Contrast. That is the theme of today’s hiking blog (don’t worry, after today we take a break from walking for a little bit), and features probably one of the easiest and one of the hardest hikes of my trip.

Our first journey takes us to Deogyusan National Park, located in the centre of the southern part of the country. With a body that is becoming increasingly tired and knees that are beginning to ache, I firmly opt for the easiest walk I can find to enjoy this park. There are to be no mountains conquered today.

There is also nothing of outstanding interest to tell you about this day, it was just simply nice. Nice. And nice was just what I was after.

With that in mind I will merely say that I took two walks in this park today in two different locations; one of about 45 minutes in length, the other a couple of hours, both pleasant and featuring lots of water, forest, and a temple with a wonderful view. This was a really nice, easy park to enjoy.

So, have at it with some pictures, and then lets move on to the big one.

Jirisan National Park has two main accolades to its name – it was designated as the first national park in Korea in 1967, and it contains the highest mountain peak on the mainland at 1,915m (compared to the 1,947m peak of Hallasan on Jeju).

To me, Jirisan holds additional interest having watched a mystery drama based on the park and its rangers earlier this year. So, of course I’d want to see it (the cinematography was pretty amazing to be honest).

I was in two minds about hiking Jirisan. My original intention was not to hike to the main peak, Cheonwangbong, but instead to visit two separate parts of the park over two days, aiming for a smaller peak and a valley trek. But that was before I met Jae. Of course when he found out I was heading to the park, he encouraged me to think about going for the main summit, and so I pondered over that thought for a few days, not actually making my final decision until 9pm the night before the hike. Because hey, that’s how I roll now. I concluded that I was going all in, I would do only one day at the park, but headed to the very top!

My snap decision though involved me packing up and leaving my accommodation when the sky still looked like this…

However, my 4.45am wake-up call did mean that I got to witness my first proper sunrise in Korea as I drove the two hours to begin my hike by 7.30am.

Due to the fact I had made such a quick decision regarding this hike, I did feel a smidge less prepared mentally than I normally would have done. I arrived with a rough idea of the car park to head to, and the knowledge that there was some sort of bus option when I arrived; but overall, I just had to roll with it.

My early arrival saw me bag one of the last car parking spaces in the upper car park (the lower one I heard would add about 40 minutes onto your hike), and it turns out I had also arrived just as the first bus of the day was setting out up the mountain. So I did what I normally do, and followed the rest of the hikers and got onto the bus.

Now I want to clarify, the bus doesn’t take you necessarily UP the mountain, more like it goes a little bit around it in a upwards direction. Really, it just gives you a starting point a little higher than leaving from the car park, but about 3km further in distance to hike. I figure it all works out in the wash.

Anyway, these were my first proper glimpses of Jirisan…

And I’m just going to go out and say it, Jirisan was a good hike. I enjoyed it.

I fully expected it to really push me over the edge just simply being ‘the big one’, but I didn’t curse or hate it at all and it didn’t kill me (though my knees took a heck of a battering on the way down, but they’d already done such a good job for me over the past few days hiking, I can’t blame them).

Of course that’s not to say I didn’t sweat buckets or I didn’t get tired or it wasn’t hard work. All of those things are true. But by the same token I wasn’t in as poor shape as the miserable lad I passed on the final stair climb who was literally taking 5 steps, stopping, bending over, and looking and sounding like he was about to pass out from lack of air (he didn’t, he made it in the end, though I almost felt like asking him if he wanted me to push him up the steps from behind). 

It was a satisfying feeling to find a decent sized summit stone at the top, it felt fitting for the occasion. What was more exciting to me though was seeing the ridgeline path running in both directions from Cheonwangbong heading deeper into the park. I could feeling the curiosity and desire to find out where those trails might lead bubbling up inside of me, reminding me of the first time I laid eyes on the AT. Jirisan National Park is one of the few parks in South Korea where you can go and complete a proper 3 or 4 day overnight hike, complete with stays in the park shelters along the way.

This wasn’t my destiny today though, maybe one day in the future…

Right now, my success for conquering the highest peak on the mainland was going to have to be cut short, because it was bloody freezing at the summit! The wind was working its magic and chilling me to the bone, and so as quick as I could, I dipped down off the side and dropped into a slight alcove of rocks to get out of the breeze. Not quite ready to shoot off, I shuffled myself onto a rock outcrop and unpacked my snacks to recharge my energy before tackling a short part of the ridge and long descent back to the car.

