Photos - and "the book"

If you haven't seen them already, you should check out Christine's photos.

It's great the way that we all "saw" different things - I especially like Christine's Beijing and Gubeikou images. They are excellent.

As a quick reminder - we are producing a "proper" hardcover book of the trek which will contain many of the best photographs and tell the story of our week in China. Hopefully a draft copy will be ready for review by the 28th October.

So.......if you have any photos I still don't have (or anything else you collected in China that can be scanned like tickets for the Zip wire etc.) now is the time to get them to me.

The finish line

Inspired by Christine's postings - I got round to copying the video Simon took as we crossed the finish line.

the twins & pete getting down!

if you missed their performance, here is your chance to relive the twins & pete getting down to cantopop live at the longevity palace!

kevin's trekkers star in a music video

for those of you who have yet to join facebook.... here is our final march down to the finish line. hope you all enjoy it. i know i watch it a few times a day and it always brings me a big smile!

although - i feel we may need to record an official version with lead vocals by siobhan and melinda!

Are you photo'd out yet?

The latest batch! Everyone "saw" the wall and the trek differently. There are some really great images here....shortcuts to Adam's, Jeremy's, Steph's (on Flickr). The same images are all on Picasaweb too.

Coming soon - Karen's, Christine's and Neil's!!

XinYun photos

Photos of Julie, Kevin, Karen and Linz's visit to the XinYun school are now on Flickr.

Click here for a shortcut to the slideshow.

So much in common and yet so many things that are different - some of the photos are very touching.

Click here for Julie's original posting on the visit.

Home at last

I finally managed to get home around 8.30am yesterday morning - what a relief. I feel in something of "cultural overload land" having gone from everything we saw in China to the completely different environment of India.
 
Some of the scenes on the coach from Delhi to Agra on Tuesday and then the return on Friday were truly enlightening and once again I found myself focussing on how fortunate I am. It is great to be back home, but I had real support from Paul (my boss) and the rest of his leadership team for what we all achieved on the trek which was very reassuring. They even raised an extra £120 in sponsorship for us. 
 
It's been really good to be able to spend some time looking at the pictures on the blog, bringing back some fantastic memories. It's also been fascinating to read the comments made by the team since we've come back and the emails that were going around last week were great. I am convinced that some period of reflection is required. What we achieved and experienced as a group within such a short space of time does not come along very often and I firmly believe that not only what we did, but how we did it was something special. Clearly it is important to focus now on things at home - family, job etc - but I don't feel that I either can or wish to, just put the trek in a "compartment", tick the box to say I have done it and move on. Its' impact is far more fundamental than that.
 
I understand from Joy that Newick House's new school bus is already in operation and had it's first outing on Thursday, so we can all see that we have made a difference and there is so much more to come.
 
Kevin

Where we trekked

The overview of our trek has been changed to show exactly where we walked. Zoom in and pan around the map. See if you can explain the twists and turns to your kids/friends/dog etc.

If you have Google Earth there is an even more cool version of the tracklogs (but you need to know how to use Google Earth for the best - the 3D view of Gubeikou is excellent as you can see clearly the steep bit over the hill that we struggled with. And the view of Mutianyu even shows the twists and turns of the taboggan track!! At the weekend I'll post an even better version of these with all of the photos appearing on the map exactly where they were taken!

Have fun!

More photos - AND some video clips

Just in case you still need a "fix" - selected photos (and some video clips) have been uploaded from Andrew, Shweta, Anurag and Paul - some of which I've taken the liberty of pimping!! :-)

There are some great, great images in there - special note goes to Shweta's great video clips of Yau-di in action and also the Slik Factory; Raj has some excellent shots from the gala dinner and a surprising couple of Emperor images(where the imperial top-dude looks remarkably like Anurag!!!); Paul and Andrew have some stunning photos taken every day of the trek.

As a reminder ALL of the Flickr images are arranged in sets and can be seen here. Here are some shortcuts to slideshows the new pictures: Paul's, Andrews's, Raj's, Anurag's All of the new ones are uploaded at full resolution so that you can download and print them if you want.


A shortcut to Picasaweb is here. This is the only place that you will find Shweta's video clips (as they don't work on Flickr). Note if you have a slow Internet connection Picasaweb can be much slower than Flickr.


And finallly here is a shortcut to some well deserved R&R Happy Bar Karaoke videos Click here!! These are big video clips and you *may* have to download them first. Go Adam!!

Thank you trekkers

Glad to hear you are all home safe and sound. Linz and Julie came home yesterday so just waiting for Kevin to get back from India on Saturday now, can't wait. It has been a wonderful experience to be able to share this incredible journey with you all. Seeing the photos, just literally hours after you had been trekking, reading the blogs from you and all the comments from family and friends has made this very inclusive for those of us at home. I too have to admit to more than a touch of blog/website addiction syndrome.

One of our key objectives when starting out on this project over 18 months ago, was not only to raise essential funds for both charities, but to raise awareness of special needs and the Autistic Spectrum, the children, their families and those who work so tirelessly to support them. I have been overwhelmed and often moved to tears this last week, by the sheer weight of your understanding, compassion and willingness to push yourselves to hell and back to make this trek a success, not for yourselves but for children and families like my own. Such selflessness is not something you see or hear much of in today's world. I also want to thank you for helping me make my own, very personal journey over the last few months. Working with Kevin to organise this trek, getting to know other parents and trekkers, with the growing support and enthusiasm which this project has generated has given me the encouragement and confidence I had needed to stop grieving for the child Jamie might have been, and "to come out" and be proud to say I am a parent of an Autistic Spectrum child. I love him just as he is.

