Hin's 6th C.O.U.N.T. 1,000,000 steps (Sep 20th – Oct 18th, 2014)

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13: Humpty Dumpty and 1 lost cat. 

 

Thean Hin Ooi <ooithin@gmail.com>   Wed, Oct 22, 2014 at 6:25 PM

 

 

13/10 07:35 – 15:30 17.8km 32,364 steps. TA 1301m.

 

Shitizi – Lijiaguguan – Lingxi

 

Early morning start from Old Shang’s place near the Xifengkou area and followed the easy old Ming path to the wall, now a scenic park, going through the Jingdong Chestnut orchard, with trees of hundreds of years old. It’s claimed that the chestnut tree can live to 1,000 years, with girth growth of 0.5cm/year – imagine how thick the trunk can be!!

 

This Great Wall park is called the Broadsword Mountain, where in 1933, the soldiers from the Broadsword society halted and repelled the Japanese invasion at the Xifengkou Great Wall.

 

Upon reaching the wall, we walked through 5 towers and whilst exiting one, I did a pirouette to face outwards, my left foot got tangled and I fell 5m down the wall side. The fall on the collapsed pile of bricks was luckily cushioned by the Karrimor backpack. My 2 companions were shocked, more so that I had only a “dent” on my right elbow and a slap on my coccyx (tailbone). Old man Hin felt like Humpty Dumpty but fortunately Malaysians are made of sterner stuff – we don’t fall to pieces, instead I stood up slowly, climbed back onto the wall and continued for another 9km, struggling down bushy, rocky wall all the way to Lingxi. The wonderful view of the marvellous meandering wall on the mountain tops took the pain away from the fall.

 

This is my 2nd Great Wall fall – not sure whether it was due to the borrowed “samurai” shroud that shielded me or that the Harimau (tiger) again use up another of its lives. The sore coccyx definitely needed a good rub of “Tiger Balm” on the bum tonight, and hopefully the Harimau can continue its Great Wall trek tomorrow. The consolation was that Mrs. Shang laid out another 10-course organic dinner for the evening.

 

 

14/10  09:22 – 19:35  9.8km 17,819 steps. TA 779m

 

Qingshanguan – Dongjiakou (target).

 

AL sprained his ankle and I went solo, after visiting a couple of old fortresses and water gate. Another sunny day and started later at Qingshanguan (QSG) and trampled merrily up and down the many mountain ridges, confident that I can make the exit at Dongjiakou.

 

Went past the 5 towers at QSG and then another 2 more – one huge tower with a rickety tree-branches ladder, which I declined to take. The walk on the wall wasn’t easy, with loose stones and rocks, and this really slowed me down especially the descents.

 

At about 4pm (with just about 1.5hr of daylight remaining), I still had another 2.5km to Dongjiakou and with average speed of about 1km/hr, I knew I would not be able to make the designated exit before sundown. I saw a clearing by the wall and thought I would be able to find a path down, only to end in a “sea of rocks” (where the rocky mountain, through freeze-thaw weathering has broken up the top layer of the rock, covering the underlying rock formation with loose jagged, angular boulders). Initially thinking that it was part of a dried creek, I attempted to follow it down the valley but just couldn’t find a path to exit this formation.

 

I very slowly worked my way across this “sea of rocks” to the bushy side (luckily didn’t cause an avalanche) and ended up on a top slope overlooking a deep bushy valley. By then, daylight has been snuffed out, called AL and CH and said that I was stuck on the mountain and couldn’t find a path down – because of the danger of falling over an unseen cliff drop, I was considering the option to stay out in the mountain for the night. Given my GPS point, AL and CH charged up the mountain trying to reach me and got to within 70m, but because we were on each of the mountain side, we just couldn’t see each other. I blew my scout’s whistle, AL mentioned that I was about 15m above them and encouraged and cajoled me to move left and down to see whether I could find a way out. With headlights on, I cautiously descended left and lord behold, ended up in a terrace of chestnut trees.

 

Relieved, I immediately called them and said that I shall walk down/out the chestnut orchard and shall meet them at the road. After another 1.5hrs, I was on the road of Qingshanguan by 19:35, they promptly came over and picked me up and returned to the hotel for a warm dinner and night. This cat (harimau) was lost in the mountains for a while.

 

 

15/10  08:03 – 16:45  9.7km 17635 steps, TA 1141m

 

After last night’s near disaster, AL prepared the entry and exit paths for me to take for the day (he still can't walk). I retraced my steps, this time using the Ming path traced out by AL, and after 3.5hrs, reached last night’s exit point – took another hard look at the clearing area and realised it was not a good decision. Decided to take a slow day and ambled along the roller-coasting mountain ranges, generally enjoying the autumn colours and the beautiful towers along the curving walls.

 

This time I had plenty of time to exit at Dongjiakou – going down the chestnut terraces and had 2 bottles of red-tea drinks while waiting for my pick up. Even the strong late afternoon wind and the rocky trail seemed therapeutic today. Another happy occasion – treated to dinner by CH’s photographic society friends at QSG.

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