Leg 21: Yeongdeok Sunrise Park to Chuksan Harbour

I hadn't learned anything from the previous time out. I still hadn't brought any snacks. I was once again in the middle of nowhere and I had nothing for breakfast. Maybe sometime. I did manage to find a store this time to get at least some junky snacks to tide me over.

The motel where I stayed was sitting right on the beach. It was a nice place. But I found out that I had indeed overshot my mark the night before. I had gone right at a spot on the hill down from the wind turbines, and I should have gone left. I didn't know exactly where, but it didn't really matter. I made my way up the hill to find the sunrise park. It was just around the corner from where I had rejoined the trail. I didn't see it in the dark. I got up to the park and started my leg for this day. I again wanted to do a leg and then get all the way back to Seosan. But I was even farther away from spots I knew about than the previous weekend I had hiked. However, this leg was on the shorter side, at only 12 and a half kilometres. I would probably have plenty of time.

On the other hand, the lovely weekend predicted by the weather websites was not turning out that way. It had supposed to be sunny and warm both days. The day before had been mostly sunny, from about noon. But this was a decidedly overcast day. And out to sea, it looked as if rain was going to come in at some point. But I figured I should beat it, if I started out right away. The clouds and threatened rain did make for more dramatic vistas again, however.

This leg was all about the coastline. It followed rocky cliffs and paths above them and pretty much stayed completely away from roads until the very end. It was a decidedly natural day aside from the very beginning and the Chuksan Harbour area at the end.

And there was more spring.

I don't think she was part of the trail. Someone has a sense of humour.

Erosion has taken a toll.

The last part of the trail led into Chuksan Harbour and up to a viewing tower. I really wasn't sure if I was up to another climb after all the climbing up and down of the day before. But the only way to get stronger is to do it. Mantra. So I climbed it anyway. The view was quite nice, but the clouds and mist were starting to close in. I also had to be getting on my way, so I headed down within a short time and found my way to the end point. I didn't find a sign, but I did find a bus stop... with a bus... headed my direction. Oh yes. It didn't pull out for another 20 minutes, but it was only 11 o'clock, and I was fairly confident that I could manage my way back to Seosan in plenty of time.

The bus went to Yeongdeok. And along the way, the rain started. I had to get from the last bus stop to the bus terminal in town, but the rain was still only light, so it was no big deal. My timing was perfect as I arrived and bought a ticket out while the bus was sitting in the bay, ready to pull out. I didn't even go to Pohang. I went to Daegu, where the new bus route goes to and from Seosan. I ended up getting back to Seosan quite early, as these things have gone lately. I was more than pleased. And I think it will be a fairly straightforward deal to get back to Yeongdeok for my next installment. There will only be a few more of the difficult-to-get-to legs to sort out before I am far enough north to be going into and out of Seoul. Then it will get much easier. I hope.

Leg 20: Ganggu Harbour to Yeongdeok Sunrise Park

I didn't really want to cavort in a snow crab festival. For one thing, I find Korean festivals to be rather lame. They are all the same. And they are all noisy. Leg 20 was rather long and it seemed to be heading over a mountain. The website lists it as of normal difficulty. Up to this point the legs had been rated as easy. I wasn't entirely sure it was a great idea to take this leg on given the late start, the mountain and already having been up since 5:30 in the morning. But the festival spurred me on out of town. So I continued on. Within moments I was beyond the festival area and heading to the heights of the hills above town. A couple of the festival booths had tried to stop me and try something or other, probably some snow crab delight. Of course, I am from the middle of a continent. I have little to no knowledge and experience of seafood. And it is not one of my favourite things to eat. This is all the more true because Korean cuisine hasn't reached the point of sophistication of removing things like bones and shells. Perhaps it is supposed to add to the quaint charm of eating the stuff, but I find that if I have to fight my food off bones or out of shells or spit out grit and sand from the food I'm eating, I get turned off. Put that turn off together with it being not my favourite genre of food and that's a recipe for me to pass those booths right on by. So long...

The festivities were even more evident from above. I was glad I was outta there.

