This leg did not start well. After
getting caught in the cold rain the night before, I got a good
night's sleep and headed out towards my stopping point at Heunghwan.
I thought I was starting in plenty of time and it would be fairly
easy and routine to catch the bus I had gotten into Pohang. Wrong.
As my bus arrived into the transfer
spot, I saw a bus ahead of us. For some obscure reason that only
someone who has the sorts of odd mishaps I seem to make a habit of, I
just knew that was the bus I wanted. I knew it in my bones. And it
was ahead of my bus. I hoped against hope. And, yes! It slowed at
a stop and I hit the stop button for my bus. I vaulted off the bus
and raced towards the bus I wanted, just as it was starting off. It
slowed. I had hope. It almost stopped, and I had the idea that the
bus driver looked in the mirror and saw me. And left. Oh, you have
got to be kidding me! How could he do that? I was so annoyed. Now
I was going to have to wait for the next one. And I was even more
annoyed because the bus the previous night had been two hours in
between.
To make matters worse, the rain must
been on the leading edge of a cold front. Despite there being a
bright sun and blue sky, there was a decidedly chilly wind blowing.
I went to find a place to sit and wait for the bus. I hoped it was
only going to be an hour because it was daytime. At the turnoff on
the way to the medical centre, I found a bus shelter and sat down to
wait. I waited. And I waited. And I waited. The hour passed. No
bus. Sigh! Two hours it was then. I waited past two hours and
there was still no bus. It was 11 o'clock by this time and I was
unsure what would come of the wait. I found my way into a store at
another bus station, and I was freezing by this time because of the
wind. I asked when the next bus would be. Uh, really? Not until
almost two in the afternoon? I thought I had heard wrong. But no.
In order to get out to the start/end
between legs 15 and 16, a hiker pretty much has to be sure of getting
the 9 o'clock bus. Otherwise it's an afternoon into evening hike.
But nowhere is there any information explaining this piece of very
important advice.
In the bus shelter there was this
figure in the paint that had cracked away. It looked a bit like Mr.
Mole was waiting for the bus with me. Alas... It was not going to
work out well this day. I was so annoyed about it all and dejected,
and cold, that I just headed back home, intending to make it work the
next time.
There is a certain irony in this. I
had pushed on with leg 15 into the uncertainty of the weather because
I figured I could get farther along the trail before heading back to
Seosan. At the very least I was going to reach the end of leg 17. I
figured I might even have managed to cover leg 18 before heading
back. Instead, with the bus fiasco, I ended up stopping after leg
15. Had I let the weather rule out at Homigot, which was an easier
destination bus-wise, I would not have had to deal with the very
infrequent bus and I would have gotten much farther on my sudden long
weekend. Oops!
I licked my wounds at home for a couple
of weekends. I also got out and finally met some people in my area.
I headed back out to Pohang three weeks later.
But I had been walking a long way up
the coast by this point. In my running shoes. Which were really
designed for long-distance hiking/walking. They were pretty dead.
It was time to get some actual trekking shoes, which I found in Seoul
one weekend. Yay! It is rare to find a pair of shoes that don't
require any particular breaking in period. These pretty much fit my
feet like gloves.
I headed out to Pohang on the late bus
again. These legs are going to be somewhat inconvenient because the
anchor towns and cities are not easy to get to from Seosan. The
buses run at times that don't work well for me. Oh well. It's a
project. A short sleep later, I got up quite early, and got a bus
out to my transfer point, in plenty of time for the very infrequent
bus. I was almost an hour early for it. I was not missing the bus
again.
While I was waiting, I looked around
here and there. There was a vending machine right beside the bus
stop. It was one of those game machines where you have to push the
thing you want out as a prize. These were in there. They are in
Korean, but I'm sure you can figure out the Captain America key
chain. The other one though... MacGuyver was never known for having
his trusty carabiner... I think they stretched that one a bit.
In due time, the bus came along and I
was on my way. The man in the store by the medical centre recognized
me. I'm always a little flattered that people remember me weeks
later in isolated spots like that. Then I remember that I'm a white
guy passing by an isolated spot like that. Probably doesn't happen
every day. I'd probably remember it, too, if a pink elephant passed
me in the street.
He directed me back to the trail and I
was on my way. It continued as the previous leg had gone. There was
more of the pastoral spots, with small little communities along the
road.
Between them were endless hills with
bare trees, waiting for spring.
Of course, the signs were that spring
was not far away.
I happened on a cemetery in the hills.
What a nice final resting place that would be. I don't want to take
up that kind of space when I'm finished with life, but if I were
inclined to have myself buried, this would be the kind of cemetery I
would prefer... that is if a dead person can prefer anything at all,
being dead and all.
Halfway through the leg, I came down
out of the hills and The Blight came into view. Pohang is the steel
centre of Korea. The big company that makes steel is called Posco.
Their plant is on a little outcropping of land just at the edge of
the city. It's not quite as ugly as all the heavy industry in Ulsan,
but it's not really a pleasant sight. (It does, however, look quite
striking lit up at night.)
But first it was the beach leading up
to it. The seas were quite active with large waves, a strong breeze
(that was nonetheless much warmer than my last visit to the area),
and lots of wave-crashing noise. Quite soothing...
Pohang also seems to be something of a
whale-watching community.
Then it was past the rather uninspiring
Posco plant. I did find their slogan to be... erm... is anyone else
dubious?
Past Posco and around the corner into
town, the leg finished at Songdo Beach. With the strong winds of
that day, there were people out on the water, kite-surfing. It
looked like a lot of fun.
There had been no leg information sign
at Heunghwan Medical Centre. There was no sign here at the beach
either. So again I had to make it up. This was my choice for the
end. Pohang has so far been much better with route markers and other
signs pointing the way, but the leg information signs need a bit of
work.
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