Last weekend I took a trip to Seonyudo Island, located South West of South Korea. I have finally gotten the time to sit down and write about the trip. I am going to write this in fairly long detail for myself. It may be a little long for a casual reader though! If you would like a summary of below, Seonyudo Island trip was positively amazing. :)
~ ~
Friday night, after school, four of us from Geumchon got together for a game night. While the night was a lot of fun, I had to kick everyone out "early" (a little after 11) as I still needed to pack for my trip the next morning. Since I had to be at the meeting point at 7, that meant I had to get up around 4:15 am to get there on time.
By the time I finished packing and was in bed it was after 2am. Which meant that when my alarm went off the next morning I definitely turned it off, rolled over, and went back to sleep. Thankfully, at 4:55 I woke up realizing what I did, and jumped out of bed. The absolute latest I could leave was 5:10 in order to make the 5:30 subway. Since I still had to shower and pack a few things, I was seriously doubting my ability to get there on time.
Somehow I made it (with a lot of running and weird looks from the locals out and about so early in the morning) and met up with David, who was also going on this trip, at the next stop. Finally, the weekend in nature was about to begin! I was super excited about this trip as there is never enough greenery in Korea for my taste.
Once I actually arrived at the subway station, the rest of the (long) trip was simple as we went with Adventure Korea, who organized everything. From 5:45-a little after 1, we took the subway, bus, and finally ferry in order to reach our destination.
I was greeted with the view of this mountain as the ferry came closer to the Islands:
While it's not a terribly high peak (only 370ish feet if I recall) it IS incredibly steep. David informed me that this was the mountain I was going to climb. I informed our new friend, Francis, that she wanted to climb the mountain with us. Hey, if I was going to die, I might as well take others with me. ;) After dropping our bags off and recruiting one more person, Rueben, we headed off towards our adventure.
At the foot of the cliff there is a rusty old sign, written entirely in Hangul. I was convinced that it said we were complete idiots for attempting this climb and apparently I was correct; David later got the sign translated and it basically said something along the lines of "Extreme danger. Do not climb. It may result in serious injury or death."
We were on our way. First, we had to walk through thick weeds to even make it to the base. We were joking about how at the rest stop before arriving David saw a machete that he almost got and decided he wouldn't need. When in doubt, always purchase the machete!
We finally made it to the base and it was time to start climbing. As I mentioned earlier, although this wasn't a tall mountain, it was extremely steep. So steep that the locals tied rope to help with the climb. So, we started the climb up; David first, then me, then Francis, and finally Reuben.
This was the view after climbing the first rope:
At this point, I was pretty nervous. I don't like heights at all. As we are about to climb the second rope, David says to all of us, "Let me know if your arms or legs start shaking and we can find a place for you to rest."
"Um, mine haven't stopped shaking yet."
"I meant from muscle fatigue, not from fright. Let's go."
And off we went again. With each landing it became easier. As long as I remembered not to look down. This was fairly easy to do, however, as it was so steep it was important to only look exactly at where my hands and feet were located. Eventually, we made it to the top! And we were greeted by this view:
It was totally worth the climb. The trip down was actually a little more eventful than the trip up as I definitely slid down using the bottom of my feet and hands at a few points since it was so steep. Also, there was one point where (thankfully) I was holding on to two different tree branches where my feet slid right out from under me and up into the air. That was fun. But! This climb definitely helped me get over my hatred of hiking (I have decided that regular mountain hiking is too boring which is why I don't like it) and over my fear of heights.
After the climb we headed to the beach for a little bit then took a long bike ride around the islands.
~~~
I'll finish the second part later!
~ ~
Friday night, after school, four of us from Geumchon got together for a game night. While the night was a lot of fun, I had to kick everyone out "early" (a little after 11) as I still needed to pack for my trip the next morning. Since I had to be at the meeting point at 7, that meant I had to get up around 4:15 am to get there on time.
By the time I finished packing and was in bed it was after 2am. Which meant that when my alarm went off the next morning I definitely turned it off, rolled over, and went back to sleep. Thankfully, at 4:55 I woke up realizing what I did, and jumped out of bed. The absolute latest I could leave was 5:10 in order to make the 5:30 subway. Since I still had to shower and pack a few things, I was seriously doubting my ability to get there on time.
Somehow I made it (with a lot of running and weird looks from the locals out and about so early in the morning) and met up with David, who was also going on this trip, at the next stop. Finally, the weekend in nature was about to begin! I was super excited about this trip as there is never enough greenery in Korea for my taste.
Once I actually arrived at the subway station, the rest of the (long) trip was simple as we went with Adventure Korea, who organized everything. From 5:45-a little after 1, we took the subway, bus, and finally ferry in order to reach our destination.
I was greeted with the view of this mountain as the ferry came closer to the Islands:
At the foot of the cliff there is a rusty old sign, written entirely in Hangul. I was convinced that it said we were complete idiots for attempting this climb and apparently I was correct; David later got the sign translated and it basically said something along the lines of "Extreme danger. Do not climb. It may result in serious injury or death."
We were on our way. First, we had to walk through thick weeds to even make it to the base. We were joking about how at the rest stop before arriving David saw a machete that he almost got and decided he wouldn't need. When in doubt, always purchase the machete!
We finally made it to the base and it was time to start climbing. As I mentioned earlier, although this wasn't a tall mountain, it was extremely steep. So steep that the locals tied rope to help with the climb. So, we started the climb up; David first, then me, then Francis, and finally Reuben.
This was the view after climbing the first rope:
At this point, I was pretty nervous. I don't like heights at all. As we are about to climb the second rope, David says to all of us, "Let me know if your arms or legs start shaking and we can find a place for you to rest."
"Um, mine haven't stopped shaking yet."
"I meant from muscle fatigue, not from fright. Let's go."
And off we went again. With each landing it became easier. As long as I remembered not to look down. This was fairly easy to do, however, as it was so steep it was important to only look exactly at where my hands and feet were located. Eventually, we made it to the top! And we were greeted by this view:
 |
| Reuben and I at the top! |
It was totally worth the climb. The trip down was actually a little more eventful than the trip up as I definitely slid down using the bottom of my feet and hands at a few points since it was so steep. Also, there was one point where (thankfully) I was holding on to two different tree branches where my feet slid right out from under me and up into the air. That was fun. But! This climb definitely helped me get over my hatred of hiking (I have decided that regular mountain hiking is too boring which is why I don't like it) and over my fear of heights.
After the climb we headed to the beach for a little bit then took a long bike ride around the islands.
~~~
I'll finish the second part later!
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteMoar, moar! Next stop,the Himalayas! Woooo!!!
ReplyDelete