Sally’s Trek China Challenge – May 2008

The 6 day trek was the most wonderful experience and breathtakingly beautiful.

Our adventure was a heady mixture of alternating misty mountain tops or incredible views along the undulating wall; breathtaking (literally!) vertical steps or lush woodlands and terraced farmland on the slopes beneath the crumbling wall, where crops vie for space with wild fruit trees sprouting their tiny fruit kernels.

Some parts of the wall were fully restored, others were crumbling away and some were too dangerous to walk on but, which ever way one looked, the Wall snaked into the distance.

We had some wonderful moments – 4 to a bed in the farmer’s house; picnic lunches of spam or jam sandwiches with the ubiquitous hard boiled egg; a very poignant minute’s silence at the end of our most difficult climb to remember those for whom were walking; sliding down a zip wire for 170 feet across a lake and hurtling down a toboggan run with wild Chinamen waving red flags to slow us down – are just a few!

It was fantastic to be part of the adventure and get to know a group of such lovely people – I highly recommend the experience and it’s great to know that the money we raise (£129,000!) will help to increase the awareness of bowel cancer in our efforts to beat the UK’s 2nd biggest cancer killer.

As President Bush said ‘It’s a great wall’!

Sally Warnock