Day 365 - Celebrating our 365th day of travelling up the top of Huang Shan

We had a not-so-smooth start to the day after the hostel's 5.40am breakfast arrived cold at almost 6.30am and a late bus, we eventually made it to the bottom of Huangshan (Yellow Mountain) and began our ascent at 9.15am. Huangshan is probably the most famous mountain in China, and a climb to the top is counted as one of the top 10 things to do in China according to the Lonely Planet.
As we huffed and puffed our way to the top via the rumored 8,000 eastern steps we tried our best to take in the stunning mountain views - we can't complain though as during the entire muscle destroying mountain mission we were constantly passing and being passed by porters carrying loads of between 50-100kgs each! This is an act they complete every day (Adam has just decided on a new means of client training when we get home)!!! Once we reached the top and started walking around and down the western steps that the views really started to amaze us. Ginormous granite rock faces and peaks jutted out of the ground for as far as the eye could see, and despite being so rocky were surrounded by lush green forests...
But rather than hear it from the original adlibers, we'll let the new members of the adlibing teams give it to you in their words: We had all agreed that each of us could go at whatever pace we wanted and that no-one had to wait or keep up with the others - this only really affected Adam as the rest of us were all about the same gentle (SLOW!) pace. The Planet advises a trip up the eastern side (7.5 km) and down the western (15km) -sounds easy when you say it fast - the eastern is about 8,000 steps up from about 890m to our highest point of 1860m.The scenery is absolutely stunning and we have the photos to prove it! And if we thought that the going was hard going up then we underestimated the downward journey! There was an option of a cable car from about 1/4 way down but we all thought that it was worth the effort to finish the climb ourselves!! We had thought that the 15km meant that it was a gentler slope and therefore more flat/sloping paths but it turned out to be 15km of steps straight down and boy the knees and calves were strained by the time we walked out the exit gate at5.15pm.
However there were many stops to take photos of the amazing rock formations, and even though we are suffering a bit today it was worth every gasping breath and every sore bone, I would definitely say it was one of our highlights, though also one that I am glad we are not repeating in the next little while. A lot of tourists either take the cable car one way or stay overnight up the top and take it over 2 days, the round trip is meant to be about 10 hours and we did it in 8 with about an hour for lunch and soooooo many photo stops (I think we took 100+) - but I guess the photo stops are factored in. Anyway, WE DID IT! And we also have a gold medal to prove it. Though the point that we got the gold medal was 1810m so we should have got it at our high point!

Adlibing it together.