Thank you from the bottom of my heart to each and everyone of you and to all those who have supported and encouraged each of you.

Look forward to seeing you all very soon, Joy.

Welcome Home Mum!!!

Hi Everyone

Well, what a week - what an amazing and emotional experience ......

....   I just wanted to show you how I was greeted when I got home - see below ...  Sammy (who attends Newick House) is on the left and Toby (his fantastic brother) on the right - I am so proud of them and missed them so much  ...

Despite what Marc said in his 'Comments', all 3 'boys' coped brilliantly and I was relieved to find out that the washing-up had been completed when I got back!! Sammy had been very anxious during the week before we left for China, but once he understood what was going on he seemed to calm down.  He was helped enormously by the extra sensitive care he received at Newick House, spending a lot of time in the sensory room - thank you Catherine (Miss McLellan) - for looking after him and keeping me advised via texts to Tom.  You are a star ..

All the trekkers agree that the incredible bonding, teamwork, encouragement on this amazing Trek was unique to say the least, and we all gained so much from the experience - an experience none of us will forget.  I personally enjoyed Day 3 of the Trekking - Gubeiko - which was by far the remotest part of the Wall that we trekked along.  As usual there was much banter and constant encouragement, but due to the nature of the walk, which was mainly in single file, there was time for silent reflection and time for our own thoughts.  

I am a really lucky Mum and Wife - my kids are amazing and Marc has been so supportive all this year when it has come to preparations, fund raising etc.  I have also come to realise he is incredibly devious  - when the secret 'good luck message book' was presented to me on the first evening c/o Mr Paul Dowling - another devious parent (of the gorgeous Alex).

A personal thank you to all trekkers, friends, family, work colleagues, sponsors, supporters .....  special thanks though to Kevin and Joy Connell for their inspiration, dedication and hard work in making the project such a success, to my roomies Melinda (who, by the way, was nominated for the tiara every day!) and Ann.  We have raised, and are continuing to raise, a serious amount of money for such a good cause, and we have succeeded in spreading awareness of autism, which is just as important.  Great stuff, well done everyone.

Take care and see most of you again in December, if not before - I'm going to arrange a 'debrief' walk shortly ........  also any more evaluation forms out there ????

Claire

Visit to Fortune Training School - 18.09.2007

Hello back home,
For those of us left here in Beijing, today is our last day and this morning consisted of a visit to the 'Fortune Training School' - a  privately run school for special needs pupils in Beijing.
Kevin, Karen, Linz and I left for our visit at 8.30am and after about 1.5 hours of Beijing traffic, we arrived at the haven that is the Fortune Training School.
The school was founded 20 years ago by 'Mao Yu Yan', a psychology professor whose intention was to see if early intervention would help the development of special needs children. It is one of the first of its kind.
We were met by the Principal, Ms Huang who gave us a tour of the school and introduced us to staff and pupils. The school caters for 40 children ( mainly between the ages of 3 and 9) most of whom board. The sight of many small beds pushed together in a tiny room was a real eye-opener, as were the washing facilities-each named flannel hanging up in its own place.
The school is funded by parents and volunteers and receives support from the Beijing Municipal Government.
It would seem that they have very little in the way of consumables, such as stationery (second-hand paper) and few small games and books, but do have larger equipment - e.g. that in the play area,which has been donated by many sources.
However, the overall impression was one of laughter and love. The staff are dedicated to improving the quality of these childrens' lives.
We asked what they would really like from us, and the answer was 'knowledge'. Knowledge on how best to work with children with Autism. They would ideally love someone experienced in the field to come to the school and talk to parents and staff alike about how to help the children, and guide them in their teaching methods.
We exchanged gifts and left with the promise that we would keep in touch.
Our visit today reminded me how fortunate we are at Newick House with the support we receive from both parents and friends, without whom we wouldn't be in China in the first place.
I will certainly keep in touch with this school and hope to be able to offer my support to a school so similar to our own in many ways.
Thanks to Kevin for getting us here; Karen for making the contact; and Linz for her company on yet another emotional day and support in writing this blog.
See you all in December if not before.
Julie x

P.S We have photos of our visit which we will share with you at a later date.

Beijing photos

Photos from our post-trek day in Beijing are on the site now.

Click here for the slideshow.

All of the shots so far on the site are from my own camera - and I'll start to upload photos from others tomorrow - as well as make the resolution better for the existing ones in case anyone wants to download them and make prints.
Ken

PS
It feels very stange eating with a knife and fork again!!!

Home is where the heart is!

27 hours after I stepped on the bus to leave our hotel in Beijing, I finally stepped off my final plane in Tulsa, Oklahoma! I’m home now and it is 3 a.m., but I feel like I’m still on Beijing time – what is there to do but “Blog” a little?

After flying, what seems to be half-way around the world, I have returned with so much more than a few souviners and smelly clothes. I have brought back home a renewed belief in myself, in others, and in the impossible. This past week has been nothing less than a “once in a life-time experience” for me and I would be remiss if I didn’t share a few of my thoughts and appreciation.

