It’s almost time to leave Gyeongju to begin a more southern trek towards the most exciting part of my road trip, and if I’m honest, pretty much the whole reason for the road trip in the first place, but first we have time to squeeze in another four hikes – yes, that’s four more national parks to tick off the list!

Today’s two adventures were a mix of fun, feeling like a bit of an explorer, and just plain pretty scenery.

I can’t very well leave Gyeongju without visiting the national park of the same name, that would simply be rude of me. And as with the city itself, the national park is another outdoor museum in its own right, just with the added pleasure of walking through forests and climbing mountains and being delighted when accidently stumbling upon hidden historical artefacts.   

I would also like to add this caveat to visiting Gyeongju National Park, it is one I would recommend to people as a first time hiking location. The paths are more than manageable for most people and there are just so many relics to discover along the way, it makes the whole day enjoyable and exciting as you are about to see.

I started the day with a smile and a good feeling thanks to the very sweet lady ranger who welcomed me at the beginning of the footpath, and who happened to be peeling an apple and therefore offered me a slice to take with me before sending me on my way toward Geumobong Peak (468m in case you are interested).

The sun was out, the weather fairly cool, and as I said before the paths more than pleasant.

As in the city, I couldn’t take more than about 20 steps without saying good morning to my first deceased King and his relatives, and appreciating the artistic steam rising from his tomb.

It was only another 10 minutes before I found a sign pointing to a side trail leading to ‘Rock-carved Buddha Triads’. Well, I have no clue what that might be. To me, the triads are a gang of some sort usually found in action movies set in China. Therefore, needless to say, I’m pretty interested in meeting some Buddha gang members. This is them.

For clarification, it is simply 3 carved Buddha figures. But I’m not disappointed. I love seeing this type of thing just sitting here in the middle of the forest waiting to be found.

More Buddhas await further up the trail; a stone seated one dated to the 8^th or 9^th century (the Unified Silla period) and one perched atop a 3-storey round pagoda (sadly headless, but with the added bonus that if you look really carefully to the stone wall to its left, there is yet another buddha carved in the rock face!).

In between my Indiana Jones stints of archaeological discovery, I manage to fit in plenty of scenic gazing of both the surrounding forest and the wider landscape, which includes the first time I have properly seen farming fields here in Korea.

What fascinates me most about this, is the size and structure of the fields. Coming from the UK where we have plenty of arable farming with massive tractors and combines given the huge size of the fields, I am slightly shocked by the fact all of the fields here are very small, to the point I’m not sure you could even fit a normal sized harvester into one of them. I feel I must investigate this further on my travels.

With all of my distractions along the way, I come across the summit of the mountain in a bit of a state of surprise. Usually the summit is quite the occasion, but today I have far more enjoyed romping around and seeing the relics of the Silla Kingdom. What does make me smile though is the gentleman who walks past me with his outstretched hand, passes me a packet of Maltesers, welcomes me to Korea, and keeps going.

I love Maltesers. These ones taste a little different from the ones at home (still good though!) and so I check the packet to see where they were made – Australia. I have discovered previously on my travels abroad that chocolate I would recognise as English often tastes different from home due to countries having different rules regarding the percentage of chocolate and milk allowed to be used in them. There you go, useless fun fact for you.

On my way down the mountain I stumble upon what I think is the best sight of my day…

Now, I know this might not look like much to you, and it’s pretty hard to describe why I found this such a breath-taking encounter, but try and imaging wandering silently through the enclosed mountain forest lost in your own thoughts, feeling relaxed and happy, and quietly emerge through the trees to suddenly see a beautiful open valley below, sunlight shining down through the clouds above, and this pagoda simply sitting there.

I love that I get to experience this. I love that it’s just me and the pagoda and no-one else around. That I get to have this special moment all to myself.

Today I have done something a little unusual on this hike in the fact that I have neither gone up and back down the same route, nor completed a circular hike. What I have in fact done is climbed up one route and then down a different face of the mountain, meaning I have ended up exiting the national park some distance from my car and now requiring me to walk the road back.

I don’t mind this at all. I get to look at houses. I get to be bemused by this river bed in which someone has balanced stones in the oddest fashion that is actually quite spooky. I discover that this area has a large number of new hanoks being built which look to be for holiday rentals.

And now that I am down at this level I get to take a closer look at the fields, which are indeed very small and compartmentalised by small banks of soil. I don’t know what is being grown, apart from that it is a grass-like crop and the lack of machinery might be explained by this photo.

