Daejeon Hiking

Hiking in Korea is a popular pastime. I don't need the backup of statistics in order to be able to demonstrate that hiking is the most popular leisure activity in Korea. All I'd have to do is take you to a popular san (or mountain), donned with a pair of walking shoes and a bottle of water. We would be joined by thousands of Korean hikers, all in their spangling new hiking gear, ready to march in a procession to the summit beyond. In a country composed of 70% mountains, these trails prove to be steep and tiring. However, there are plentiful water stops along the way. Here you can stop to fill your bottle with natural spring water from heights above.

Bomunsan

On just the second weekend of living in Daejeon, I was craving the mountain air. I'd already heard that there were some mountains on the outside of the city, very close to where I lived. One of these is the tourist mountain of Bomunsan. Lying right inside the ring-road which encircles the city, this seemed the perfect peak for my initial hike.

Towering at 457m above the skyline of the city, Bomunsan is one of the several mountains which can be seen from outside my house. It's accessibility makes it popular with visitors to the city. However, this doesn't mar the views which can be seen from the top. We later discovered that you can get spectacular night time panoramas of the city from a viewing platform situated only half way up the mountain. The view from the top was just as stunning. However, it was a steep climb to get there.
 
On the way to the top, we spotted a war memorial; some hula hooping kids, who were much better at the exercise than myself; a refreshing water fountain and an outdoor gym. We also discovered two pagodas at the top of the mountain, but only decided to hike up to one of them. Lots of Korean hikers joined us on the way to the summit and many children stopped by to say hello, practising what English they knew. I also invented a new classification of food groups, called 'Korean Weird Snacks.'

Here's some photos of the trip:

 

Gyejoksan

Another interesting hill hike in my area was around Gyejoksan. The day started with a cup of coffee and a taxi dropping us off just on the edge of the ring-road. This is a funny road, as it seems to both serve as a way of letting traffic into the city and to stop people from getting out. In many areas an impenetrable wall raises the highway above the ground. We spent around half an hour, looking for a way through, and after asking several directions managed to find a tunnel under the road. We passed under and through a village, climbing towards the summit of the mountain.

It wasn't too long until we had reached a plateau, and a sign which pointed off in many directions. A beautiful view of Daechong-su could be seen through a clearing in the trees. This is an artificial lake, blocked off by a large dam called Daechong Dam. We headed a little towards the lake to discover thick blankets of powdered white snow carpeting the north face. Despite the warm air, this didn't seem too strange, since it had snowed heavily in Daejeon just several days before.

We decided to backtrack, taking some directions from some Korean locals, and embarked on a steep climb to the summit. Further we trekked, then down a little and then up again, until we reached a fortress wall. Here we rested for a while, taking some time to breath and have a picnic, realising that we'd in fact climbed Gyejoksanseong (sanseong means mountain fortress wall). The mountain peak lay on the other other side of the valley. The wall itself was awe-inspiring. Barriers lay alongside to stop people wondering off the edge of the wall. However, this didn't stop locals climbing over the barrier, walking so close to the edge that if a strong gust of wind came they would be blown to their doom.

We got to the end of the wall as dusk was approaching, and descended, feeling pretty tired from a day of hiking. We didn't end up in Daejeon, but in a small village with a lot of dogs. They seemed to have vendettas against us. On first sight of us, they were barking and pulling hard at their chains. Fortunately, these chains were strong. We made it down to the bus stop in one piece.

We must have walked for over and hour. Night fell and we ended up in a village of which I have forgotten the name. We realized we were pretty hungry, only having had bread and oranges to feed on all day. We set our first priority in finding a restaurant. We could only find one in the village, advertising itself as serving 'mexican chicken.' Reluctantly, we went inside and were greeted by a party of drunk elder Korean men. We tried to make some conversation with them, finding the situation quite awkward yet funny at the same time. They offered me some rum and coke, which I gratefully accepted. Thinking it'd be nice to gain a little rapport, I attempted a meek 'gonbae', which means cheers in Korean. They seemed quickly offended, as I'd broken an honorific law of Korea. You should only say 'cheers' if your elder cheers first. However, they didn't let it linger and we spent half an hour, being entertained by the drunk locals of this small village. Eventually they left the restaurant, and we were left to eat our chicken alone.

When it was time to leave, we wondered if we would be able to get the bus back to Daejeon. To our good fortune, buses were running and we managed to jump on one into the city. It dropped us off somewhere in Daejeon, but we weren't sure precisely where we were. Being early evening, and still having travellers curiosity, we decided to walk towards the other end of the city. We wondered again for about an hour, before we found a local watering hole closer to where we lived. We decided to spend the rest of the evening there, concluding a rather drunk end to a wacky day.

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So that ends another short story of a couple of adventures in Korea. I'll next write about my impressions of Seoul. See you soon.

Here's the album for Bomunsan:

Bomunsan