Kyereyongsan

A Five Hour Hike

Excerpts from my Digital Diary

Chusok, Korean thanksgiving was upon us, and not having been able to get to the DMZ (it was closed for Chusok), and not having a whole lot of money to play with, Steve, my fellow teacher at ECC, came up with a plan to go hike over some mountains. We took the bus out to Gyereyonsan national park with hiking in mind. Here we are before we'd started climbing. Don't we look happy, energetic and optimistic?

We climbed a partially paved path, that went up so steeply that in places it became rough flights of steps. We reached a small temple half way up with a number of stone pagodas outside it. I had always though pagodas were buildings, but apparently these are also.

At the first major crossroad, we had to decide if we were going to go straight to Kapsa temple, then back, or take a more scenic route to Kapsa and take the bus home from there. We decided on the latter, which I was happy with because I prefer circles or non-returning routes when I walk. Giving us navigational advice on at the crossroad was this Korean chap. He will feature later, referred to as 'The Man from the Signpost'.

Well, we reached the first peak hot and sweaty, bumping into the man from the signpost again, who went on ahead of us while we basked in the accomplishment of reaching a high spot without much above us. If you notice there are less of us in this picture, this is due to the fact that a number of our number decided not to hike, but then did. We will regroup with them at the second peak.

We continued our walk across a ridge which provided breathtaking views of the mountains around. There was a lot of mist around, adding an air of mystery to the natural beauty. Every now and again, a corner would be turned, or the trees would clear, and we would be left with something to stop and contemplate for a couple of minutes, perhaps even photograph.

We ran into the man from the sign again, sitting and eating with some friends on a large rock. He gave me a packet of peanut biscuit things to munch on. I didn't really want to take them, so I figured I'd eat a couple, have Steve eat a couple and then return them. The man from the sign would not accept them back. I was left carrying dry snacks that would go exceptionally well with beer, but very poorly suited to hiking.

We ran into a large party of Buddhist nuns, who we thought were out for a Chusok walk. All with shaved heads, and dressed in grey robes and straw hats, it added a very ethnic flavour to the walk, and was certainly one of the highlights. Every now and again, one with enough command of English would say "hello", otherwise we greeted each other cheerfully in Korean. One of them thrust a Chupa-Chups lollypop into my hands and said (in fluent English, no less) "Candy". This gave me a cunning plan. I pulled out the aforementioned peanut snacks and politely gave them to one of the nuns.

Another spectacular view was spotted on the final ridge up to the second peak. The mist was flowing up the left side of the mountain and dissipating as it hit the ridge. Of course, there were orange metal steps up this ridge, to make the climb more civilised (and perhaps a trifle more safe).

We stopped for lunch at the top, meeting up with the other half of our group, then started our descent. After a short, steep climb down, the going got a lot easier, with a long, easy walk down to Kapsa monastery. Mountain streams and waterfalls were all around us on the way down. I snapped this one of a particularly beautiful example.

We arrived at Kapsa temple after five hours walking up and down. I can tell you that a drinks machine had never looks so welcome. Inside the grounds of the monastery we spotted a little girl in her Chusok dress. Her parents were extremely pleased that we were interested in photographing her. These dresses are made from silk, or a silk/cotton mix.

The highlight of the temple was the main hall. A large wooden building, impressively constructed and beautifully painted, it houses a row of what golden statues, lit candles and the ceiling is covered with unlit lanterns, each lantern has a note hanging from it. I imagine these notes are some form of prayer, but I may just be displaying my ignorance by saying that.

After viewing the temple, we meandered down to the little village of restaurants just outside the park limits. We stopped for beer and some kind of Korean omelet.

On catching the bus, all around me had tired and happy faces. The highlight was the explanation of cricket given by myself and the Kiwis to the North Americans. There is talk of playing if we can find a bat and ball.

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