With only a few words of Mandarin and some satellite photos to guide them, a British couple have become the first people to walk the entire length of the Great Wall of China.

The 3,000-mile trek across some of the most inhospitable terrain on Earth took Tarka L’Herpiniere and his girlfriend, Katie-Jane Cooper, 167 days, walking up to 30 miles a day.

Their journey took them from baking deserts where temperatures peaked at more than 40C (104F) to snow-capped mountains where it plunged to minus 35C. Between them the pair lost 6 st (38kg) in weight and more than an inch in height from carrying 66lb back-packs day in, day out.

Only 1 per cent of the Great Wall is open to tourists. Much of the rest has been eroded, buried beneath desert sand or plundered for building materials, and for long stretches the couple had only a shadow on the satellite pictures to follow.

Miss Cooper, 27, twice needed hospital treatment, the first time when she collapsed from gastroenteritis and dehydration, and Mr L’Herpiniere had to run for miles across the desert before he came across a road where he was able to flag down a bus full of villagers. Later, she needed three days rest after her rucksack caused compression of the spine.

Despite being only 25, Mr L’Herpiniere is an experienced expedition leader and has made trips to Everest and the poles. He said: “Katie suggested it as a joke and I had no idea how tough it would be.

“It was only when I started researching it that I discovered that no one had ever done it.”

The couple, from Clayhidon, North Devon, were granted exceptional permission from the Chinese Government on condition that they did not cause damage to the wall.

Their walk started in the Yumenguan Pass, in the Gobi desert, on October 1 last year. During the journey they crossed sandstone gorges at 9,000ft with only a rope for safety, and dropped down to 7,000ft as they trekked through mountains north of Beijing.

Finally, they entered Liaoning province where they walked for 185 miles through marshes before reaching the mountains of North Korea at 3,000ft where the wall ends.

Mr L’Herpiniere said: “The highs were meeting the Chinese people. They were incredibly hospitable and would often invite us into their homes.”

Ironically, the journey did not include the one stretch of the Great Wall visited by Western tourists, as that is a spur to the east of Beijing.

Longest trek

— The Great Wall of China is not one wall but several

— It is the longest man-made structure on Earth

— The claim that it can be seen with the naked eye from the surface of the Moon is untrue

— The fortifications were started in the 5th century BC and building continued on and off into the 17th

— Originally the materials used were wood and stone and compacted mud. Only later was brick used

— The best-preserved stretches around Beijing were built during the Ming dynasty’s wars with the Mongol Empire between 1368 and 1644

— The wall is a maximum of 30ft (9m) wide at its base, tapering to 12ft

Source: Times database

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