On this particular expedition, Tarka had his greatest test to date, in the form of his Katie-Jane, who had no previous expedition experience. “After declining Tarka’s kind invitation to join him on his next North Pole attempt after a month of knowing him, it played on my mind why I had said NO. My initial reasoning was that I believed in order to do such journeys you had to be made of something quite unique, with a physical and mental strength well beyond mine. With a slight change of heart over time I felt I should maybe start with something ‘easier’, the Great Wall. With this statement Tarka was quick to put the wheels in motion before I could back out. I say easier, but I’m not so sure, I could have been to the North Pole 5 times in the 6 months it took us to walk along the wall!” recalls Katie-Jane.

For 7 months prior to this expedition Tarka trained Katie, building the weight of her backpack up from 1kg to 30kg, and gradually increasing the walking distance. Throughout this grueling process Katie found the concept of putting 2 stone of body weight on, mentally, the hardest element of her preparation, having spent the last 3 years on a strict diet. “I wanted to prove to everyone, including myself, that I could do it. I wanted to show that I was made of more than just make-up and false nails,” Katie says.

On 2nd October 2006 their journey began inauspiciously, starting with an hour long battle with the taxi driver at the start line, Yumenguan in Gansu province. He refused to abandon them deep in the desert, protesting it was too dangerous. The vast expanses of sand of the Gobi desert stretched out on every compass bearing. Somewhere in the torrid desert heat of the days that followed they became complacent about their water treatment and a contaminated water supply led to a disastrous chain of events that almost put an end to the expedition before it ever got going. The sporadic vomiting and occasional diarrhorea that afflicted Katie almost instantly, rapidly deteriorated into a life threatening condition. No longer able to retain her precious water reserves and her body rejecting the small quantities of food they were consuming, weakness and dehydration began to overwhelm her. Two days later, after some very feeble mileage, Katie’s condition reached a critical level. Her level of hydration became dangerously low in the 35°C mid day heat. After Tarka had made her comfortable in some make shift shade, he left her with one of the phones and some water, and after taking a GPS of their location, headed off to get help.

“The driver gazed at me confused and apprehensive and with good cause as I had after all stood in front of his bus as he had been racing along his usual route. After clambering over the luggage rack at the front of the bus his look of curiosity was quickly replaced by fear as he most probably thought I was hijacking his bus. I suppose in essence, seeing as I wasn’t getting off until he did as I said, I was! I explained in broken Mandarin that I needed a hospital urgently for my ‘wife’. Not seeing my ‘wife’ he looked at me a little perplexed as I pointed over the glowing yellow sandy horizon towards were I had left Katie. He briefly consulted his passenger’s asking whether they would mind the detour, before heading off” explained Tarka. Camp was swept up into the back of the bus in a matter of minutes and with Katie on board the bus careered back onto the road towards Dunghuang hospital. “

The intravenous fluids continued to drip slowly into Katie all day and night as she lay in the hospital bed, finally coming around again, and after four days rest and recovery they were able to taxi back out to the desolate spot that had seen a whirlwind of activity only days before. To think it was now only week 1!

The food options caused them a great number of problems. With reference to local foods their culinary vocabulary, being a little on the thin side led to some controversial dining. On their arrival in China, Katie’s stomach proved to be somewhat reluctant to digest the Chinese cuisine and consequently when their first dish of pig’s ears, trotters and intestine was served, Tarka deemed ignorance the best solution, only telling Katie on completion of each meal! During the 6 month trek they enjoyed everything from chicken’s stomachs to larvae, often in farmers houses carved out of the rock face deep in the mountains.

Deep in the desert they also faced one of their largest storms. On sighting two towering dust devils swirling majestically in the distance, the couple silently watched in bewilderment at such an incredible sight. As it changed course and headed in their direction they noticed it preceded a huge sand storm. The winds knocked them straight off their feet and in a bid to blunt the worst of the storm they erected the tent behind the best shelter available in such barren landscape: a dune. With the sand too fine to hold firm the pegs in such an onslaught from the wind, they resorted to burying the tent a foot deep in sand, with the combined weight of the bags and their bodies to keep it stationary. Laid out across the ground, with the roof being blown flat across them, they covered their faces in their silk thermals in an attempt to filter some of the sand that filled the air making breathing thoroughly uncomfortable.