First, my heart and soul goes out to all the children that we have sweated for this week. They are the true heroes because they battle their own “ups and downs” every single day. They always have another “tower” to reach and they never give up. And I respect and honor the parents and teachers (many of whom I met this week on this trek) for committing so much of themselves every day. I am awed by the amount of love and work that these people give and humbled and grateful that God has graced with with two healthy children. I only hope that am as good a parent as the ones that I met this week. God bless all you parents and teachers!

To all my fellow trekkers . . . my new friends! I hope you all know how much your friendship means to me and how blessed I feel to have been able to share this past week with you. It was physically, the most difficult thing I believe I have ever done. I know for a fact, that I would not have been able to complete the trek if it had not been for all of your support and encouragement. There was many a time when I looked up at the next tower and thought to myself, “How am I going to have the energy to reach it – let alone, lift my leg one more time”. Then I would hear everyone that had already arrived, chanting “U S A, U S A”. That was all I needed and somehow, the next time I looked up, there were a half-dozen arms reaching down to pull me up the final few feet. I have goosebumps as I write this and I assure you, I will never forget that feeling! I love all of you, but some of you share a very special place in my heart – for many different reasons. Siobhan, Kirsty, and Neil, you three are an inspiration to families everywhere. How wonderful it was to watch a father and his daughters share the trials of this past week and to see how you supported each other, watched out for each other and ALWAYS loved each other. You three make me so grateful to be the dad of two daughters! Paul H., Martin and Peter, I can honestly say that this week would never have been the same without you three. You were an inspiration to everyone on the trek – always helping, always smiling and always making us laugh! Paul and Martin, as a twin myself, I so appeciate the bond you have with each other – thank you for reminding me of my twin as I was half way around the world from him. And Peter, your friendship to Paul and Martin is an inspiration and model for anyone – everyone should have a friend like you! Jeremy and Paul D., my roomies! I could not have asked for better – even though you do snore Jeremy! This time has given Jeremy and I a chance to strenghten a friendship we already had and Paul is now one of our real “buddies”. Tom, if I do decide to do a marathon someday, you’re going to be my running buddy! Kevin, you are a real leader – in every sense of the word!

I miss everyone already but am honestly glad to be home. I didn’t use an escalator or elevator on the way back – I’m addicted to stairs now – imagine that! I loved the Chinese food we had while in China, but if I see it again in the next three months, it will be too soon! I stopped and purchased a large glass of iced tea on the way home from the airport – civilization at last! And! When I stepped on the scale at home, I had lost the 10 pounds that I couldn’t lose before the trek! Yea!

This trek has changed my life! I also know everyone that has helped with their time, their money, and their moral support has contributed to changing the life of some well-deserving children. For that, I THANK YOU FROM THE BOTTOM OF MY HEART.

Please keep watching this website – we have more to add and more we can do for the charity – keep that support coming!


Mike

Home Sweet Home

It's 10am Beijing time and 3am here in the UK and I find myself reflecting on what TrekChina0907 has meant to me personally.

The last couple of days have been an amazingly emotional time - much more so than I had anticipated - and I have realised that this Trek has introduced some kind of fundamental change to who I am and how I am. It's not really sunk in yet, and I'm unclear as to how these changes will eventually manifest themselves, I just know that they will.

Friday morning's ascent at Simatai underlined how far the group has come together - finally Paul, Martin and Pete could lead from the front I think every one of us who left the hotel at 4:30 that rainy morning were thankful to them for the encouragement and rousing chants that got us all to Tower 7...from there to Tower 11 was all adrenalin as far as I was concerned - with big smiles, and a few tears at the end.

Getting to the bottom again was probably the most hazardous part of the week and yet time and time again I saw one of the team stopping to help someone who needed a moment or two of support - a helping hand, a word of encouragement or just a smile could be enough to get back on track.

As has been described earlier in the blog, we marched across the Finish Line in formation chanting 'Kevin's Trekking Song' and the relief was palpable - the huge smiles and excited voices just said it all - yet it was here that I was suddenly struck by a sense of change...I had to step away from the group for a few minutes and let my emotions swirl around my head and my heart and hoped they would settle. In truth, they haven’t settled yet and I sit here now wondering how, and when, they will.

Kevin and Joy have done an amazing job pulling all this together and even though we spent some time at the Gala Dinner on Saturday night recognising all the other helpers and group achievements it would never have got to here without them leading from the front.

I feel incredibly lucky to have met such a group of people as this and to have had the opportunity to take part in such an incredible physical, mental and emotional challenge.

Whether it was in China; at home; or at work I'd like to thank you all for your support.

Adam

We're leaving on a jet plane

If we are sat on a coach, then it must be time to blog. As you have read
from other posts, yesterday was very emotional indeed. The tourist part of
the day was very fascinating and the shopping element was an amazing
experience. The shop people were not content with calling out to you, but
were grabbing hands, backpacks and even taking sunglasses of your head, all
to get you to look at their goods.

Then there was the haggling. Under advice from our guide we were aiming
for at least 30% of the original price, if not less. Very traumatic for us
reserved Brits, but a challenge that somehow we managed to rise to and
"shop till we dropped".

