Road Trip! (Day Three ~ Byeongsanbando National Park)

By Newfie | August 7, 2009 | Comments 0 Comment

Sure enough, my keys were in the sand on the beach right in the spot where I took a seat to watch the sunset. Armed with my keys I went off for my first hike to a hermitage called Wolmyeongam. This site was destroyed during the Japanese occupation because resistance activities took place here. It was subsequently rebuilt but destroyed again during the Korean war. After the war it was restored again. The trail was littered with spider webs so I found a stick and rather than just hiking in the woods, I started swashbuckling along the trail. Luckily at 6:00am no one was present to see such foolishness. I got to the first peak (Ssanseonbong) and was treated with a beautiful view of the mountains. I could also see Wolmyeongam below.

I ambered on down to the hermitage and met a highschool teacher and we spoke for a bit. The hospitality everyone showed me was amazing, they prepared me a breakfast as well as some temple tea. It was delicious! The temple also had two Sap-sal-gye, the Korean ‘ghost-chaser’. The dogs greeted me and were kind enough to pose for a couple of pics.

Apparently one of them Really liked my glasses! But he was a good pup and gave them back after a couple of salt licks.

Wolmyeongam was a really peaceful place, generally the other temples I’ve visited have been busier and the crowds kind of diminished the experience of visiting a sacred place. But I really liked this place, so I entered the temple and did a traditional prayer for the first time with instruction from the teacher. I can’t really explained what I prayed for, my prayer was a silent one, without thoughts or words. The view here was beautiful and I was told it was one of the best spots in the park from which to view the sunset.

After saying thanks I left the temple and returned the way I came. This time there weren’t any spider webs. I drove back to my tent and set up the rain cover because I had been warned that raindrops would be falling by early afternoon. Sure enough, it started to pour. I went out to the trails at Naeosa this time to check out the Jikso waterfalls. It turned out to be a hike and a half. Steep up, down, up, down, around until finally I got to the falls.

Given I had already hiked a couple of hours in the morning, I was spent. Worse yet I committed the deadly sin of not bringing enough water. My rain gear caused me to sweat buckets so I lost a lot of extra water. I got out of it ok, but it was the toughest time I had in the mountains to date. Since I was wet and exhausted, I opted to stay in a motel instead of the tent. I chose a nice spot where the Korean lady shook my hand and said ‘GOOOOD!’ when I asked about the room in Korean. She was really pleased to meet a foreigner who could speak her language. I took the room at a reasonable fee, went back to the campsite to pack up my gear and got a good night of rest.

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