The actual presence of the Great wall throughout the first half of the journey was very sporadic. Built from little more than sand and mud, the onslaught of the winds over the centuries has eroded the magnificent structure, to little more than piles of fine sand and rubble running along the dessert.

After 500km they arrived at Jiayuguan to see their first real glimpse of the wall in all its former glory. Albeit that the world famous fort is vastly reconstructed. The wall that stretches out from it was not reconstructed and maintains much of its original splendor and magnificence. The wall steadily became more impressive as the pair traveled east, but only when they reached the great mountain ranges 2500km from their start point did the wall emerge in all its glory. The sandstone construction they had seen for so many months gave way to the towering stone construction that is known the world over, snaking it way over the mountains with vertical grace and unequaled grandeur.

Once into the mountains, and winter being well and truly upon them, they began to endure temperatures as low as -35°C. For Tarka these temperatures are something he is accustomed to from all his polar experiences. Katie on the other hand had never seen anything below -10°C, and that was getting the peas out of the freezer at home. After spending nights shivering uncontrollably in their sleeping bags they would rise to find the tent and equipment covered in ice, their boots would be ridged with frost and their eyelashes would have frozen together during the night. As they stepped out the outside air would instantly rip through their clothing and any exposed flesh rapidly developed a waxy cuticle so common in frost bite and frost nip.

After 105 days walking Katie suffered a major back injury that almost prematurely terminated the expedition. With a fever of 38°C and nerve endings being damaged in her lower spine due to compression from her 30kg pack, she was rushed to hospital for a second time. With only 4 rest days left available, due to visa date restrictions, the decision had to be made whether to call it a day or push on at the risk of possibly causing further damage to her back. On the fourth and final rest day the decision was made to post home any kit that was not absolutely crucial in a bid to reduce the weight of their packs and give Katie the best chance of making it. Everything bar the absolute necessities went, even the cooker, their source of melting snow for water and providing a warm meal when in the wilderness, was sent. All that remained was to walk the 57 straight days without a day off to the finish line.

The second great storm strangely came in the last week. In a country with very little snow fall, they woke to find that a freak front had moved down from Siberia, bringing with it the worst blizzard that Northern China had seen in half a century. Over night 2 metres of snow had fallen in places and the formidable prevailing winds were causing catastrophic damage to buildings and causing havoc on the roads. Vehicles had been abandoned and submerged under snow, buildings lay in ruins, people were barricaded into their homes and in turn, Northern China was forced to come to a stand still. Having previously thrown away their thermal layers and with their boots beginning to show signs of holes after having walked such vast distances, the storm threatened to delay the two beyond their deadline. The wind swept down from the north across the open rice plains hitting them side on and bringing the bitter sting of wind burn and frost nip once again. The conditions they battled through would have been far more expected on a South Pole expedition, than those of Northern China in the spring months.

With one set of clothes and only a couple of real showers for the entire 6 months, the hygiene issues to overcome included foot rot, rashes, cysts and feminine susceptibility to infection caused by the lack of clean sanitary conditions. The couple washed as the Chinese locals did when they had the chance, using a bowl of water from the well, boiled and placed in the centre of the room.

“It’s so difficult to explain how my emotions rose and fell over the 6 months. So often I had battled to the point that I wished it all to end right there and then, when the cold bit through my clothing and the hunger caused such pain, I would ask myself what on earth I was doing. Just then, when I would have gladly gone home and given it all up, the hospitality of a rural farmer welcoming us into his house and feeding us by a warm fire would give me renewed strength to see it through to the end. I don’t believe experiences like the ones we encountered along the journey can be gained without the hardships that we suffered” explained Katie retrospectively.

Due to China’s doors being closed to outsiders until just recently, the isolation under which this country and its cultures developed has placed it in a world of its own. Once out of the developing cities and tourist spots, deep in the deserts and mountains a journey of cultural discovery began as they stepped into a world where westerners had never been seen in the flesh. This is a place where hospitality and generosity aren’t obscured by greed and wealth and where friendship is the key to life. “Experiencing such warmth, hospitality and generosity when not even a word has been spoken, just a shared smile, is something that will stay with us for life.” Tarka recalls.

On the 18th of March 2007 the couple finished their epic journey at Hushan on the Chinese and North Korean border. Having accomplished over 12 million footsteps between them, the last few were very emotional made more so by the arrival of Katie’s parents who were waiting at the finish line tremendously proud of what their daughter had achieved despite everyone’s pre expedition doubts to her capability.