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Published: December 6th 2013
12th Oct: We were picked up not long after eight am. The highway bus stop was heaving. Obviously it's the place to be on a Saturday morning! The traffic was moving pretty well, so we got to the first stop pretty much on time. Our rest stop was at Dodamsambong, which is three rocks in the river, where the emperor used to come to chillax and for sexy time, if I remember correctly. I had been here before a few years ago, but the place looked very different. Last time I came the area was pretty quiet. I don't remember all the shops or the pavilion halfway up the hill. Maybe we came from a different entrance or they have done a lot of development in the area. We walked up the the pavilion and got some photos. Some women were telling us to go higher up, as there is more to see, but we didn't have time. It was back down and time to get on the bus and drive to our next destination, Gosu cave.
Me and Mel had both been to Gosu Cave before, and since it wasn't that amazing we decided not to bother going in
again. While the others went off to look around we headed to a cute coffee shop and sat out in the sun with a smoothie. We had been told to head to a certain restaurant at about half twelve, so we headed there and most of the people, who'd been to the cave were already there. The bibimbap was meant to best the best at this restaurant. We were given our big dishes with rice and then a tonne of side dishes, so we could add what we wanted. The food was really nice and I was pleasantly full afterwards.
It was back on the bus again and time to head to the starting point for the short hike that we would be doing that afternoon. The drive didn't take too long, but was a bit scary as we wound up the mountain, very close to the edge. Korean bus drivers aren't known for their caution. We were dropped off at the starting point for the hike. The hike wasn't a hard one. We headed up the trail and walked through the woods for a bit. We came to a clearing and we could see down to the lake
below. The view was gorgeous and we spent a good while taking photos and of course, our beloved selfies. We continued up and down and then up again to reach the peak. On the way we saw more gorgeous views of the surrounding hills in the sunlight. It was so nice, as I had been to the area before, but it had been early spring and the weather was crappy. I was now seeing the views I had expected to see then. We got to the top and took in the views, and then hiked back down a little way, and off to one side to sit and relax. We saw Warren there and had a chat with him, and ate our kimbap that we had been carrying since the early morning.
The journey back down didn't take long. I can't believe the weather was so good. We definitely got lucky. It still felt like summer, but not as oppressive. It was back onto the bus, and we went to meet the people we had dropped off, who were doing the boat tour. Then we drove to our pension for the night. The drive wasn't too long. The bus
dropped us off on the main road and we crossed over a little river to find our pension tucked away behind some others. The pension was pretty nice. Not the grottiest I have stayed in, and the room was nice, deffo not a place to avoid in the future.
After dumping our stuff in the room, we headed to the shop to stock up on supplies for the evening. Another thing I love about Korea, no matter how small and country a town or village is, there is always a convenience store, and nine times out of ten, they are 24 hour or open til the wee small hours. We bought quite a bit of stuff, booze, snacks, cookies, and I made sure I had a coffee ready for the morning, if I was doing the sunrise hike I would need it. Back at the pension dinner was being rustled up, we had a feast of meat, veggies, cheese, and burger buns. Ir was nice, but I didn't really enjoy the meat. I think as I don't eat much meat anymore, I find the texture a bit weird now. After dinner, they got the bonfire going. Some of the
Oksunbong
Woraksan National Parkothers melted some marshmallows, but I was content to guzzle on a can of lager. Once the sun had gone down, it got cold really quick, winter is definitely coming. It was lush and warm standing in front of the bonfire, but at the same time my back was cold. Me and Mel headed up to the room around nine or tenish to shower and prepare for the morning, or the middle of the night, when we would be getting up to do the hike.
