Day 10, Courses 12, 13, and 14

The title of this post is misleading. I certainly walked enough, today, for all three courses, and I did photograph the stamps for Courses 12 and 14, but for the most part, I avoided Courses 12 and 13 almost entirely in favor of following the bike path, which largely hugged the shore while 12 and 13 mostly meandered in the inland area. (More precisely, half of Course 12 was inland, and all of 13 was inland. Course 14 therefore started away from the water but eventually snaked its way back to the shore.)

Some numbers before I forget: 53.95 km, 68,445 steps, 659 minutes, approximately 4.9 kph. I can't vouch that the distance shown on my pedometer is correct; I suspect the thing exaggerates, but I'm sure I at least did over 40 kilometers today, and I've got a nasty toe blister to show for it. 

JW did come as promised; we hiked 16 km to the end of Course 14 by following the bike route. This was after I had already hiked 20-some kilometers just to be able to meet JW. For his part, JW arrived at the airport and took two buses to reach me at Yongsu Breakwater (용수방파제, Yongsu Bangpaje); he found me just fine. Once we finished the walk, though, JW volunteered to find us some nearby lodging with his How 'Bout Here? app (called 여기 어때?/yeogi eoddae in Korean), but since he sucks as a navigator, we kept walking into dead ends or people's properties. I finally stepped in and got us unfucked, and after walking several more kilometers as darkness fell (I basically walked from dark until dark today), we shambled into JW's find, Sky Hotel. W58,000 per night, and since I'm once again ahead of schedule by a day, I'll be staying here two nights to rest and recuperate. JW, meanwhile, is flying back to Seoul tomorrow evening. Crazy schedule, but according to him, there was no other way given all the crap happening at his company thanks to the flooding of their Pohang facility. It's all hands on deck at JW's job, with billions of dollars at stake. JW could barely get away for the weekend.

There's plenty more to say, and I'd love to upload all of the day's photos, but I'm tired, it's late, and I'll have more time to work on the blog after JW flies back to Seoul. So for the moment, here's a single photo of JW just to prove he exists:

the one, the only

Despite all my carping, I appreciate that he actually made it down here. He's got a lot going on with work and family, but he still made the time to be here. He did only 16K plus however much we walked while he was leading us to all the wrong places, and Sunday is supposed to be rainy all day, so this was kind of a lame trip for him, but he has ideas for future excursions to Jeju, and I'll be talking with him further about future trips once I'm back on the mainland.

Here are the rest of the photos:

Museul-bong, lit up

interesting outhouse

another look at Museul-bong's peak

I got turned around a couple times as I made my way to the coastal bike path, mainly because I wasn't watching Naver Map, and as a result, I kept overshooting turns. In such cases, I either backtracked or found an alternate route that allowed me to keep pushing forward. JW's not the only one who sucks as a navigator! Below is the shot of my final approach to the seaside bike path.

"Engine oil, battery, tire." Don't think I've ever seen "battery" spelled in hangeul before.

interestingly different bike icon (bikecon?)

finally by the coast

eerie

In Korean class, you learn that "beach" is bada, but when you come to Jeju, you see badang everywhere. I guess that's dialect. 

another quirky take on the hareubang

haven't seen one of these in a bit

granny on scooter was too fast for me

dolphins!

I wish I could've taken better shots.

I sometimes followed the fish-symbol path.

quiet dawg for once

The phrase 심해! (shim hae!) is often applied to things that are extreme or serious. I don't know what the phrase means here, in this context. Just a place name? Hae means "sea."

It rained on and off all day.

homage to a mollusk common to this island

dolphin culture

I passed this cheerful walker going the other way.

burd convention

She looks as if she's got some junk in the front-trunk.

This was a small section where bike path and Olle-gil met.

end of Course 12, beginning of Course 13

This was the area I told JW to meet me at.

How'd you like having that all over your body?

the actual breakwater (방파제/bangpajae)

The sign warns of the danger of falling.

What is this remote outpost?

JW managed to find me after a long trip from the airport that required the use of two buses. Like me, he elected to get a snack at the local convenience store before we set out on our hike to Hallim Port (한림항 Hallim-hang).

JW speculated that this was some kind of testing station.

still don't know what these are

The wind farm over there would be with us for a big chunk of our walk.

tiny crab, maybe an inch wide

cute, scruffy, quiet pup

my weatherbeaten hand

naughty boobs poking out

super-huge tap

close to the end of our route, a white-sand beach

about 200 m to the end of the route

Hallim Port

end of Course 14

We still had to think about lodging and dinner. JW prioritized lodging first, and while he found a hotel with his app, it was another 2-point-something-kilometer walk. I resigned myself to the extra distance: what were a few more kilometers after all that I had done, right? So off we went, with JW navigating. Unfortunately, JW kept leading us into dead ends and people's private property, so I asked him for the hotel's address, broke out Naver Map, and got us on the right track. Meantime, JW switched to a different navigation program, and he was able to navigate his way to the hotel without my help once we got on a main road. This was good because JW was walking faster than me the whole time, so I wouldn't have been able to help with navigation.

We arrived at Sky Motel, somewhat inland and away from city centers:

didnt even feel this blister forming

nice for W58,000 a night

For dinner, JW used another app to get fried-chicken delivery. I had four packets of military bibimbap, which I doused in hot water to let hydrate. We were both pretty tired, and my feet were killing me as we ate quietly in the hotel's little dining area. After that, we retired to our rooms, I washed my clothes, banged out a short blog entry, and went to sleep.