So, on Saturday we climbed the Great Wall of China! It was such an amazing experience we still can't quite believe that we did it! The bus picked us and our luggage up from our hotel at 8am. By this time the rest of our group had arrived so we are now 16. We drove for about 3 and a half hours to get to the start of our Great Wall experience. We were met by a local guide who's Chinese name translated to 'Sea Dragon' which we called him for the entire day. First stop was the toilets... now we usually wouldn't divulge anything this nasty but the toilets in China are absolutely terrible. They are usually squat toilets (nice for boys, not so good for girls) and this particular toilet was an experience in itself. They do not appear to clean them and there is no toilet paper. You can probably imagine. Moving swiftly on...

So we started the walk which seemed harmless enough. Until we got to some very steep steps. Matt raced up them like an animal free from a cage but poor, unfit Holls struggled a bit. Luckily they weren't too far up and we then started actually on the Great Wall. The wall itself started to be built over 2000 years ago and the plan was to keep the Mongolians out of China. The project took over 100 years and countless man hours were taken up to complete the wall which was never actually completed. All of that for nothing. Apparently, even when the Mongolians did try and get over sections of the wall (rather than just walking round) the soldiers would accept money as bribes and let them over anyway! So the whole thing was unfortunately pretty pointless. But we felt so lucky to be able to walk it and experience some more of Chinese history.

As we were walking along it, we couldn't fathom how it was built, it's just so steep and all the work that must have gone in to it... wow. It goes up and down constantly so that means it's hard on the old legs! We had a pretty amazing work out! Some parts were just too steep and you had to stop half way... well Holly did... Matt ran up it like a whippersnapper putting the rest of the group to shame! Some of the steps have crumbled away so you have to haul yourself up on all fours to get to the top. But the views... well the views were complely worth it. We really did feel like we were on top of the world and because we did a lesser known section of the wall it was really quiet and peaceful. The only annoyance was the local people who actually walk the wall every day and try to tell you drinks and postcards throughout the entire treck, it get's annoying having to shout "no" in Chinese to them and you feel so rude but we were there to walk, not shop!

It took us 4 and a half hours to walk the section of the wall and that was with hardly any breaks so we thought we did pretty well. When we go to the end there was a huge waterfall and frozen lake which we had to cross on an old rickety Indiana Jones style bridge which was fun and then it was over! Matt finished his experience with a kind of rope thing that you grab hold of and it took him across the lake, not sure of the name but apparently it was fun. Holly was left to video the experience which we can't wait to show you all when we get home!

We stayed in a hotel literally right next to the lake which was okay - there was only hot water between 7 and 9pm so the group had a quick dinner and then all rushed over to our rooms at 7.30! The rooms were freezing so we had to keep our layers on throughout the night and were asleep by 8.30 as we were told the electricity went out at 9! But we had to get up at 6am the next morning to see the sunrise over the wall and we were so tired after all the walking so it was good to get another early night!