 

Then it was on to the quiet solitude of the mountains around the townsite of Yeongdeok. It was peaceful and quiet. I passed the odd hiker going the other direction, but for the most part I had the trail to myself. The only thing was that it kept going up and down and up and down and up and down. I was really questioning the decision to press on by the time I got to the top of the 350 metre peak above Yeongdeok. But... I used to find 350 metre hills to be not a big deal. I used to be able to hike up much higher mountains. My broken ankle last year kind of put a kink in that. I want to get stronger again. And the only way to get stronger and better is to do this kind of hike. And then do it again. And again. And that is what I told myself every agonizing step up that really not overly challenging hill, no matter how many ups and downs it entailed. I'm so out of shape. Sigh!!!

After the peak, it was across a road and into another hilly area. But this part followed roads among the hills instead of going to the peaks. I was grateful for that as the day was getting long and I still had a fair distance to go.

Then I came into a different kind of power generation area. For all that Ulsan's harbour area was somewhat horrifying in its industrialization, or Posco's boast of cleanness and greenness rang hollow, Korea is trying to change how much polluting material it puts into the air. They are embracing new energy technologies. I saw in one television program that Korea has a state of the art tidal generation station somewhere to the west in the sea between Korea and China. And here among these hills was a large, and fairly new, wind-power generation facility. There had to 40 or 50 of the turbines among these hills. In addition, there were learning facilities for visitors, especially children, who might come to see the facility. There were parks and walking trails among the turbines.

 

And at night they light them up attractively.

But I arrived in that area as the day was ending. I still had a couple of kilometres to go, so I didn't dally too long. I don't know that any of it was open that day anyway. I hurried down the road, into the growing dark. I was fairly sure I wouldn't be finding any bus to anywhere by this point, and I just hoped I would find a nice place to stay that wouldn't cost too much. I lost the trail somewhere down the hill. I think there was another road it followed, but I missed the markers in the dark. But I made it down and found a nice motel that turned out to be quite cheap, particularly as it was on the beach and somewhat isolated from the nearest little town. Lucky!!!

This day had started out dubiously with a long trek to get to my start point and not much nice scenery, but it ended amongst some rather beautiful wind turbines in a park that was set up to make alternative energy look attractive. It had been a good day.

Leg 19: Hwajin Beach to Ganggu Harbour

 

A couple of weeks after completing the Pohang section of the trail, the weather forecast looked great. It was time to head back out and continue. I was looking forward to it. I knew of a new bus from Seosan to Daegu, a city in the direction of where I was headed. But I wasn't exactly sure of connections from Daegu to the spot where I left off last time. I decided not to chance it and I went the other route, the one that required three buses and a train, and passing through Daejeon. Go ahead. I dare you. I dare anyone to ask me how to get pretty much anywhere in Korea. I can now probably tell you, no thanks to anyone connected to tourism in this country.

I decided not to bother with a late bus from Daejeon to Pohang. There were early trains and I could get to the train station. From there the next bus I wanted would come right to the station and take me to the next spot. So I stayed in Daejeon and caught the first train to Pohang. I got on the bus from there and proceeded to where I would transfer to the next bus. I arrived around 9 in the morning. Perfect. I could get the next bus. And that would be at... Let me see here... Hmmm... Eleven o'clock... You mean I could have slept in and caught a later train and still been in plenty of time? They really need to get some information about bus schedules into this process somehow.

I may have missed one bus that wasn't on the schedule at the transfer point. The bus driver looked at me as though he wanted to ask me as he went by, but I was too focused on trying not to be annoyed about schedules and lack of information. But in due course, the bus I was expecting arrived to take me to Hwajin Beach. And I got out there around noon. About 5 hours to get to where I wanted to start. That's a bit excessive.

Leg 19 itself wasn't particularly interesting, especially in the early stages. There was a lot of this...

 

And not enough of this...

It really seemed more of a get-through-this-rather-uninspired-part-of-the-trail-to-get-to-the-next-part leg. It wasn't without its interest though. Along leg 19, I came upon this behemoth. At first I wasn't sure what I was looking at. Maybe I was coming upon a military base. Should I take a photo of it? Or would I find myself locked up for photographing forbidden things? But there was what seemed to be some kind of gangway entrance for the public as well.

