‘Where do all the tomatoes come from?”
During the earlier part of our run we have seen an ever growing stream of tomatoes in the villages and towns we passed. Out in the dessert we would come across a small farming hamlet and there would be a barrow been pushed by an old farmer into the town, laden with ripe red tomatoes, [...]
What came first? Noodle or pasta
Running through the Nw of China two things are really prominent with regard to food, the first is Noodles and the second is rice, the 2 main sources of starch or “Carbs”. From the mega city to the smallest little farming hamlet in the mountains or the mud village oasis in the desert, they all [...]
The slaying of the Dragon
For hundreds of years the great wall has stretched sprawled out across the NW of China, across desserts, mountains, forests and some of the harshest terrain known to man. Like a giant dragon it has lain as a protector and deterrent to the ferocious foes of the Chinese, the Mongol hoards and the nomadic tribes [...]
The miles for smiles foundation
The foundation was set up prior to the run of the Great Wall of China. Since my return from the run we have raised some 600 000 00 rands which have all gone to our sole beneficiary, operation Smile South Africa.
While running the great wall I was constantly in awe of the beauty surrounding me. [...]
The stakes are raised
The visibility is now down to a few meters all I can hear is the clinking of ski poles as they strike the rocks. A blanket of snow has now totally covered the surface of the wall. Every now and then the wall peeps through the mist; the snow has made it look as if [...]
The Final stage
With the 3000 km mark drawing near and 3 months on the wall, it is really difficult to conceive what I have already been through. The desert seemed never ending as we traveled up the Hexi corridor along the silk route from Jauyigian. I felt like a marble in a half pipe being flung from [...]
The Big Chill
It’s been about 70 days of great weather. Plodding along the wall, the season has been slowly changing, passing the odd tree and seeing the light yellow leaves sea – sawing to the ground, the grass brown and dry, fields of corn plants with their long bone dry leaves, scraping in the wind sounding like [...]
The mountains
We have pushed up north of Beijing following the wall to Gilbarco and into the mountain at Samutai and on. We now take a turn to the S E and deeper into the cold rugged unforgiving mountains which reach up to 2500 meters. The wall just continues to climb up and down, over cliffs and [...]
Skinning the Dragon
With the mountains harshness has come the beginnings of the great rock wall. It has been over 70 days on this journey and every few weeks I see a part of the wall which I feel is the most amazing sight that I have ever seen. A few days later I will climb up a [...]
Every dog has its day
I have read and heard about wild dogs in China. I have also been told numerous stories about them, “I think, maybe, maybe not! I won’t go into that”. From the beginning of our journey, in the Gobi area we saw very few. In Shaanxi the most, as well as this, it was the [...]
