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Published: August 11th 2007
Cherry blossoms and vinyards
Tent, sleeping bag, clothes and food on our backs.Incredibly, the only reason we eventually stuck our heads out of our fantastic little tent was because it was already 9am and we still had a good deal of exploring to get done before sunset.
Sleeping on the sand without matrasses, we each woke up one or twice during the night, but if we hadn't we would have missed the soothing breaking of the waves which were now 20m away from us rather than the distant 200m when we climbed into bed at low tide. All in all, almost 12hrs of sleep is a great way to break in a tent, and put a 6day work week far behind.
Our fantastic little home quickly folded away into my daypack, and we strapped the sleeping bags onto the bottom. Man, what a way to travel. It's like having the sleep-where-you-end-up freedom of a snail, without the risk of being smooshed.
A fantastic thing happens at this beach. Because of the huge difference in tides in this part of the world (don't ask me why!), for a few hours during lowtide you can walk on dry ground to the tiny neighbouring island of Silmi-do, which is otherwise separated from Mu-ui
The narrow path to Silmi-do
At high tide this is a 100m stretch of water - Beleive it! by the sea.
We started to walk around Silmi, until we had to stop and take out our toothbrushes. Last night's seafood stew had left it's mark in a big way, and we could hardly stand to speak in each other's general direction. Another fun experience with the post-Korean-food breath.
As we rounded the next corner, we noticed a small group of locals walking along the rocks with little picks. As we camecloser, in true Korean style, the invited us over to join them. Despite the usual language barrier (which seems more like a hinderance than a barrier these days), they soon demonstrated how they used to small picks to open the oysters which literally covered the rocks exposed by the low tide. The fantastic fresh breakfast was washed down shots of Soju (rice vodka) keenly poured by the locals. It was such a great way to start the day that after cutting across back over the island, we stopped to have a second go at the seafood buffet, using an old penknife from my backpack.
The strip of land back to Mu-ui do was starting to get pretty narrow as we headed back to the small
Toothbrushing bliss
You've got to try it! fishing village in search of snacks for the day. At first the village seemed pretty much deserted, with a line of boats lying on their side in the sand, far from the low water line. We did however manage to find a small convenience store where we could find instant noodles. The old lady in the store helped us make the noodles, and even brought us some kimchi as a side-dish to our beach-side brunch. A big bottle of OJ and some biscuits nicely filled the gaps in our packs and we headed in the direction of Guksabong Peak (230m), the closest of the two peaks on the island.
The hike to the top passed briefly, and the view from the top gave us an almost bird's eye view of the layout of the small (5km by 2km) island. From the top we could see Hanagae beach, and made up our minds to find out first hand how cold the South China sea really is this time of year. Whithin minutes we were back at sea level. We walked along the beach, past the beachside restaurants until we had the beach to ourselves. Then we quickly changed into our
Slurpable breakfast
Okay, NOW, I'm sure it doesn't get any fresher! costumes, set the camera filming video, and ran off into the sea... briefly! Well, we went underwater, and that counts as a swim, but man was it icy!
We got all our clothes back on even faster than we'd taken them off, and headed off towards Mt. Horyonggok (244m). The second hike of the day took a bit longer, with each pseudo-peak we climbed just revealing another hidden behind it. When we finally did reach the top, we were treated to a 360 degree view of the island with all it's beaches, the calm sea, and the countless islands on the horizon in every direction.
Even the path down seemed to wind so much that by the time we reached the bottomwe were pretty sure that we'd stood on top of every little peak on the island.
Upon reaching the Southern tip of the island, we walked to the jetty where we were hoping to catch a boat to an adjacent island we planned to spend the night on. Suprise, no more boats running today. As we were discussing walking a few meters back into the mountains along the hiking trail to find aclearing for our tent,
Icy water
No really, it's not that bad... FOR A POLAR BEAR! a few locals came to "discuss" our options with us. One of the guys offered to phone THE bus driver on the island (it seems he works by request, rather than according to a scedule) to take us back to the main northern jetty. From here we caught one of the last ferries back to the much larger Yongjongdo island.
True to character, we began chatting to the only other passenger on board, who offered to drive us to the best beach for camping on the island, since it was getting dark. Once at the beach, be bought noodles for dinner and enjoyed a spectacular sunset. We even walked the 15mins to the next beach to compare the camping, but ended up walking right back. We pitched our tent under the trees in what looked like a playground between the beach and the street. Tired and full of food, we only just managed to peel our socks off and climb into bed before the sound of the waves brought deep, soothing sleep.
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Grant
non-member comment
In-Tents
Guys it sounds and looks like the 2 of u r having the time of your lives. Ur stories are awesome reading them herein the office at work. Take Care.