Having now travelled around Korea (sorry, I am really behind in my blogging) I can confirm that a vast amount of food production in fields like this one is done by hand. And mostly by an aged population – old men and women working on their hands and knees in the fields cutting or pulling crops, gathering and tying them, or picking fruits from trees and shrubs.  I have only seen a couple of machines, small tractors and what seem to be small ridable rotovators. This has, and continues to, surprise me. Either this is the actual way that agriculture is carried out in Korea, or I have totally missed the vast swathes or arable production in the country.

Also, I just want to say that in the whole of my 3 months here, I have only seen 1 field of cows, 2 horses and 5 indoor barns that look like they would contain chickens. The Koreans must be hiding their animal production somewhere, I just don’t know where, I’m guessing in a province I didn’t visit…  

Today I leave Gyeongju behind and head to Hamyang, a place that only has a significance for me because it lies in a position that allows me to hike three national parks with relative ease. I would like to give my accommodation here the ‘best view’ award though…

On my way to my new accommodation, I stop and spend the day at Gayasan National Park. This park takes the award for the best autumnal leaf display. I have arrived right when the colours have hit their peak, and it is a veritable feast for photographers. I personally can’t take more than a few steps before having to whip out my camera again.   

Today’s hike is fun, just really fun. The leaves put me in an immediate good mood, and there is the added bonus that when I finish hiking there is a temple to look around, which I always enjoy.

The path today is nice in terms of being moderately graded, though it does have a little bit of danger factor given the rocks and slippery leaves combo, and you know, my snake fears on a sunny day with basking on rocks and camouflaging with the leaves.

As I hike today, for some reason I become really aware of the fact I am alone in the forest. This is usually a happy thought for me, but today it really plays on my mind. I think possibly because I keep hearing noises in dense vegetation to the side of the trail. Usually it’s just squirrels and chipmonks, they make a huge amount of noise for such a small animal, but today the sounds I am hearing sound…too big. Like, maybe wild boar kind of size. I stop and try to get a bearing on the noises. It does really sound like scuffling and twigs snapping, so I walk onwards trying to keep as quite as possible.

For some reason the thought of wild animals today really lodges in my head, enough that I decide to send AJ a video message warning her I might die (in good spirits, you understand) and telling her at least it’s just boars I have to worry about and not bears.

Someone, somewhere, must be playing with me today because not more than 5 minutes after I said this do I see…

Yup. Apparently Gayasan National Park is one of the few places in Korea you can expect to meet an Asiatic Bear (also known as moon bears).

I stop and literally laugh out loud at myself.

And then I feel less tense and actually slightly hoping I might see a bear. Having seen black bears on the AT several times, I have a healthy respect for them, but likewise the idea of seeing them does not terrify me. I’d love to spot a moon bear (spoiler alert so you are not sitting in suspense – I didn’t see one at all, sorry).

The forest today is something new for me – it’s open. Usually on my hikes I am tromping through thick woodland, but today the trees are surprisingly thin, giving a wonderful wide spacious outdoor feel which I love. I also like the mixture of deciduous trees and bamboo. It’s the first time I have come across bamboo just wild in the woodland like this.

And then of course come the stairs. Lots of them. And some boardwalk, for a change of pace.

Stairs mean height, and of course height means views.

And finally, there has to be at least some element of rock face before the summit.

Or summits, as is the case today.

I arrive at Sangwangbong Peak to discover that if I don’t mind putting in a bit of effort, a few more stairs, and 0.2km of walking, I can go and claim Chilbulbong Peak too. Why the heck not?

OK, enough with the fun climbing, back to the forest we go, which it turns out has turned gold with the change in afternoon light and is just stunning.

Haeinsa Temple is certainly worth the stop after my hike. Not only does it contain all the features I have come to love about temples, but it has a few extra too.

Specifically, this temple is home to the Tripitaka Koreana, “the most complete collection of Buddhist texts, engraved on 80,000 woodblocks between 1237 and 1248” according to UNESCO who have proclaimed them to have universal outstanding value.

While you are not, understandably, allowed to wander up and browse the woodblocks, you can approach the building where they are housed and look at them through the slatted windows. As someone who appreciates the written word in any form, I felt the warm fuzzies to see the blocks in person.

And with that, it’s time to go get some rest to prepare for another 2 days hiking, including climbing the highest mountain on mainland Korea – Jirisan!