Tuesday 8th August, 2017                  1000

Yesterday was a day that ultimately drove me to the very limits of my endurance.

Mr G the driver arrived at 0820 and then battled the traffic to get us to the train station. The fast trains take 80-90 minutes and travel at 152mph. On arrival in Dandong we were besieged by an army of people touting for business, be it taxis, tours or whatever. We fled the area and found refuge in an upmarket shopping mall beneath the Hilton Garden hotel. There, for the first time in my life, I entered a Starbucks. A drink and half a pannini each and I felt emboldened enough to head towards the Great Wall.

No trip of mine would seem real without at least one taxi driver ripping me off and this was no exception. Fifty yuan, higher than the going rate, because he “might not get a fare back”. Why should I pay for that??? Pay I did though. It was the Great Wall or bust.

Alice thought I would simply stay at the foot of the wall but no, I missed it in Beijing, I wasn’t going to in Dandong. I had even been taking diclofenac for 36 hours in preparation! Seventy-three very high steps later and had I had the energy I would have done a “Rocky” when he ran up those stairs. I didn’t. My new shirt was decidedly damp by now, it was a warm day.

I took a couple of photos atop  the wall and quite a few of Alice using her phone. I then handed my camera to her. She was being foolhardy and going all the way up the mountain - something I would need a cattle sling and a Wessex helicopter to achieve. With steam rising from my shirt, we parted company, she continuing upwards and me descending in search of a cold bottle. I rested for a while under an umbrella table and suddenly realised I had taken loads of Alice up there but there were none of me! Well I wasn’t about to scale the heights again. I know I did it and that’s all that matters.

Next up was a boat trip on the Yalu river, which is a free zone and delineates the border between PRC and DPRK. It is also the closest you can get without getting a visa or indeed being picked off by a sniper. At one point we were no more than twenty feet away from a North Korean shingle riverside. The only clues to the fact one side was China and the other the worlds most secretive state were the barbed wire fences on both sides and the military buildings and patrolling soldiers (on pushbikes!) on the other. Bumboats came out to meet us, selling fruit and cigarettes. I took a photo of the one alongside our boat and the owner was clearly less than pleased, perhaps he thought Kim Jong Fatty III is one of my Facebook friends.

The final treat of the day was the broken bridge, which the Americans bombed during the Korean war. To get there from the boat landings, we took a minibus which also stopped at the Wall to not only fill the seats but also put small stools everywhere so as to overload it. I found myself surrounded by a posse of very talkative females. Being in the bus did however save us from getting drenched when the heavens opened. The Chinese action when driving in heavy rain is to turn on the hazard lights. Forget headlights and foglights. And certainly forget about any indication a vehicle is about to turn!

The bridge per se, although having history, is not something to draw gasps of wonder but it does offer terrific views. I was most interested in how the hell they managed to get (at a guess) a 5,000 tonne vessel high and dry on the bank on the Korean side.

And then it was time to go. 12.5 hours after leaving, we arrived back at base, weary indeed but glad to have made the effort. Not something I would have thought of doing and if I am honest, not something I would have done unaccompanied.