Trivia: the gil/길 in Olle-gil means "road," "path," or "way." Olle ("olleh"/올래) is probably a slangy way of saying, "Wanna come along?" I'm sure my Korean-fluent readers will be only too happy to correct me if I'm wrong.* (Special note: as Charles points out in a comment, there's 올래, and there's 올레. Note the difference in the vowel of the second syllable. To be clear, the Korean spelling for the Olle-gil is 올레길. You can see it on the first map shown below.)
If you want to see my exact itinerary, click here for the Google spreadsheet.
Below are maps of the Jeju Olle-gil as I'll be walking it (21 maps in all, not including the overview: the route is actually 22 segments long, but it will take only 17 days to complete), plus a set of 4 maps showing the route I'll be walking from Sangju City to the Andong Dam.
Travel dates for these two walks:
Jeju Olle-gil: September 29 to October 15 (walk), but leaving Jeju on October 18.
Andong Dam walk: October 20 to 23, leaving Andong on October 24.
I'm actually leaving for Jeju on September 28, spending the night in a pension called, in that Konglishy way, Palace Town. The following morning, on Day 1, I walk 1.4 km to the Course 1 starting point, then it's over 30 km done that day—a harsh way to start. To make matters worse, the next two days are segments rated as "difficult." So I've got dat goin' for me. Which is nice.
And without further ado—the maps.
Jeju Olle-gil Route (overall map)
Click to enlarge, then right-click and select "open in new tab" to see the full-size image. You might need to click one more time for full magnification.
Jeju Olle-gil Route (21 images)
Click to enlarge, then right-click and select "open in new tab" to see the full-size image. You might need to click one more time for full magnification. (credit to Naver Map)
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| Course 1. Note that the course starts off with a small mountain, and this trail was rated "regular." |
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| Course 2. I'll be ignoring part of that loop to follow the coast. This will shorten the route. |
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| Course 3. Same deal: follow the coast and ignore the loop. |
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| Course 4. This will feel a bit like the east-coast walk, I think. |
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| Course 5. Ditto. |
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| Course 6. Follow the coast, skip the little loop, end up slightly inland. |
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| Course 7. Mostly coastal with some inland segments. |
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| Course 8. Major dodge inland. I hope there's some worthwhile sightseeing. I end up at a little port. |
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| Course 9. Mostly inland, but ending up in a town. I'm hoping for good eats. |
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| Course 10. In the double digits. Mostly coastal with about a third of the trail being inland. |
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| Course 11. Almost all inland. I'm feeling a bit cheated right now. There'd better be some awesome sights. |
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| Course 12. From the land back to the coast. |
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| Course 13. And back inland again. Sigh. |
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| Course 14. This trail takes me back to the coast. The Olle-gil is playing with my heart, but I end up at a larger port. |
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| Course 15. A major loop, most of which I'll ignore in favor of sticking to the coastline. |
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| Course 16. Swinging back inland again. Feels a bit middle-of-nowhere, but there's a minbak there. |
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Course 17. Back to the coast and into a city—Jeju City, I think: the regional capital.
Note the international airport, where I'll be landing. |
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| Course 18. Mostly a coastal route, and I end up in a port town again. |
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| Course 19. Seems to be a pattern: follow the coast, veer inland, end up near the coast (another port). |
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| Course 20. Mostly coastal, and I end up at a beach. |
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Course 21. Final official segment (but I'll do one more segment the following day).
Some loops along the way that I'll ignore in favor of hugging the coast as much as possible. |
The 22nd segment isn't shown, but it simply takes me from the end of Course 21 back to the beginning of Course 1, and I'll follow Naver Map to walk that part; it's only 3.5 km, a mere connecting segment to get me to the very end. I'll stay three nights in one final pension—October 16 and 17 will be days to relax and explore—then I'll fly back to the main peninsula on the 18th. On the 20th, I'll head out for the Andong Dam hike, which will last four days and be a tiny bit less than 90 km. I'm looking forward to this hike more than to the Jeju hike. The two things that worry me most about Jeju are (1) the number of tourists, and (2) the hot weather. Even in October, Jeju can be hot.
Below are maps of the Andong Dam hike.
Andong Dam Route (4 images)
Click to enlarge, then right-click and select "open in new tab" to see the full-size image. You might need to click one more time for full magnification. (credit to Naver Map)
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| First segment: 10.5 or so km. Very short, so I'll be starting the day kind of late. |
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| Second segment: 25 km. A decent distance. This will put me next to the Nakdong River. |
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| Third segment: 20 km. Mostly along the river, but my lodging is inland, so I have to veer away from the river. |
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| Fourth and final segment: a bit long at about 33 km just to reach the dam. The hike isn't over, though: I'm going to try hiking to the top of the dam wall, then I have to hike a few km back into town to my motel. |
If you followed my east-coast hike last year, you know I complained about lodging. Pensions can be nice, but some require you to reserve in advance, and they're almost all pretty expensive. The Andong Dam hike, unlike the Jeju hike, features lots of motels—you can just walk in, without calling ahead, and get a room then and there. That's a much more comfortable setup for me. I hate calling ahead; I hate specifying and committing to dates; I hate doing wire transfers of money in advance of a pension stay; I hate all of that. I prefer the spontaneity of motels, hotels, and yeogwans (inns).
That said, I'm hopeful that Jeju will be as beautiful as my Korean buddy JW insists it is, and I'm looking forward to the beautiful fall colors in the Nakdong River valley as I do the Andong Dam hike. Fingers crossed that all of this goes well.
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*A little research seems to indicate the olle can mean "Wanna come?" (올래? from the verb 오다/o-da, to come), but it also has one or more meanings in the Jeju dialect. The meanings attributed to the word are all over the place. One source says, "a small alley leading from a house to a street." Another source says, "A narrow road to the center of the village." Either way, an olle appears to be some sort of narrow or small passage. ADDENDUM: see the note I added to the first paragraph of this post.
