.

A little later, I heard thunder in the distance and thought I would have to continue down the slope to find a sensible place to camp for the night. There was no mobile coverage there and because of all the trees, I didn’t bother to try and send off a point for the map. Therefore I left the tent and walked around with the mobile stretched above me just to send off a message to tell my girlfriend that all was OK. By this time it was almost dark, very wet and misty. I am not scared about being alone, but this night  was a bit creepy…

6 kilometres today