It's a bad day for me when I only cover a distance of five kilometres. I call those lazy days, and even though more than half of those kilometres were covered on shoeshoes, in deep snow, when at times I actually ran, I feel that I hadn't accomplished much.
On a typical day, I cover between 30 and 40 kms, by walking and on my spin bike. But this past Sunday, after visiting our friend on his farm and snowshoeing the nearly three kms of trail that he's carved out, I spent the majority of my day, sitting on my arse, transferring video clips of our trip to Mexico from my cameras onto my phone.
And watching TV.
I'm less than 30 kilometres from Badaling, where, in 1997, DW and I ascended the wall and walked a part of history. At one point, I continued to walk as far as I could, not giving thought to the group I was with or the time, totally immersed in the awe of actually standing on a wall that has fascinated me since the third grade.
At one point, as the sun was starting to fall toward the mountainous horizon, I looked back at the ground I had covered, only to find that I was the only one in sight. Ahead of me, parts of the wall were crumbling away, making my forward motion unsafe, and so I had to turn back. I also had to make haste, as I had several kilometres to cover to return to the tour bus, and my watch told me I had fewer than 10 minutes before I would be late.
So far, in my virtual challenge, The Conqueror app has offered very few Google streetview images of my trek, only allowing glimpses in spots that are open to tourists. I'm confident that today, when I reach Badaling, I'll see spots that I walked upon. I'm hopeful that I'll even get on Google streetview, within the app, and recognize spots where I actually stood.
If not, I'm not worried. All I have to do is turn to the photo album that I have of DW's and my trip to Beijing. I have plenty of shots of the wall.
Happy Tuesday!
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