Day 11, "rest"

Today was supposed to be a restful day after I walked somewhere between 40-something and 50-something kilometers yesterday, but no: JW was relentless and wanted to go mountain hiking, so we made our way across the island, by bus and taxi, to the Jeolmul Natural Recreation Forest, which JW had seen videos about. The videos showed placid, boardwalk-style trails with people walking slowly on them. In reality, those trails turned out to be the lower level of the mountain we ended up ascending.

The friendly lower trails, lined with garishly comical wood sculptures, gave way to a neverending set of stairs and uphill trails that led to the border of a crater—Jeolmul Oreum, one of many craters on Jeju, given the island's history of volcanism.

I struggled but was unable to keep up with JW, who didn't seem intent on drinking in the details: he was all about powering his way up to the top, determined to make his last day in Jeju a sweaty one. (JW's flight back to Seoul was slated to depart at 7:30 p.m.) Anyway, we did the crater path, then worked our way back down, stopping at another bizarre-looking temple. 

I talked to a monk there, asking him about why Jeju temples look so different from mainland temples. His answer didn't quite satisfy me: he talked about how all temples are built to fit their situation, so they all look different. This answer didn't really address the issue I was trying to talk about, i.e., that mainland temples have a certain look and color scheme, while Jeju temples often don't even look like temples. Still, I thanked the monk for his time and went on my way. 

With JW back on the mainland, I now return to my regularly scheduled slog. Rain had been forecast for today, but it turned out to be intermittent, and in fact, it didn't rain at all while we were at Jeolmul Oreum (jeolmul means "temple water"). It's also supposed to rain tomorrow, but perhaps, like today, the rain won't be too serious. We'll see.

Tomorrow's walk is going to be pretty short: the Sky Hotel is located partway along Course 15, and Course 15 also has a loop that I won't be doing. That means tomorrow's walk probably won't be more than a meager 12 or 13 kilometers, which is good because my feet haven't really had a chance to recover from yesterday's monster of a walk.

Everything hurts. I thought this walk would be like last year's east-coast walk in that I'd be lighter and generally free of pain the whole time. But, no: Jeju trails have often proven to be tough, and my feet are screaming the way they did when I first started these trans-Korea walks years ago. That heel pain has only gotten worse, especially after today's trip up the mountain, but I sucked it up and did the mountain hike without complaint. On the bright side, I've had no back problems despite not using my small backpack's hip belt. Back problems were a constant bugbear in my heavier days. So at least one body part seems to be doing all right. 

Tomorrow morning, it'll suck as I'm starting out, but I suspect I'll drop into a rhythm, and the pain will go away until I stop again. At least I've got my ibuprofen to help dull the agony.

Meanwhile, here are some photos from today.

At the very end, we ate a quick lunch at the airport.

the entrance to the park

from the beginning, sculptures galore

the start of the woods (mostly cedar)

fonky tung

A lot of these wood sculptures looked as though they'd be at home as the tops of jangseung—the Korean posts usually found in male/female pairs at trailheads. But I gather that these sculptures are their own thing.

a wise, old man

hands in a yin-yang posture

many giant insects

lots of this

JW powers up the stairs.

view from the top

one of the observation points

no stairs, just rubber latticework

that temple

"Temple Water Reception Room, 30 m ahead"

obligatory trinket shop by the temple

temple guardian (little black dot is either a bug or a drone)

another guardian

and a third

a fourth

Jeolmul Yaksu-am

An am (from amja), in the Buddhist context, is a hermitage. Yaksu is literally "medicine water," but think of it more as "healing water."

makeshift dharma hall

once again, a temple that doesn't look like a normal temple

The monk I met was here.

leaving the temple now—watch for snakes

carp

The carp were actually following JW around, looking for food.

The walk out to the parking lot was gorgeous.

I may have a new favorite orange soda. Really fresh-tasting.

note the moss

the busy entrance

park's name in Korean: 제주 절물 자연 휴양림/Jeju jeolmul jayeon hyuyangnim
Jeju Temple Water Nature Recreational Park

I did this backward, with the establishing shots last. Sorry.

I took the bus with JW to the airport and dropped him off. Turns out Naver Map is great for navigating by bus as well: you plot your route the same way you do for walking, but you switch the route-plotter to "public transportation" mode. Bus routes, bus numbers, times, and transfer points all come up, making navigation a snap. I ended up taking the 102 bus, then transferring to the 202 bus to get back to my hotel.

At the transfer stop, a random lady accosted me, asking in Korean what country I was from (interesting that she automatically assumed I could speak Korean), why I was living in Korea, whether I was planning to go back to the States, etc. Every now and again, you get random Koreans who do things like that, but often, such Koreans are wired a little strangely: it's not simply that they're extroverts: they usually have a screw loose—the part of their brain that normally keeps them from talking to strangers is broken or missing. Some of these encounters can feel normal and friendly, but a lot of them—like tonight's—can feel a bit creepy. I was relieved when the woman exhausted her supply of questions and slowly wandered away.

I texted JW around 8:50 p.m.; he's safely back on the mainland, back to his stressful existence as his department helps to put out the fire, so to speak, of the Pohang flooding disaster that is currently costing POSCO millions of dollars. As for me, well, I'm just going to try to get through tomorrow without succumbing to foot pain.

Oh, yeah: I've eaten the famous "black pig" (heuk dwaeji/흑돼지) twice now, but I'd be hard pressed to explain the difference between this pig and regular pigs. As far as I can tell, pork is pork. Jeju tangerines definitely have a distinctive taste, but pork made from black pig just tastes like pork to me. Maybe my palate simply isn't refined enough.

Stats: 9.45 km, 12,763 steps, 141 minutes, 4.02 kph (slow because of uphills).