Today was very different from the other day, it was wet and misty and the mountain had disappeared and so when we got onto the cable car we had no idea where we were going.

Before that Catherine and I walked to the bus station to get the bus to the foot of the mountain. We met this wee Chinese guy called Simon that we had spoken to the other day and he had told us to go to the west of the mountain rather than the east as we had first planned and we took his advice and in hindsight maybe we shouldn’t have. This morning he was trying to convince us to not go up the mountain but to go with him to a small village because for one reason it would be cheaper than going up the mountain and secondly, we would not see anything up the mountain and thirdly he was Christian. And so shortly afterwards the wee turd sent this message.

I will send Simon a more detailed message after we have checked out. Anyway it’s always good to get feedback.

We got to the cable car and were watching the porters carrying many things up the stairs and they were really struggling and the bamboo looked like it would break at any moment. Some of these guys had huge calf muscles that looked like they could crack walnuts with a single look.

This is the only way to get supplies and luggage up to the mountain hotels.

One good thing today was that it was quieter although there were still many people and many tour groups. I think the views from this side of the mountain would have also been spectacular but I will have to return one day and hopefully the sun will be shining.

But after returning to the hotel my body feels like it has seen enough of stairs and will be very happy when we arrive at our next destination tomorrow which is Hangzhou, the bad news is that we need to be up bright and early to catch the 7 am bus.