Cast of Characters
Me on Bei Bei, Mr Ren, Guo Sheng, Zorbee, Megan Lewis on Jing Jing
Mr Peng and his pony – the previous year he and his ponies had been all around
Preparing for the ride.
We set off from Shanhaiguan on a warm overcast day. I travelled down with Guo Sheng in the vehicle to meet Megan, Mr Ren and the horses who had travelled down the day before in a flat bed truck. Prior to our departure we were treated to a slap up meal in a nearby restaurant by the local news channel who had come to film us as we set off from Old Dragon's Head – where the wall meets the sea.
Megan sorting out our fabulous saddles – fully adjustable for horses and with excellent saddle bag space for scrumpying and small snacks to keep us going.
Guo Sheng trying to organise the endless bags and plastic items we had, as well as all the horse feed. This was a daily challenge as the car was unpacked every evening what with getting out our stuff as well as all the stuff for the horses feed. This endless packing and unpacking was a thankless task but Guo Sheng kept on top of it and tried to control our chaos – poor man.
Mr Ren wrestling with 10 days hay supply – we picked 2 more loads like this during our trip and it was a huge task to get it all on the vehicle and make it secure. By the time we did the last load Mr Ren, Mr Peng and Guo Sheng were experts. The car in this photo looks pretty respectable, not the same story when we finally got it back to
Megan faces the intensive media coverage – as you can see she is a natural infront of the camera
Megan and Jing Jing face the media – Jing Jing definitedly putting her best side forward – looking much more horse than camel.
Old Dragon's Head in the background.
The Welsh dragon made an appearance at our launch as Megan feels that once she makes London that will not be far enough and so she hopes to ride on to Wales: Dragon to Dragon.
Us and the media lovelies – Mr Ren is loving the attention! He was not always so happy with us as we were not ideal troop material.
On the road
The journey out of Shanhaiguan was not particularly pleasant and we ended the first day riding along the edge of a busy road in the dark trying to find somewhere to stay – this was a common occurrence during the ride. Somehow everywhere was the same mythical distance 10 Gong li which always took far longer than we had expected. Fortunately I have no vanity and regularly donned my high vis cycle sash in the vain hope that we would not be hit by the traffic which had no horse sense. We would frantically wave our arms at trucks and buses hurtling towards us trying to slow them down and their response would be to wave back cheerfully and honk their horns – not terribly helpful when negotiating dual carriage ways, tunnles and expressway tolls.
At the end of our first day we stopped at the first of our unusual night stops – a truck and coal yard.
Mr Ren and Zorbee (still friends – this was not to last long and Zorbee was soon sent away in less than 2 weeks).
Another delightfully scenic stop – with added charm of rain to help keep us cheerful.
More unusual places to see horses follow:
In a quarry.
City centre – note this was the only Wall see for sometime!
Tunnels
The worst road in
Industrial plants …
Mr Peng on the ring road …
Mr Ren negotiating the toll.
Horse in a corridor.
Trials and Tribulations
As with all journeys there are always challenges and the combination of tarmac, long distances, quarrelling horses and Bei Bei's legs resulted in us all having a long march rather than a long ride at times.
Zorbee being led after being bitten on the back by Jing Jing. He had also had a knock the previous evening after he destroyed the pig pen he was in by jumping through it, rather than over. This was really the final nail in his coffin as far as Mr Ren was concerned and he was soon pensioned off and replaced with Mr Peng and his ponies.
Walking in solidarity with me and Bei Bei after her run in with the village farrier. After this experience her legs were bad and I got plenty of exercise walking along with her. Nothing like an early morning hike to clear the cobwebs.
The nice dumpling lady with her son and grandchild. It was her pig pen we destroyed which is rather churlish of her as she sheltered us in a town where we were told we could not stay the night. We were supposed to head on a further 30km to the nearest city with a foreigners hotel.
Not a good day as we had 2 walking and only one riding! This was when Jing Jing was still riddled with worms and was obsessed with food – resulting in Megan having some handling issues when she spotted something to eat!
'My kingdom for a horse ……… and the importance of shoes!
After nearly two weeks on tarmac the horses shoes were in a poor way – in fact they had worn away to barely anything and so we had to find a blacksmith to put on new shoes. This was easier said than done – Mr Peng offered to.......
[sorry Row has given up here, took me 4 months to get her to write this, promise I will beat her severly untill she completes it. Hopefully by Weeked - MATT]