Vitalise Churchtown - treks to China
Where to begin? Well first of all I’m glad to inform you that I actually made it and of course couldn’t have done it without your generosity so thanks for all the various kinds of support given over these last few months.
The trek was a lot harder than any of us imagined but we enjoyed every minute of every day. We felt a great sense of achievement as each day passed knowing what difficult terrain we’d covered and kept going remembering the amount of money and awareness raised for our various charities.
There were 25 of us in the group (2 other men with their wives so I had my own room every night!) representing 15 different charities and we never once lost our team spirit and determination. My friend Tracy, who was also raising funds for Vitalise Churchtown, was wonderful company and she too has raised an incredible amount of money for the Centre.
The terrain itself is varied and in addition to walking on parts of the wall that have been restored or well-preserved, the amount of steps, mountain & forest paths and especially those parts of the wall that are in a state of decay with rough old stones that are loose and unstable makes it extremely difficult going. I can’t describe in words how steep some of the climbs were or how narrow some of the wall was with sheer drops either side. Every evening we sampled the local cuisine (all quite experts with chopsticks now and have tasted things very new to us!) and beer/wine before preparing for another long slog next day (it never got any easier!).
There were days when we crossed a river by Swing Bridge then used a very long zip wire to cross another part the water. On completion of the 7 days trekking we visited Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City then went to the most fantastic acrobatic show at a local theatre. There were opportunities to shop and I’m glad there were so many ladies to help me out with that as I don’t enjoy it and, unlike them, cannot barter to save my life!
We’ve got literally thousands of photos that were taken and a DVD is being made so I’ll make sure you all get to see a cross section of everything. I’ll probably wear my “I climbed the Great Wall” T shirt for many months!
I really can’t thank you all enough for your donations, organisation of and help/attendance at my events plus loan of equipment and advice given. I’ve still got money that’s been pledged to collect in but already have over £3,500. I’ll let you know the final amount by mid May and look forward to seeing you all soon.
The next trek to China is this October and there are also others including some cycling events over the next 12 months to Kilimanjaro, Sahara, Peru, Tibet, Nepal, Vietnam, Grand Canyon, Iceland and Dog Sledding in Norway etc. If you’d like details about any of them please let me know (or if you want to keep local there are 3 or 4 Peaks and Hadrian’s Wall etc.).
Best Wishes
Mick Ryan