But the real focus and highlight of last night was the farewell dinner and
the highly emotional speaches from parents of children at Newick House,
their teachers, Trekkers and Kevin himself. We all shed tears at the
sincerity of the feelings that were expressed, hugged and laughed together.
We started as a group of 31 people who knew each other in varying degrees
and ended as a band of friends who have bonds forged over five amazing days
on the great Wall of China.

There will be more on the site, but I too have an addiction to battle and
have to wean myself from posting on the blog. Thanks for all your coments
and the messages that have meant so much to us all.

Goodbye from Andrew, Ann and Simon.

Saturday - daily log

The trek might be over - but we have much more to show you and to tell you.
Next week we'll "fill in the gaps" with new photos and video and update the interactive maps with more things for the kids (old and young) to play with! We have LOADS of pictures from today and yesterday afternoon.

We also have to tell how our fund raising efforts are progressing (many many thanks to EVERYONE who has sponsored us this week through the web site – you’re help is so very much appreciated)

No time today though!

We have just finished our celebration dinner. An emotional affair with very touching speeches from Kevin, several of the trekkers and the staff of Newick House. That all deserves a blog posting of its own too.

In the meantime we leave you a picture of our special prize – awarded each day to the trekker who managed to do the daftest thing! It’s a plastic tiara that Claire brought especially for the purpose! Today it was awarded to the Humphreys twins and to their good friend Pete. In a rush to get back to the hotel from a shopping trip – they hurriedly paid their taxi driver and dashed through the revolving doors into the hotel lobby. Unfortunately the driver had taken them to the wrong hotel – and they didn’t even noticed!! They made it back with 20 minutes to spare before dinner. (They’ve kept us energised and entertained all week – but this won them the award outright).

Seems like it all started yesterday!

It started a week ago at Heathrow Airport, when I met 30 trekkers, some know to me from my job and the rest were total strangers. Today they are all my friends and a close knit family.
Amazing how a week can change your life!

It all seems to have happened so fast and quickly - climbing the steps with breathing techniques is now planted in my DNA.

I hope we can keep in touch in the future - and maybe plan the next trek!!!

Amazing experience - so glad that I participated in this.

Keep watchingt this blog....we have many more pictures and video clips (and updates to Google Earth) next week

Bye from China

Raj

Saturday morning (after Friday night)

Sorry we didn't post anything yesterday afternoon, time ran away with us,
what with traffic jams getting into Beijing, lunch (at a very nice
resteraunt), then the silk factory with compulsary retail therapy, hotel
(via yet more traffic jams), dinner, out to the foot massage and then back
to The Happy Bar for group karoake and the odd libration.

We are just setting off for a far more tourist style day, The Forbidden
City, Tieneneman Square, Silk Market and the our celebration dinner
tonight. We have picked up the rugby and cricket results :-( sounds as
though we are better off outside the UK at the moment.

Yesterday was a complete contrast, the morning on top of the Wall, then a
return to urban sprawl (complete with 6 lane Friday afternoon traffic jams)
and back into consumerism with shopping and sight seeing.

The foot massage was amazing, even more amazing was Paul's giggling as his
sensitive feet were tickled to almost death. He had the whole room of 11
in sympathetic laughter and the poor staff were enraptured as well.

More later.

Andrew, Ann & Simon.

We're in Beijing

.....and we've got internet access that works!!!!! Yeah!!

No doubt the "journalist" of the day" (as they are now known) will post another update on today's adventures. So....we'll take a few minutes to cover other stuff.

We know that Flickr is not accessible at Newick House.....now all of the trek photos that were previously only on Flickr are on Picasaweb too (in fact - right now there are more!). You can find them here

Also, following us "live" on the live maps page wasn't too exciting on the trek.
But when we are in Beijing the quality of maps and aerial images are much better. We'll set it to update our position every 15 minutes tomorrow - so you'll be able to see where we are when you wake up (and perhaps weher we have been too!). A shortcut to that page is here

And finally - the tracklog stuff is all uploaded for today too. We followed the same route up as we did back down again!!

If you know how to use Google Earth then you might want to play with this . we plan to produce one of these of each days walk - so you can see exactly where photos were taken and also see the route from different angles. But....you need to know Google Eath (be able to switch on and off layers) to get the best out of it). Instructions will follow next week. In the meantime - off to do some sightseeing!
:-)

Friday morning - Tower 11 Conquered!

We are sat on the coach, tired, showered and triumphant! We started in the
dark and the rain, each of us lost in our own private pool of torchlight
illuminating just enough to make out the next step. We moved as a group up
the hill to Tower 3 and then we were on our own for the push up to Tower 7.

The world contracted to one step at a time one breath out, next step,
breathe in, next step, breath out, don't look up, one more step. Slowly
the dawning light fought through the murk, one by one the towers fell.
Four, sip of water, getting into a rhythm now, Ann's ipod music seeping out
from her headphones. Five, slippery here, holding hands zig zaging across
the steps, Ann doing 10 seconds of the arm movements of the Macarana. Six,
we are going to make it no matter what now, we can hear the guys at the
front chanting out "Tower 7, not far now". The final push, head down,
sweat and rain dripping from the brow of my hat, glasses steaming up, but
in front the chanting is getting louder as the team cheer everyone in to
the tower.

