Bush camp by the Great Wall 2

Dear all,

On the afternoon of 29th August we arrived at Jiayuguan, the westmost point of the Great Wall and the Ancient Chinese Empire. Like the Great Wall itself, its significance was not in its spectacle but in its historical role. Which is tantamount to saying boring to most, perhaps even those who post a facebook update to let everyone know that they are at famous place x (travel by checklist).

Fortunately no one has heard of Jiayuguan except historians and the few Silk Road tourists. The place was not famous so it could stand or fall on what each visitor was able to glean from this desert fort.

My favourite place was the gateway:

This would be the last solid piece of Chinese civilisation that the banished or travelling would see as they departed the Empire and set out across the desert, land of nomads and transience. Far beyond were the oasis towns of the Uighur, such as Turpan and Kashgar, but many would not reach them. Supposedly these travellers would scrawl their final words to the Chinese Empire on its walls but I couldn't find them, and even if I had I couldn't read them.

After we were all done and Claire had excelled in a bit of tourist archery (a skill from a past life apparently along with martial arts) we set out to our second bush camp, a short distance from the fort.

Except it wasn't a bush camp. It was a campsite next to a fishermen's lake with bar and WC. I was slightly disappointed but not much. The WC stank far worse than any bush in the bush I may have chosen to do my business next to but the beer was cold and it was a friendly place with sheep and dogs.

Our campsite was again right next to the Great Wall except this time it was in better repair. I went over to touch it and take a (bad) photo. Having done those two things I got on with the cooking with my teammates

We worked well together and the meal for eighteen was prepared in good time. I failed in my petition to get the meat and juices mixed in with the pasta sauce once the vegetarians had taken their share but it wasn't the end of the world.

We planned simmered peaches in yoghurt with Kyrgyz honey for dessert (the other team hadn't prepared dessert). I can't remember who thought of this but I think it was me. Thanks to the portioning inherent in peaches and yoghurt pots, though not honey, it was easy to prepare. I even found a jar of mixed spice, of the sort that's used in pumpkin pie, to add to the mix.

Everyone enjoyed the dinner. I personally thought it was excellent, especially the peaches, though the finer flavours of the vegetables and herbs in the pasta was a little obscured by the chilli. Claire tried the peaches and said, "Oh my God I've just had a foodgasm." They were good.

After dinner we made a fire, drank beers and dry Chinese red wine, and enjoyed the cool but clement temperature.

We all slept comfortably that night. I had caught a cold a couple of days ago and was worried about spending another night stemming the flow of a dripping nose but Kelvin gave me a tablet of something called Benadril and let me read the full packaging info saved as an image on his mobile phone (software devs tend to be organised like that). It stopped my nose and helped me sleep. At least I think so, I may have been sleepy anyway or it may have been a placebo effect.

In the morning, after French toast with salsa for breakfast and another efficient decamping - all completed by 8:05am - we drove a distance that seemed close to one mile then stopped at the wall.

That looks like a long way but it really wasn't. All slopes in this region have a habit of looking like mountains when they're really only hills. I think it's because they're bare and steep.

There were great views at the top, and we began to feel like we were on a great great wall.

I understand that these sections have undergone extensive reconstruction in recent years to aid Silk Road tourism. I don't mind it not being the original stones. As long as it looks the same as it did that's what matters most.

Also to aid Silk Road tourism the Chinese have come up with something called "Tourism toilets". These are toilets inside ticketed attractions that are unusually clean and have an "elders" cubicle and a "disabled" cubicle. The elders cubicle has a panic button and the disabled cubicle has bars, but most importantly neither of them are squats. Unfortunately the "tourism toilets" at this section of the wall had cisterns, sinks and squats but no running water. There was a shoe shiner though.

Stephen