Thursday, September 1, 2022

it's September now

It's now September. I celebrated my 53rd birthday yesterday, and now we're counting down to my flight to Jeju on the 28th. I still need to make a whole slew of pension reservations—something I may do over the coming weekend. Having mapped out the walk, I know there's no need to camp anywhere (unless one or more of the pensions should fall through), so I won' be taking my big backpack with me. Feels a bit sad to leave the Gregory pack behind, but I don't want to be toting around any unnecessary weight. Packing for the trip will be relatively light as a result; I doubt I'll have any more than 5 or 6 kg with me (including water, although some water bottles will likely end up in my pants' cargo pockets to lighten my pack).

While I've been assured that it's possible to bike around the whole island, it doesn't look as though the Olle-gil is primarily a biking trail: it's meant for walking, and with so many of the trails heading over small mountaintops, (1) it's going to be a strenuous workout for yours truly, and (2) this will be more like a legitimate hike than a mere walk given the terrain. Yay?

So the countdown has begun. I'm looking forward to seeing Jeju Island, which I haven't seen since 1986, and I'm really looking forward to the Andong Dam hike that comes after Jeju: it's a part of the Nakdong River trail that I've been curious about since 2017.



2 comments:

Charles said...

Yeah, I can't imagine that you would have to (or possibly even be able to) camp anywhere along the way. Anyway, I'm looking forward to following along on your journey. It's been a while since I've been to Jeju myself (over ten years now!), so it will be interesting to see how it has changed. I do want to get back there at some point, but it will probably be a while longer before we manage that.

John Mac said...

I'm looking forward to seeing Jeju (through your eyes) as well. The trail sounds challenging, but what's life without some challenges? To me, staying in a pension after a long day's hike is so much more appealing than camping out. I predict you are going to have a great time.