"Go Ann, go Andrew. Go Ann, come on Andrew", and with a final gasp up the
ladder we are in the Tower. We hug and take another sip of water, then we
join in cheering on the remainder of the team. We all make it to the
Tower! Whilst we are inside, the sun has risen, and the rain has stopped,
so when we come out to go on the top for team photo's it is bright light,
with the tops of surrounding mountains emerging out of the misty clouds
like whales breaching the ocean surface for air.

The time out for photo's has given us all a second wind, and the majority
press on to Tower 11. The intervals are shorter now and the gradient not
quite so steep, but the steps are still slippery and the ramps long and
dangerous. But nothing is going to stop us now, we are so close and we
will make it. Tower 8, small ramp, set of steps. Tower 9 and we can see
the end. Tower 10 and we are on the home straight. Tower 11. WE DID IT!

We take a moment to savour the experience. We are on the tallest part of
the Wall, looking back over the way we traversed up. The Sun burns off the
mist enough that we can see back to the guys on Tower 7. What a feeling.
More photo's, more hugs, then it's time for the descent, which (if
anything) is harder than coming up. Ann and I are holding hands and
helping each other across the bad bits. Steadily we make it back to Tower
7, pick up our back packs and carry on the downward slog.

Somehow it seems shorter in the daylight, before we know it we are back at
the start point and time for more group photo's, then it's onto the path
for the final walk to the end. Just before we finish the Classic Tours
team shepard us into lines of 5 with linked arms and we walk across the
bridge to the hotel, chanting "Kevin's, Kevin's Trekkers". To the sounds
of exploding firecrackers and with champange being sprayed over us, we
cross the finish line. Five days of sweat, blisters, tears and aches, but
we have completed our Trek China.

Thanks to everyone who sponsored us and everyone who has followed us on the
blogs, maps and the pictures on Flicker. The support has been amazing and
has kept us going when times have got tough.

More later.

Ann, Andrew & Simon

Friday morning

It is 5.55am and I am at Tower 7 (of 11) at Simatai on the final morning.
For me this is the end of the trek. The main group have moved on to reach
Tower 11, we all having left the hotel at 4.30am in the dark.

There is huge team spirit in the group with everyone encouraging each other
to achieve their own personal firsts. From that perspective this week has
been a huge success.

However we could not have got here without the huge support of those at
home both before and during the trek. Many peope have helped Joy and I on
the project and we are grateful to all of them, especially Deb and Matt who
have been very supportive and encouraging.

Yesterday's live link with Newick House was very emotional and a great
chance to speak to our families. From here it is back down to the hotel,
pack and into Beijing. It has been a great week, now time to finish safely
and celebrate everyone's success.

Kevin

Friday early AM

We are all waking up in China (at 4 in the morning) and getting ready for a
4:30 start up the Wall. 12,000 steps from Tower 3 to Tower 11, the highest
point on the mountain! We are time (and fitness) constrained so we should
all make Tower 7, but it will be very chalenging to get to Tower 11. We are
all a little scared but determined to give it our best shot for the sake of
everyone who has sponsored us and all the rest of our fellow trekkers.

Here we go.

Ann, Andrew & Simon

Thursday - BP trekkers

It was 5am when the thunder and lightning started - little did we know that the rain would last for another 7 hours. The Trekkers anxiously left the Longevity Travelling Palace Hotel with full kit on. The waterproofs made their first appearance and we all wondered what the day would bring - lots of rainwater and ancient stones make for a slippery combination...

When we arrived at the Jinshanling section of the Wall those that wanted Wallcatchers (backpack carriers) had the opportunity to choose a 'licensed' carrier which was much less stressful than yesterday as there was no aggression because each Wallcatcher had a number and they waited in order.

We spent the first 3 hours, and 15 towers, walking upwards; on mostly unrestored Wall - in reality unrestored means broken, slippery paths; sporadic side walls (with no hand rails!); combined with the steep ascents and descents which can be very dangerous - it was not unlike a rock climb in several sections and 3 of our ladies sustained gentle, but apparently quite painful, bruises on their bottoms!!

Today was very different again to the previous Trekking days. The weather gave the whole day a mystical and surreal atmosphere - one minute you could see many Lookout Towers (which are every 200 metres) and sometimes you couldn’t even see the next Tower on our route...this mixture of rain; mist and unforgiving terrain really highlighted the 'Team' that has formed over the last week or so. We only travelled as fast as the slowest individual and there was always a Trekker nearby to support you if needed - in fact, there were some sections where you could not have made it without the strength and support of a fellow Trekker.

Today was as much a test of the group's mental strength as it was of our physical fitness - for most of the day you were focussed on the 3ft in front of you and believe us, you needed to be!!! The focus required to keep yourself standing meant that you had no time to acknowledge the cuts and grazes and aches and pains that are part and parcel of this type of challenge. In fact, it was difficult even to enjoy the view most of the time.

It is easy to forget how much work must have gone into building the Wall and sometimes you just needed to take a moment and stand back in awe of the people who built this amazing edifice.

The Chinese have a saying 'It's easy to get up and difficult to get down' - this is rammed home when you trek The Wall; everybody has commented that going down is more difficult than the climb as it requires much more concentration and stronger control of your muscles to make a safe descent (2 hours and 15 towers)...although today and Monday we had an alternative option for the ‘final’, final descent. On Monday most of the intrepid Trekkers took a 'toboggan' down the last 200 metres and today we covered the final 300 metres on a 'zip-line’.

