Third Day- Gubeikou Gateway

6am start for what would turn out to be my favourite day of the trek. After a relatively normal breakfast of fried egg on toast we got on the coach for a 1.5 hour drive to the village where our day of trekking would begin. The Gubeikou Gateway, a passageway between China and Mongolia, was historically a site of warfare and was heavily guarded so our task for the day was to climb up to 27 watchtowers in varying states of collapse.
As we set off the sun was beating down and I was grateful for the layers of sun cream I had lathered on myself. There was no sign of any shade is sight just countless towers most of which had no roof so there was no escape from the heat for the entire day. This only added to the challenge of negotiating crumbly and extremely narrow paths whilst facing a sheer drop either side at all times, not for the faint hearted :)
It seemed never ending climbing up to the towers and back down to climb up to another one and so on but it was really rewarding as each time they were different and each had a different view. It was odd to think that there had been so many battles fought and attackers fended off where we were walking and at time a little spooky.
As we counted down from 27 we saw what would be our final ascent of the day up to the largest tower that we had seen. It was also one of the most preserved. It was a real struggle to push up to the final tower as we had been going for so long and the heat was so intense but we did it! We were allowed to have a short break to take in the views and some pictures and my eyes wandered along to the next watchtower which was actually guarded. Our guide told us that it was a real live army base and so we were not allowed to go any further. This was probably for the best as we still had to descend from the height we had scaled.

We set off down a path of sorts but really a track worn through the jungle and got scratched even more to add to the ones from the previous day! I managed to keep my footing, just, which was lucky as the slightest slip and it was a few hundred feet of a drop to the bottom. As Phil said it's a long way for an air ambulance to come and a long way to the nearest hospital, comforting! After a couple of hours descent sapping a lot of physical and mental strength we made it to flat ground again and the middle of a corn plantation which was huge! During a water stop I looked up and saw the stretch of Wall we had climbed up and it looked amazing and so so high up.
After a final push we got ourselves back to the haven of the air conditioned coach and after a ten minute drive we arrived at our lodgings for the evening. They were the most basic of the week so far but there was a shower and a bed so that was the main thing. After freshening up we went out to the village shops were we met some Hello People and bought some presents then it was time for dinner and another early night but not before we arranged our post trek travels with Michael, exciting times :)

Second Day of the trek, where was the Wall??

Yet another early start, 6.30 was to become our official wake up time during trek week. Another interesting breakfast too including curly fries and an egg and tomato mix that would end up becoming a permanent fixture every breakfast time! We were literally going to be trekking all day so we made ourselves a packed lunch. Interesting sandwich, ham on sweet yellowy bread but I knew I'd eat anything after a few hours trekking! We set off on our coach to a National Park which was to be the location for the second day of the trek, no Great Wall today :( but we would get to see the Number One Waterfall in Beijing, the Heavenly Gateway and Black Dragon Pool instead. After a few stretches at the side of the road, and lots of funny looks from the drivers on their way past, we set off into the Black Dragon Pools National Park for our 6 hour trek.
At first we were mainly on paths but soon diverted off into overgrown jungle and had to battle our way over boulders, through thorny bushes and over fallen down trees with the aid of a local guide. As it had just been the rainy season everything was really overgrown so at times I was just battering away trees and branches with my walking pole whilst trying to to take anyone's eye out! It was very LOST like making our way through the jungle and was fun at first but as the scratched got deeper, the slopes got muddier and the paths stonier it became more of a battle than a trek! At one point we had to negotiate a muddy slope without the aid of a rope and it was really just a case of scrabbling down penguin-like and grabbing onto loose roots and branches as we went down and just hoping that we would not fall and roll down. There would have been no easy rescue as we were in the middle of a jungle, not exactly close to a helipad! After I got down it was a case of encouraging the others down too, not for the faint hearted and not for the first time I was glad I didn't have vertigo.
As we settled down for lunch it soon became clear our group had gotten smaller. It turned out that 6 of us had gotten lost after being taken the wrong way by one of the guides. It was really bad luck and wouldn't have happened if everything hadn't been so overgrown. We felt a bit deflated as we set off again down in numbers hoping the others were ok and hadn't gone too far the wrong way. After a final descent resulting in numerous stings, scratches and falls we made it to the path that would lead us back to the coach. It was along this way that we saw the Heavenly Gateway, stunning and worth the day's effort to see it. As we headed towards the Black Dragon Pools at the end of our trek for the day my thoughts turned to the others and how they were getting on. Michael informed us that they has gone the wrong way for an hour and would therefore be two hours behind us, such bad luck and unfortunately meant they would not see the pools of the Number One Waterfall in Beijing unlike us. We posed for a few pictures and had an ice lolly then headed back to the bus where we were driven onto our next accommodation.
After a shower and change of clothes we headed out to meet the others off the bus and gave them well deserved hugs, they looked completely drained. We all had dinner together then had a brief for the next day and it was decided that whatever happened we would all stick together, it was to become a theme for the week.