Harry's Great Wall Trek

Our Norfolk & Suffolk area manager, Harry Baird recently took part in Springboards Great Wall of China Trek raising funds for the hospitality charity Springboard UK. As part of a team of 24 trekkers from all walks of the industry Harry tells us of his experiences..

Part 1

Day 1 - Friday 25th March and Saturday 26^th March 2011

All the trekkers met for the first time at Heathrow airport, 3 hours prior to departure where small conversation was made as everyone tried to get to know each other. Charity Challenge who helped organise the event, met everyone and assisted the group through booking and baggage.

Our flights consisted of flying first to Helsinki in Finland and then onto a connecting flight to Beijing. Once aboard our flight we started to get to know each other with friendships starting on what was a calm flight…That was until we started to land at Helsinki airport, where Finn air suddenly became very thin air indeed!! As we swirled everywhere the runway was toing and froing from my view out the window. Suddenly with a twist the plane went down hard and all on-board bounced, we had landed. As an icebreaker I feel that this would take a lot to be beaten.

After the drama we boarded our long flight to Beijing which was less scary although the previous experience gave all the trekkers something to talk about. Eight hours or so later we arrived at our destination and after getting through immigration we set foot outside and greeted Beijing, and the smog greeted us!

We were met by our guides who gave us a brief introduction to China before we set off in traffic that can only be compared to the M25 rush-hour. After crawling through traffic for some time a decision was made to take an early, very welcome lunch of Chinese cuisine. As we sat down everything starting moving on a turning table, first a bowl and then chop sticks in tow “Where’s the forks”, the realisation sunk in, we need chopstick skill! The meals kept on coming with let’s say ‘unusual flavours’ and when they state pork it’s not pork as you know it, although now was not the time I wanted to find out.

Post lunch everyone was tired and wanted to get cleaned up, but alas the visit continued for 2 hours with a tour of the tombs!! Lots of information and stories meant tired listeners and also an aura of shock and disbelief that such a momentous occasion had started.

We finally arrived at our lodge, with all trekkers wondering what to expect next!! We were split into 2’s, pairing up for the duration of the trek. I was paired with Andrew, luckily we flew over together so we had spoken a bit, but I was worried. However Andrew turned out to be a star with great intelligent and good sense of humour! So we headed for dinner where another Chinese meal of similar type was served, and we received our first brief from Uncle Phil - our Charity Challenge guide. Phil explained what we would be doing, times and how he is very particular on punctuality (this over the week became a forlorn hope).

Day 2 - Sunday 27 March 2011

All were up at 06:00 hours and in for breakfast, which wasn’t what we expected as it looked like last night’s leftovers and tasted the same. Hopefully the trek would be easier than breakfast!!

 

We dressed and readied ourselves for the trek and boarded the bus, here Martin (our Chinese guide) explained Chinese basics to us and a brief story of the wall. Then we stopped, and the time had finally arrived for our first trek. 

To Be Continued - Find out how the trek went and if Harry ever enjoyed breakfast!