It's also been really interesting to see how the energy of the group has evolved over the last few days - everybody is much fitter; with much quicker recovery times than even on Monday and this has meant that there is a lively banter amongst us - even when climbing the steepest gradients.

And now for some context: It would be easy to misread the blogs or misinterpret the photos and think that this has been a 'jolly' - in reality every person who has come on the Trek has faced and conquered a personal challenge or two. For some, it has been staying in minimal accommodation and waiting an hour for the solar panels to warm the water or dealing with the inadequacies of basic sanitation; with vertigo, blisters and aching muscles to name a few more....this we can deal with and with good grace because it's only for 5 days - whereas the kids we are Trekking for have a lifetime of challenges ahead of them which takes both physical and mental determination from them and their family and everybody that supports them.

That is what makes this real and provides the anchor each and every day.

Pare, Karen, Steph, Shweta, Mike, Jeremy, Anurag, Ken, Raj and Adam

Great achievements

We'll post more about today's wonderful (and very different)trek later.
But for now two amazing achievements need to be recognised.

The first belongs to Alison and Trish - both on whom overcame a huge fear of heights to descend from the wall to the hotel we are staying in by "zip wire". Basically you get attached to a harness, hooked onto a wire suspended several hundred feet above a river and pushed off to tear down to the opposite bank far below!! Here are our two heroines in action (with a bit of help from a couple of hereos!)


The next was the emotional and hugely successful "live link" to Newick House. Tears, smiles and laughter all round at our end as we talked live to the school assembly with many parents present too. We synchronised a PowerPoint presentation to tell the story of our trek so far. Kevin will say more about this later. It reminded us all why we were here - and made us forget the aches, strains and pains accumulated so far.

Thursday over - News of the day from Raj

Just amazing - views, experience and the overall atmosphere. Jhinuk thanks for your encouraging text message - a real boost, so keep sending, apparently tomorrow is
harder with lots of step and an early start, 3am in the morning???

I would like to thank all my sponsors for the support towards Trekchina 2007. It is truly a team effort and met so many nice people in this trip. It is the encouragement from the team and BIG support from Bag packers made me complete the trek.

Kevin - thanks for giving me the opportunity and helping to meet such good friends.


Weather today started with cloud and rain, around midday weather was misty and the rising of clouds/fogs was a brilliant view and at certain points walls at front were
not visible. Cloud lifted as the day progresses - the day ended with Zip ware while sliding down from the cliff to the base hanging onto to rope only. We all survived.

Finally, I must share the way Ken conquered the “Little B’” in 30 seconds; stiff climb of around 100 or so steps - it was exciting to watch than the so called 39 Steps movie. I did it in 3 minutes, obviously others took longer!!!.

Bye for now from China and keep watching the blog.

Raj

Hello Cardiff

Hope you are all reading the Blogs and looking at the photos each night, we
really like getting the comments back, so get Nana on line and show her the
progress so far. Looking forward to hearing from you.

Ann & Andrew.

End of Thursday's Trekking

Day 4 of trekking over and we are sitting in the patio bar of the hotel at
the end of this day's walking and the place we will start from tomorrow
morning. The day has been amazing, despite the persistent rain. We
started back at the point we finished, with a much better system for
allocating wall catchers as they lined up and tagged alongside each person
as we walked through.

We have walked steep sections of the Wall today, with one section
colloquially known as "The Little B**tard", for which the previous record
for running up was 45 seconds. Well our Ken (with lots of whooping from
the rest of us) made it in up in 30 seconds and set a new gold standard.
The rest of us took a more sedentary 3 - 5 minutes, taking one breath per
step, and pacing ourselves up the hill.

The mist was rolling through the mountain peaks, looking for all the world,
like a backshot from Lord Of The Rings, any second we expected to see
Gandalf and the Hobbits comes towards us out of the murk. Instead we had
the noisy trekkers singing at the back to keep our spirits up. More orc
than hobbit!

Once we had made the highest point we had lunch, then it was mainly
downhill to the end. The only thing that spoilt the feeling of
achievement, was the looming challenge of tomorrow's trek. The Wall scales
the ridge of the mountains all the way, to what seems to be the top of the
world, like some lazy Dragon sprawled over the jagged contours of the
peaks. Never mind we are up before dawn, or that we have 12,000 steps up
to go, it is going to be amazing.

We can't believe we only have 1 day of walking to go, it has all gone so
fast, but we have crammed so many experiences into the time. Thank you all
so much for the comments on the blogs, we read them every morning and they
are a great boost to our morale, so keep them coming.

Andrew, Ann & Simon

Thursday morning

Well, after several days of hot and sunny weather we now have a thunder and
lightning storm. It is now 8am and it has been going for about two and a
half hours.

We will be off to breakfast shortly and await news from Nick our guide as
to what the plans for the day will be.

This evening our time we will be having a live link from Beijing to Newick
House where we will be able to speak to a special assembly of children,
parents, staff and fiends and tell them what we have been doing. It should
be really exciting and one of the highlights of the week, especially for
the parents out here in China.

It has been a great week so far and made even better by being able to keep
in touch with those at home via the blog and we are all immensely grateful
to Ken Douglas for his great efforts on the web site.

