Early start at 8 for a 3 hr bus ride to the Great Wall. Had a good journey & got there just after 11. Went straight to the wall & left our back packs with the driver to meet us at the other end. There was a treck up to the wall to begin with & the local sellers followed us & tried flogging all the way.

There are 62 towers on the wall, over 5,000km long. We were gonna do 30 of them! As we set off i began to worry about the condition of the floor. Steps were purposly made to large with a small one every now and again to slow down the enemy. Most of the steps had broken away & even the flat parts were a wreck. We had most of the wall to our group all day. The weather was great & as we got hotter & the layers slowly peeled off the snow was still sitting on the edges.

We would have never been able to to it in bad wind, snow, rain or ice & the ground was too dangerous. I struggled with my unfit legs & lungs but ploughed on through. We had lunch on the wall & some of the guys cracked open a beer. The views were amazing.

We all completed the wall by walking over an old bridge. I felt very pleased with myself. Recommended to all but not for the faint hearted. A good work out!

Back at the guest house we all had dinner, played cards and drank beer. Trying to get to sleep that night was pointless. The radiators were rubbish & the room was icy. Me & Emma slept in our clothes & shivered all night.

Never forget this day.