BACCN CHINA TREK 4-14th October 2007
From the hustle and bustle of Beijing to the remote mountains of Jinshanling, over 10 days I completed my trek and climbed the Great Wall of China ! It was an amazing challenge, difficult in so many different ways. It was also one of the best things I’ve ever done.
Trekking made up a total of seven days. Each day varied from 4 hours walking to 7 hours walking – overall we walked over 80 miles, which may not sound very much over 7 days but the terrain was truly testing! Varying from nice smooth regular steps, to 3 foot high steps, to 80 degree gradients and loose stones and rocks there was no such thing as typical days walking. Not for the faint hearted, at times the wall was very high - built on the crevices of mountain hills, there are open drops on either side of the wall and in the dilapidated parts the wall thinned down to almost a foot wide.
My feet survived the trip. I invested in some good walking boots and socks which successfully protected my feet from blisters ! The accommodation was interesting. It varied from being reasonably good standard in Beijing , to the very basic in the mountain villages. I got pretty used to sharing my room with bugs as well as not having a shower as there was no hot water. Flush toilets and heating were a luxury – sharing a squat toilet between 27 people one one memorable night was certainly an experience !!
The food in china was Chinese of course – we all thoroughly enjoyed this although around day 6, the novelty started to wear off and I’m ashamed to say a mass trip to MacDonalds in Beijing was in order as soon as we returned to civilization. Cutlery was non-existent and I can honestly say I am now a dab hand at eating with chopsticks! (amazing how quickly you can master an art when your stomach is depending on it !!)
I met some amazing people on the trek – within the group of 27 people, ages ranged from 24 to 60 and despite being from all walks of life and careers we all found something in common and were firm friends by the end of the trip. There were 27 of us walking for 14 different charities and when we left for China we had already collectively £67000.00– with most of us only paying the required 80% of fundraising at this time, we are hoping to have raised more than 70k in total.
I can thoroughly recommend taking part in a trip like this - the organization and team leaders were fantastic, the sense of achievement is huge and the experience of a completely different culture with a bunch of strangers that are your friends by the end of the trip, is one I will remember for a long time to come.
Skyline Adventures, run a range of trips in the UK, Europe and further a field including a London-Paris bike ride, treks in Peru and the Sahara, as well as one off events such as sky-diving and abseiling. For more information about taking part in one of these events and raising money for BACCN please visit www.skylineevents.co.uk
Georgina Flood
Administration Executive BACCN
