jeju (part 4): the climb to the peak of mount halla

i thanked jerry for his hospitality, and grabbing all my gear (one big pack and one small daypack), i waited for the 502 bus to take me to city hall. i knew the bus would go on the road that i wanted, so i just sat on the bus until it would turn off this road. but it kept going and going, so i was happy that i would get clean out of the suburbs of jeju-si to start my hitching. the bus finally turned for jeju university and i got off and stood by the road. again, around 5 minutes had passed before someone stops for me. again, no english, but with my trusty map and sign language, he got the message that i wanted to go to gwaneumsa and the start of the hiking trail there. he dropped me right there, again going out of his way to do so. great guy!

i sussed out the situation... the climb to the peak had to be done before 13.00 from the last shelter, and to get there would take 3-4 hours. i had missed the time window and so decided to camp out at the camping ground. it was a blissfully sunny and peaceful day, the korean kids were blissfully playing their badminton and football games whilst the adults were busy preparing the tents and mealtimes.

i took this downtime to catch up with the jeju adventures for the blog. i woke early the next morning and went to the trail-head. i asked one of the maintenance guys for the time... he showed me his mobile phone: 06:36. it was a bit cloudy but the morning sun soon came out. the trail was a mix of boardwalk and stones, lined with ropes on either side to keep everyone on the trail and for me to pull myself up the steep parts sometimes. i was soon regretting the decision to bring all my gear... but i was fretting a bit about the coming typhoon and whether i would be stuck in the tent for this time. better to be in a solid building in seogwipo when the typhoon struck. i got to the bridge before the first shelter and took breakfast of a packet of digestives. 

then the steep climb up to the second shelter, and i was taking frequent breaks passing through the forest trail. another good cardio-vascular workout. not as bad as sarangkot but there i wasn’t lumping all my gear. finally, i passed out of the forest into the clearing where the second shelter was. i took a long break here knowing the last and hardest 2.4km section was yet to come. i needed all my strength for that. i met a couple of guys there who offered me rice wine (no thanks) and gimbap and sweet rice cookies (yes please!). i loaded up on water at the spring at the other end of the bridge 10 minutes’ walk past the shelter, and then the steep ascent began. at times, my heart was pounding so hard i thought it would pound its way clean through my chest all the way to the mainland! it was tough going and i was regretting all the gear even more now! people who had overtaken me were already coming back down, but finally i got to the peak! 

it had taken about 6 hours after i started at the camping site! wow, what a sight to see the lake in the hollow of the dormant volcanic crater. a magical place for sure. the clouds were being blown hard and fast at this height (around 2000m) so we were lucky to get even a glimpse of the lake. and then an extended clear spell when all those looking in the right direction at the right time also got to see the coastline and sea. i befriended a lad from seoul, hong, who was also taking the longer seongpanak trail back. he got a dodgy knee coming down and my trusty friend tiger balm came to the rescue. we came across a couple of small roe deer munching away in the forest. they weren’t so shy so we got some photos each time. i set off down around 13:20 and we got to the trail-head at 17:15. 10 hours walking in total and my legs were like jelly. i told hong i would hitch to seogwipo and he could join me, but he didn’t like the hitch-hiking idea.

so after saying goodbye and wringing out my sweat-soaked t-shirt, i planted myself and gear on the road to seogwipo. again, about 5 minutes or so and i get a lift. the driver wasn’t so talkative which suited me fine... i was so dog-tired even for small talk. by chance, he dropped me off at the same junction which i was already familiar with from my last visit to seogwipo a few days earlier. i took hong’s advice and decided to try the jimjilbang experience. so after asking in a shop and getting directions from an english-speaking woman customer, i forced my weary legs to take me there. i had to ask a few more times and sign language soon brought me to the jimjilbang.