13th Oct: The alarms went off at about 3:45 to get up for our sunrise hike. Not that I really slept at all. It was noisy in the room, two people were snoring, someone kept getting up to vomit in the bathroom (lush, I know), and the pension owners had cranked the ondol up really high, so we were sweltering all night. I was worried about being cold the night before as my hair was wet after my shower. Not a chance! I'm glad I slept in my clothes, as all I had to do was pee and brush my teeth. We met outside at 4 am. It was freezing. We had a quick
Oksunbong
Woraksan National Park breakfast. I had a banana and waited for Warren. Diana went to look for him at about 4:20, and she found him still fast asleep! He got up and we headed over to the starting point for the hike. The starting point was about a ten minute walk from our pension. Warren pointed out the rough route on the map.
Then it was the long, long journey up. It was pitch black and at the start of the trail there was a small temple and as we walked past all the dogs started barking, oops! The trek to the top of the mountain was tough. It was tough going in the dark, and I was glad that I had my head torch. Warren was getting a bit mad as us for our slow pace, well it was definitely my fault, but after a while we split into two groups the faster hikers and the slow buggers like me at the back. It was a lot less stressful, once the others had gone. It was really hard hiking in the pitch black, also the path up was very steep and uneven. Some of the 'steps' were nearly as big as
Oksunbong
Woraksan National Park I was, well I am a bit of a dwarf. I was so happy when it started to get light. It was nice to be able to see where we were going. It was pretty misty though.
Just when I thought we were getting close to the top, and that the end was in sight, the evil mountain made me go even further. We had to walk down and then circle around to climb up to the peak. We didn't make it to the peak in time to watch the sunrise, but we had a lovely view of the sun rising over the mountains. The clouds were below us, too. It feels so good to be above the clouds and watching the sunrise. We spent a good while there taking photos, not that they do it any justice. Anyway, we finally made it to the peak, I was seriously flagging by the end, there were just so many steep steps. Mel was shouting lots of encouragement down to me. I think I really should have eaten more than just a banana before starting. However I was buzzing that I made it to the top. First thing I did was
Oksunbong
Woraksan National Park break out the coffee and a blueberry cheesecake white chocolate kit-kat.
After having a bit of a rest, and taking in the view, even though it was a bit cloudy looking down, I mustered up the energy to take some photos. Well you've got to have a picture of yourself with the peak marker. The views were stunning and the sky was a beautiful shade of blue. It's strange because I find that the sky isn't very blue a lot of the time compared to back home, but today it was gorgeous. The descent down took quite a long time, and a few times we weren't sure which way we were meant to go. But with a bit of guessing and figuring out the turns we took on the way up, we made it down to the bottom. I was completely knackered and it was a real effort to keep moving. My legs were knacking. We were all ravenous, but when we got back to the pension, there was no breakfast left, slightly annoyed by this. The fact we got up early to hike and were left to starve, while the pissheads, who'd been on the drink the night
Oksunbong
Woraksan National Park before got plenty to eat. Anyway we packed up our stuff in the room, and headed back over to the bus.
It took about an hour to get to the festival site. The bus dropped us in the car park, and we had to walk miles to the main festival site. Like I needed to do anymore walking. We walked through the car park and a small festival site and then up the main road of the town. We stopped for some food at a restaurant that had some picnic benches outside. Because it's Apple Festival time the food was a rip-off and seriously lacking in quality. The dwenjang jjigae was only tofu and courgette, where the clams, mushrooms, and other veggies? Feeling slightly fuller, we headed to the main festival site.
The festival wasn't the best I have ever been to. There didn't really seem to be much going on and there wasn't a lot of stalls to peruse and buy stuff from. We found some cool signs to take photos of. Right at the back of the festival site, there was an old style wall. Maybe it was an old city or fortress wall, but I
Oksunbong
Woraksan National Park never got to find out. We didn't have enough time to walk all the way over to it. I would like to come back and find out what it was. The whole area was really pretty, and it would be nice to visit again, when it's a bit quieter. We went to an orchard to do some apple picking, but I was too tired, so I stay on the bus, also though the bus driver was going to kill us as he took us up a really sharp path and was having great difficulty getting back down. After the apple picking we headed back to Seoul, luckily the traffic wasn't too bad and we weren't too far away, so we made it back to Suwon super early. I was so happy, I could have an early night!
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