Okay, time for breakfast.

Kevin
Andrew Haslam (from Blackberry)

Wednesday - Message from Trekking Parents

Todays Trek began with a mass scrum of Wall Catchers - these are mainly ladies who hound you to carry your bags along the Wall. Believe us they do not take 'no' as an answer and it was quite an emotional experience for us all. Once those who wanted the service of Wall Catchers were paired off, we set off.

The Gubeiko Walk was the longest and most challenging to date but at the same time, it was the most stunning, scenic and emotional.

The majority of the Wall was extremely old, decayed and in need of major restoration. This made scrambling along it at times very challengng, especially for those with short legs!!

As parents we would like to sincerely thank all those who have contributed, supported and taken part in this endeavour. These include previous parents, friends, family members, BP staff, staff at Newick House and sponsors.

From Parents of Jamie, Alex, James, Oliver and Sammy.

Wednesday - completed with No Injuries!

Here's an update for all of you following this blog! So here we are, an absolutely fabulous group of trekkers who've completed the third day of treking 3 after 7 long hours!! YEAH!! We've overcome half the challenge by having so many extremely encouraging and supportive individuals around us. Each time I think I can go no further seems like the positive energy just carries me along! So the first day was along the restored wall under the scorching hot sun which in retrospect was the most difficult doing 100's of steps up and down in zigzag fashion. Yes, doing the zigzag was advised to reduce stress on the knees! So as the saying goes, no gain without pain! And so the sight of the wall meandering through the hills was phenomenal, and no matter how tired I was I got drawn to trek to a higher post each time for a better panoramic view,and to capture a different angle with the lens! So day two was entirely different, trekked through what appeared to be a semi-forest, lots of shrubbery and a beautiful state park crossing numerous intersting bridges and Chinese women playing cards. Yeah that was quite a change from day 1 but none the less very challenging. So the funniest comments from day 2 were made by Nick, our tour guide's understated description of how difficult the trek uphill was going to be! In his words it was to be a 'gentle' uphill walk! His defintion of gentle has become very skewed-after 10 years of doing week long trekking tours ( you can judge for youself after viewing the photos! :-). Dinner was definately a highlight giving us an opportunity to forget how tired we were and just sip a chilled one not to mention the non american friendly quiz! The irony and embarrasment in that was the Americans in each of the teams didn't know which state was home to Mt. Rushmore. So can you guess which state?! We came up with Montana and North Dakota, both incorrect! And can't forget to mention, we were offered the much needed pampering- a foot massage. So don't get too excited cause it's a long ways out - on Friday evening!

As for today, the day's been very good and far less challenging than Nick made it out to be! Definately worth mentioning are the wall catchers - a direct english translation of the Chinese word. So the plan was to trek upto and along the unrestored parts of the wall which would be more difficult than the previous two days. There are locals that apparently carry your bagpack the entire stretch of the wall, I won't attempt to write the name of this wall section cause I'm bound to butcher it! Anyhow these folks ran into the courtyard in a frenzy to get selected by one of the trekkers! It was actually a bit frightening and sort of strange. So anyhow the day went along we trekked uphill and downhill over unstable rocks/gravel, through corn fields, and on stone ledges hanging from the side of the wall. We formed a line some behind their chosen wall catcher and others being followed by relentless wall catchers that literally attempt to grab your bag out of your hand to help you or follow you the entire stretch! If that does not work they attempt to sell books or fans and so I literally had two body gaurds saving me from one of the wall catchers trying to sell me a book on the Great Wall with a 200 percent margin!

Thanks Jeremy for your muscle power!! Quite an adventurous and fun day with a much different terrain from the previous two. Now look forward to dinner and of course tomorrow!!

Cheers for now

Shweta

Wednesday - GuBeiKou (Techy Stuff)

Today was the longest walk so far - as you can see from the tracklog. Click here to download it for Google Earth

On our altitude graph you can see the ups and downs of the day!

And the football result is?

Please let us know.

End of Trek - Wednesday

Wow! We have done it! 7 hours out in the sun, up hill, down dale, well up
mountain and down valley, and we have cracked it. Great sense of
accomplishment amongst all the trekkers, well earned and hard won.

The start of the day was surreal, but really brought home how far we are
away from home. For this part of the walk we encountered "wall catchers"
who are locals who carry your rucksack along the wall for 100 (RMB) or
about 7 (GBP) which for today was about £1 an hour. We later found out
this is about the same the local farmers make in a day which partially
explains why this morning we were mobbed by a swirling mass of shouting
Chinese men and women all tugging at our arms and pleading to carry our
rucksacks. They were so desperate that even the trekkers who didn't elect
to use them, ended up with a companion who walked along side them for the
whole 7 hours, in the hope that they would get some money at the end.

The people who walked with us were lovely and very helpful. Many a
strapping lad was spotted holding hands with a tiny Chinese lady, old
enough to be their Mum, helping them up a tricky bit of the Wall.

We have walked up and over the Wall today and alongside the base of it as
well as scrambling down and up the valley. Mainly the wall was unrestored,
with the path at times being very narrow with steep drops either side. We
could see our route for the day sprawling out in front, like a lazy dragon
hugging the top of the mountain ridge, so the day was a series of short
climbs to the next tower, a slight drop and then back up again.

