The clouds seemed to be lifting and it looked like the
forecast for Sunday was going to be right on.
It was only early afternoon, and so it seemed like I would be able to
complete the whole of leg 44 before the night set in. I decided that I really wanted to complete
this leg as well. It was going to make
for a rather long day in the end, and after a short sleep because of the late
arrival in Yang Yang the night before.
But the end of leg 44 was right outside of Seoraksan National Park. If the next day was going to be as nice as
predicted, it would be a really nice day to go in and see some fall colours in
the trees. Seoraksan National Park is
famous for its fall foliage. Even though
it was fairly late in the fall season, I stood a good chance of some nice
scenery.
So I set off. Along
the road, outside the resort with all the land on the seaside and no room for
riffraff.
But then I came across one of the places that would delay my
completing the leg before dark. Across
from the resort there was an ecological museum.
I had been going into most of the museums and other places like that
along the coast. This seemed
interesting. And there was a large
lagoon beside it covered in browned reeds, swaying in the breeze.
The museum itself was all in Korean. It was interesting enough looking at all the
stuffed animals that came from the area, but I didn’t learn much about them
because I couldn’t understand the interpretive panels. But I did enjoy walking the boardwalks among
the reeds listening to the wind rustle through them. It was nice.
Then it was onward.
Shortly after passing the coast hogging resort, the trail went back to
the beach and the rolling waves.
The far end of the beach went up on top of a hill for a nice
view down onto the sands. For it being
so late in the season, there were still a lot of recreational jetskis and the
like on the sand, and people who were wanting to go out and ride them.
And then I found the next place that was to delay my
completion of the leg. Another seaside
sited, cliff hugging Buddhist temple, Naksan Temple, captured my attention. There were little pavilions on the edges of
cliffs, safe yet precarious (if the waves were high enough) walkways between
them, and pools walkways all over the hill where the temple was located. Under the cloudy skies, with the waves
crashing below, it was quite stirring.
And at the top of the hill, Guanyin was again looking out
over the water, and over the sea-faring travelers who seek her attention and
protection from the dangers of the wild seas.
The final stretch of the leg led along the highway on one
side, with a beach on the other. The
stops at the ecological museum and then the temple had lengthened the leg from
taken a little less than 4 hours to taking almost 5. It was time well taken, but it did leave me
in a little town a short distance (about a kilometre or two) before what I
thought would be the end point at the sunrise park. And not knowing what services (motels and
restaurants) would be around the park, I sought out and found a motel in the
little community. Then I headed to the
end point. There I found a bigger
community with plenty of motels and restaurants. Oh well.
Better safe than sorry.
After completing the leg, I found some food, went back to my
room and hoped the next morning would be as nice as the forecast had promised.
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