Photos by Steve Church.

These photos were taken by the venerable Steve Church, a man who I'm sure everyone on the trek remembers for his outstanding ability to "Act The Goat". I'm assured by Steve that back here in the Real World he's a quiet, unassuming kind of guy... Well, I couldn't comment on that, but I would like to thank Steve for sharing these pictures with me and allowing me to put them online. Cheers, Steve-o!

View of wall from "The Barracks" at Huangyagguan. The section of wall visible was at the end of the first morning's trek. Below and to the left of the last watchtower you can see the steep winding path which took us down to the Barracks for lunch - though you can't see the ice from here. ;-)

I had the pleasure of being in the last group to descend, having absolutely no desire to come down after the first morning's walking!

View of wall from day one's morning pre-walk. The section visible here is the part we walked on the afternoon of day one - a steep hike straight up to a look-out, followed by the return journey straight down to the barracks. Funny, it doesn't look quite so steep from this angle!

The morning's pre-walk was the first hike of the week, and took us up, fairly gently, to the wall opposite that which is visible in this shot - if that makes sense.

The infamous Steve with the equally infamous "Jabba", his guide for the day's trekking on the Simatai to Jinshanling section of wall (day two). Apparently her real name was along the lines of Jabalina but, well, Jabba stuck.

The hawkers attached themselves to us, at least one each, and walked with us for most of the day - for some people they provided invaluable assistance carrying rucksacks and helping on the rough parts, for others they were a major irritation. At the end of the trek they would try to sell you a book for 100 yuan, which most of us considered it only polite to buy. :-)

"The Dragon" snaking off into the distance at Jinshanling. We walked this, we did - and much, much more.

Steve-o on the wall on the Jinshanling section. Parts of the section were as rough as this, others were in better nick - but the whole thing was great.

Nice shot of a watchtower and steep wall section on the Jinshanling section. Note the throngs of people coming down from the tower, at least half of whom are probably hawkers.

This is the group who went on to the optional extra excursion to Xian and the Terracotta Warriors. Lucky gits.

We have: Jose at the front; Jess, Pat, and Edith behind (which is Jess & which is Edith?) then Judith (?), Jen (?), Christina, Louisa (dig that hair), Tracey, Er (???), and Wyn.

OK, so apologies to those I'm not sure about! All help appreciated!

Alison with Lucille and Hanmer Webb-Peploe, at dinner on our last night in Beijing.

Jenny & Shaun at dinner on our last night in Beijing. Is that Mavis on the right? And is that tofu on the table? Yum.

Somebody tell Shaun it's rude to point with chopsticks. :-)

Pete, Ollie, & Laura at dinner on our last night in Beijing. David and Kim can be seen in the background. :-)