We ended just as the Wall reverted to a reconstructed state, that's where
we are back tomorrow. Keep the blogs coming and please post against the
next one we put up, which will be a request for the England/Russia match.

Andrew, Ann & Simon

Wednesday

Just about to set out for the toughest day so far and there is some
apprehension about what is facing us today.

We are having problems with getting connected to the internet from where we
are but Ken Douglas is doing a great job putting up the pictures and
comments.

Got to go otherwise I will miss all the fun.

Kevin

The start of trek - Wednesday

All the trekkers are up early for breakfast and looking slightly
apprehensive as today has been described as a very long hard trek. We will
be walking for at least 7 hours in 30 degrees of heat over rough terrain
and lots of up and down. We will let you know how we get on later.

Andrew, Ann & Simon

Day 4 Tracklog

We've been told that the track is not showing up!
:-(
Very odd - and we confess we have no idea why because it works OK here!
Click here if you have Google Earth. That should work! In fact it looks very cool in 3D, you can see how high the mountains are.

You will see that we did a U-shaped walk, starting at the top left and then coming down and along the valley and up the side of the river (although there is very little water in in right now - unlike the Google Earth images).

Daily Log - Day 4 (Black Dragon Paw Park)

Day two of TrekChina saw the group trekking through the beautiful Black Dragon Paw Park, a very different environment from our previous day's trekking but equally fascintaing. We were promised a lng gentle flat to warm up on by our tour leader Nick however by stop no 1 his name had been changed to some in the group to "liar"!!

But as Claire G put it, "The only way is up" so onwards we trekked through what seemed to be the Chinese outback, undergrowth, boulders and almost vertical climbs testing our lungs until our next rest stop. At this point Christine T summed up the 'glowing' state of the group when commenting "My sweat is so salty it's stinging my eyes". Despite this Christine and Pare could not be tempted to go skinny dipping in the moountain pools!!

As we walked on through the rugged, mountainous and truly stunning landscape the views (as the photos show) became even more breathtaking with views of almost the entire valley. A few days or was it hours...anyway a long walk later we came to a part of the river where Chinese locals offered rides on large rubber rings. Several
of the group unable to resist jumped in and paddled off along the river, Ken spinning himself round and round shouted to karen that she would have to put the shutter speed on slow to catch him or the photo would just be a blur!!

When we could tear ourselves away we continued on our path, this time back down through the valley which was greatly appreciated by all. We came across several groups of locals playing cards in what seemed very obscure locations and they all smiled and returned the nicety when we practised our 'Nihao' (hello). The homeward-bound path also took us down and through a steep enclosed cave (which made many of us want to sing the indiana jones theme tune) and past a beautiful waterfall. By the time we finished for the day there were big smiles all round and not just because of the spicy noodles and soup that greeted us. Overall the day was challenging, different and very beautiful. Looking forward to tomorrow already : )

Steph

PS
1.)We're uploading photos in about an hours time
2.) Flake - have to say that Raj is doing brilliantly well and keeping up with all the front-runners of the group. I think you should reward him for all your stick with some extra sponsorship. Thanks ever so; )

2nd Day Over

We are on the coach having just completed the day in The Black Dragon Paw
Park. We started with, what Nick our guide described last night, "as a
gentle incline, almost imperceptible, as you walk up without noticing it".
Nick is now know to the Trek China crew as "the lying b*stard!".

We have treked through undergrowth reminiscent of the jungle, scaled the
pass beneath the sholder of the Black Dragon and took 10 minutes out to
float in inner tubes on a pool at the head of the valley. The path down
was far more of a conventional nature with only one up bit to add to the
slightly sweaty T shirts. Most welcome noodles in the car park at the end,
now an hour and a half to the next hotel.

Thanks for all the coments on the blog posts, we are reading them and they
are really cheering us up, and providing a link back to home and our loved
ones.

Cheers.

Andrew, Ann & Simon.

Day 2

We're in the coach on our way for the second day of trekking. The team are in good form and looking forward to seeing more great scenery.



The social committee started the evening games last night and took the mind off the aching limbs.



It's great to see so many people writing on the blog and I'm glad that the pictures are appreciated. Please keep the comments coming.



More news later.



Kevin

Tracklogs and other techy stuff

First things first.
We understand that Flickr is blocked at Newick House.
So we've managed to upload photos to Picasaweb too. Click on the picture below to go to there and then click "slideshow". We haven't had time to add captions yet - so you may have to use your imagination. (There are more photos here than in Flickr at present)

Day 3 - Mutianyu

Now - the treklog. We'll be the first to admit that it's a bit boring right because the resolution of the iamges on Google Earth is not great. However if you have Google Earth you can see more detail and also the track in 3D by clicking here. Remember that you can get instructions on how to "fly" over our route here. Every now and again on the detailed track you will see funny "squiggles" - this is where we stopped in Watchtowers to cool down from the heat of the sun. When we did that the GPS unit couldn't see the satellites and so got (just a little) confused. Also on picture here we have another line - we tracked the path of the taboggan down the mountainside!! Time allowing - we'll add that to the map tomorrow.

And finally the graph of our physical ups and downs is also up live here. It needs some explaining......Today's walk had two optional sections in it. One of these was to get to the top of the highest section of wall. You have to clinb up and then come back the same way. You can see this on the graph clearly.