It was at this point I had two unexpected visitors. The first was a slightly older chap who also took a seat out of the wind to eat and somehow struck up a bit of a conversation between English and my mangling of Korean while enjoying the view. I can’t even really remember what we talked about, but recall as usual being happy that someone would speak with me.

During our little lunch party, we were approached by another older chap and a younger woman and again exchanged a few pleasantries, it turned out she had studied in London for a short time and spoke English as well. I explained I was travelling in Korea for three months and visiting the national parks. The gentleman with her started motioning at me with his camera and I thought he was asking me if I would take a photo of them (I have awesome artistic camera skills by the way). It turns out, he’s asking to take a photo of me. Hmm. Well, this is new.

It turns out, explained by the young lady, that the chap writes for a local online newspaper, the Gosung Times, and would like to put my photo in his article. Come on. How cool would that be? I’d be in the Korean press, and not because I had been arrested (as my mother always seems to believe I will be). Sure, why not?

And for those of you who might be feeling a smidge skeptical about this…feel free to visit this page:

http://www.kstimes.kr/news/articleView.html?idxno=4212

Scroll down and you might recognise a familiar face. Feel free to put the text through the translator, and then have a bit of a giggle at my described height (a good 4 inches taller than I am in real life, I must seem massive to the average Korean) and be assured this is the first and only time that I have ever been associated with the word ‘fashion’.

By now I am in a thoroughly good mood, and our little troop moves off roughly at the same time along the ridge. And it is such a very, very pretty view. Bright sunshine, blue skies, and mountains as far as the eye can see. I take my time meandering along the ridge. I spot a rescue helicopter circling around and as I stop to watch, my lunch buddy explains it is probably practicing rescue procedures which they do fairly often according to him. I pause to take photos of trees and grasses and rocks, I’m currently about 4,000 photos and counting into my trip.

Sadly my walk along the top of the world doesn’t last long and I arrive at the signpost pointing me down the mountainside. And down, and down, and down I go. Pretty much rocks all of the way. My knees hate me. Hate me with a burning passion. So much so, about three quarters of the way down they refuse to move any further without a rest.

It’s a fair request and so I stop mid boulder field and fling down my pack followed by my body and just lay there among the rocks and look up at the mountain I have just traversed. I close my eyes for a bit. A little bit of the ‘couldn’t care less’ Korean attitude might be creeping in, because when I hear other people coming down the trail, I simply ignore them and keep laying prone on the rocks, to which of course they don’t bat an eyelid. That makes me smile inside. Wiping away a little of the British worrywart-ness isn’t such a bad thing, I think.  

I can tell by the way the sunlight is beginning to change that time is passing into the 2pm zone, this is the time of day that I know I need to be heading to the car in order to make it out of the mountains before dark. I sit up and rub my knees and say nice things to them and promise them a rest after today, and luckily for me they comply and carry me back to start of the trail, delivering me a stone’s throw from where I boarded the bus some hours beforehand.

And it is right here that I would now like to place a public service announcement for any foreign visitor to Korea’s national parks, specifically anyone who parks in a national park car park controlled by an automated barrier requiring a credit card payment to exit….THEY DO NOT TAKE FOREIGN CREDIT CARDS. This will result in you having to push the button to attempt to summon a national park ranger to come and sort the problem. This happened to me twice (I learned quickly to stay away from these car parks where possible!) and both times I luckily managed to give the rangers cash instead and they sorted the machine and barrier – but the one at Jirisan took at least 15 minutes for the lad to rectify and I had a queue of 5 Koreans behind me and while patient enough, not very happy about it. You have been warned.   

Anyway, my car is released and I am ready for the final adventure of the day, driving to my next location where I shall be staying….in a hanok!

Yup. That’s right. Somehow I managed to stumble across a place in the direction I am travelling that rents out hanoks and managed to bag one for a couple of nights. My plan while there…to do nothing. Literally my whole plan for two days is to sit on my hanok wooden deck and drink tea and smile and be happy about it.        

I can’t wait.