Then I came upon a memorial site. This was apparently one of the landing spots for a counter-offensive during the Korean war, used to distract the North Koreans while a real landing was made at Incheon. It was still too early in the season for it to be open, but maybe I will come back sometime to get a real look inside. In any case, photos of the big ship were allowed.

From that point, there was a bit more dramatic shoreline to cover before entering into the Ganggu Harbour area. 

 

Signs of spring had been steadily growing and near Ganggu itself there was a small cherry blossom festival. Those blossoms are very nice, but the ubiquitousness of the trees now is diluting some of the excellent cherry blossom festivals in the country.

Then it was down the hill and snaking along the shore to enter into Ganggu Harbour. It was a rather odd place to encounter a Porche. And a gold one at that.  (The red blotch is not a bad paint job... just my attempt at protecting the fabulously wealthy.)

The harbour was like any other harbour, but as I got close it became clear there was a festival going on. It turns out that Ganggu Harbour is well-known for snow crab. And it was the snow crab festival.

I arrived at the bridge to complete the leg and was greeted with their mascot. Ugly critter...

Leg 18: Chilpo Beach to Hwajin Beach

Yup... It was still a nice looking place after a good night's sleep. I'd stay again. And the first sign seen in three legs also said I was on the right track. And it informed me that I was nearly 300 kilometres along the trail. I'm remarkably impressed with myself about that.

But I was wanting to be able to get through the next leg and still get back to Seosan... work the next day... So I got up early and headed off around 7:30. I didn't want to mess with any kind of breakfast at the hotel. I figured I would find a place to grab something to eat within short order. It turned out to not be the case. I also didn't have any snack things with me this time. I'll have to do better in the future.

The day was a bit grey and forbidding. It seemed it might rain. But it also gave the hike some atmosphere.

It seems they are making an effort to improve safety conditions for people doing the trail through the Pohang section. There was a fair amount of construction on what I suspect are hiking/walking paths for trekkers. And I must admit to a bit of jealousy of future trekkers with some of the viewing points that are being installed along the cliffs.

A lot of this leg was along shoreline, with only a couple of forays into towns along the way.

Towards the end there was some construction on what are probably going to be some kind of sea-view hotels or some sort. It will take some of the charm out of the area, but I guess “progress” can't be stopped.

A lime green house. Maybe it doubles as a lighthouse.

There were some ruins along the way. One was on a cliff.

The last stage of the leg, coming in Hwajin and the beach, there was a brilliant little trail through the woods for both trekkers and cyclists. It was lovely. Of course, there were those who didn't see it that way. Cars were also seen along the trail. I wonder if, “But it cuts down the distance I have to go and gets me there faster,” sounds as lame to them when they say things like that as it does to me.

As I was arriving at the end point of the leg, it was around 11 o'clock. I began had been trying to see what transportation options I might have to get me home. Then in the distance I spied a bus. It was just sitting at an intersection. That was promising. I headed to the end point, another sign, and then headed out to the spot where the bus had been. It was gone, but there was a bus stop. Hopefully it wasn't as infrequent as the bus out of Pohang a couple of legs previously. I sat and waited and tried finding some information about the schedule. Unfortunately the information I found was not promising. It suggested I had a couple of hours to wait. So I made myself comfortable and read a book. I noticed buses going along the highway that encouraged me though. They showed me a new way to get to the area that might not require three buses and a train. Two might end up being enough in the future.

The scheduled time for the bus (according to Google Maps) came. And it went. No bus. Hmmm... It was by now half past 1 in the afternoon and I was beginning to run out of leeway time for being able to make it back to Seosan. I decided to give it another ten minutes before trying something. Then a bus came the other direction. Well that was a start. How long would it be before it came back? I was unsure. It was about 20 minutes later that the bus returned and I was able to start the process of returning to Pohang and the train station to take a train to Daejeon, so I could take another bus back to Seosan. My friend told me I was dedicated. I suggested to him that he probably meant stubborn. I mean to complete this thing, come hell or high water now. I won't be denied. But I sure could use more information than the caretakers of the trail seem inclined to provide. It would make things so much easier. Sigh!!!