Maemuldo

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We left Seoul around 12:30 am, since it was Children's Day it was a national holiday. We were covering some serious ground today. We were heading right to the bottom of Korea, past Busan to the bottom of Geoje Island and from there another ferry to Somaemuldo, a tiny island further south. We arrived at the port around 6:30 am. We had a bit of time before the ferry, so after eating some breakfast, I took a little walk around. I had brought some food with me, but I was impressed to see the convenience store and restaurant in the ferry terminal open as it was fairly small. We were due to get the ferry around 7:30 am, but when we reconvened at the port,we found out that the boat would be unable to dock at Somaemuldo. The windy weather yesterday had broken the dock, so there was a change of plan, we would head to Maemuldo, the larger island next to it.

The boat took about forty minutes and I managed to take a bit of a nap. It was bliss after not sleeping on the bus, the rocking motion of the boat lulled me into a well needed power nap. We got off the boat at Danggeum village, there wasn't really much there, a small store, I think, and a toilet block. We did some stretches to limber up for our hike. There is a pretty unique statue at the port, a mesh creation of a naked pregnant lady with big boobies, I wonder if it is a fertility charm. We set off on our hike. The first part was a short steep up through the village, to reach the viewpoint. The views were stunning, I could see the surrounding islands and the sea lapping up to Maemuldo. The sun was shining brightly on the sea, and it was sparkling, just gorgeous. There were also a couple of goats tied up, that were getting annoyed with all the people that were around.

We continued on, from the viewpoint, we walked along the coastal path, I could see down to Mongdol Beach, the colour of the water was beautiful, however the beach was covered in rubbish. It was a sad sight to see, it would be a beautiful place to relax, if it wasn't for all the crap littering it. We continued on past, what I think was a school, and the path got a bit steeper as we climbed toward the next viewpoint. It was a really sunny day, and I made sure that I had plenty of sunscreen on. There was a lot of vegetation on this part of the trail and I felt like I was in Southeast Asia, not Korea. We came to a lovely area, where we sat and rested for a bit.

We continued on to reach the peak, I think that it was less than three kilometres from the starting point. The path got a bit smaller and became more up and down. The views along the coastline were stunning. I am so glad that I came all this way. The final push to the peak was a wide steep path. I was knackered by the time I got to the top! Janggunbong Peak isn't very high, but had some great views. They have built a nice deck there, to relax on and take in the gorgeous scenery. We also headed up to the peak proper, which is next to some kind of communication station, as there was a big pylon covered with satellites. This was the perfect place to have an early lunch. It was only about 11 o'clock, but since we had been on the go since the crack of dawn it felt a lot later. From our picnic spot we could see Somaemuldo, the island we were meant to visit. It did look really pretty.

After our early lunch we continued on. The trail that we were following was a circular track around the edge of the island. We walked about a kilometre to Deungsdaeseom viewing point. The dock must have been fixed on Somaemuldo, as I could see ferries heading to the island, we continued on and reached the end point of the island, then we turned so we were walking on the other side of the island. We walked about another kilometre, maybe a kilometre and a half to reach Daehag village, the other village on the island. This was a small cute village with lots of little minbaks, I wish I could have stayed overnight in one of them. At this point we got a little lost, we were unsure which way we should go to reach the other village, through this village or down to Daehang port and walk along that way. We headed down the steep hill to the port. That was a mistake as there was no road out of the port. So it was back up the steep hill. I loved the small, traditional houses in the village. It didn't take us long to get where we needed to be. There were a few old people scattered along the path, selling bags of local herb/vegetables.

We arrived back at Danggeum village wharf, where we had gotten off the ferry earlier. The hike hadn't took too long, so we had more than an hour until our ferry was due. We all sat out in the sun chatting and relaxing. There is a small store/restaurant, I really wanted some pop, I needed something fizzy and full of sugar after trekking and being out in the sun all day. The store didn't have a great selection, but I was happy with a can of cider (lemonade). I think everyone on the island was gutted that they were out of ice cream though. It definitely would have went well with my can of pop.

We took the boat back to Jeogu port, Geoje around 14:15 and it took about 40 minutes. There was a massive queue of people at the port and it felt great to walk past them all. They all looked really pissed off, as they were meant to be on the boat before us, but I don't know why they were still waiting as a boat had come and gone. This time we all sat outside in the upper back deck. It was nice to be outside if a little chilly from the sea breeze. It took about 30-40 minutes to get back to Jeogu Port. Then it was back on to the bus. We left pretty sharpish, however the traffic on Geoje was horrific. It took us forever to get off the island, I still find it hard to comprehend that an island can have such bad traffic, but the roads were small and windy. We were meant to have dinner in the northern part of Geoje, but we didn't have time. We drove and stopped at a service station to get some dinner. I had an extremely healthy dinner of fried chicken on a stick and ddeokbokki. The journey back was made even longer as we got a flat tyre. Luckily, it didn't take long for it get fixed and only added about an hour onto our journey. I finally got home just before midnight, it was a long, long day, but totally worth it to discover another beautiful part of Korea.

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