Right now, it seems that although I like to think I have turned into a person who just ‘goes with the flow’, I really can’t fully take off my planning hat no matter how hard I try, and to be honest I don’t really need or want to. If I had to name one skill I think I have been granted in life, the ability to plan would be it.

Let’s face facts, I wouldn’t have gotten this far around Korea, or actually be on this trip at all, if I hadn’t put a heck of a lot of effort into researching and planning in the first place. And my ability and desire to plan the minutia of, well, everything has up to this point made my trip a resounding success, in my opinion.

Rather than totally abandoning my preparation habits, I think what I have done instead is to keep them, but simply added a clause that I’ve never previously allowed myself to have that says ‘If it doesn’t quite work out the way you want or think, that’s okay, you can accept it and will deal with it. Just one thing going to plan in the day is a win, just doing one new thing is an experience, and you should be thankful for it’.

And this, people, is a life game changer.

Today is a perfect example of things not quite going to plan. A complete opposite to yesterday’s faultless happy day. And yet, it is still a day full of new things, experiences and memories. A day to still be thankful for.

I had a bit of foreshadowing about my travels today even before I set off, given that I drove the front end of the car accidently over a very large rock and ended up scraping and ever-so-slightly cracking the bumper. Admittedly this was caused by a bit of carelessness on my part, due to me suffering from a smidge of aggravation at the absolute muppet of a guest also staying at the Airbnb who had parked so inconsiderately as to cause me to have to make a 25-point turn in order to get out of the car park of the house. Therefore, when I heard the lovely loud dragging sound under the car, I really wasn’t surprised as I already felt something was going to be a bit off today.

I took a deep breath before I got out of the car, wandered to the front and took a gander. OK. Let’s appraise the situation. Not horrendous. I might get away with this. It could be considered wear and tear if you just glance over it. I calmly try to push it to the back of my mind and focus on driving safely today, though admittedly letting out a fair few curse words aimed at the parking prat as I drove off.

I am leaving Namhae today, not for good, just to visit the island next to it, Yeosu. The reason I am doing so is that I am following up on two recommendations that were given to me by the young Israeli lad I met back on Jeju (remember him?). During our evening market wander he had given me a few places that he thought were pretty amazing and I had pinned them on my Naver map to visit, just in case I was passing by. Now, passing by I am not, in fact it’s going to take me about 2.5 hours to just get to my first destination, but I am taking a gamble that it’ll be worth it. Today we are heading to the Hyangiram Hermitage followed by Suncheonman Bay Wetland Reserve.    

I want to give you my personal opinion upfront on Yeosu, and it might be a little biased based on a one-day trip only, but Yeosu is very much not worth the effort to visit unless you have a really special reason to do so.

That’s not to say my two locations weren’t worth seeing, rather to say they weren’t worth the effort I had to put in to get to them based on where I was staying. This was probably mostly due to the very un-scenic drive through the island which seems to be the petrochemical storage depot for the entire country.

It seemed that ¾ of my drive through the island consisted of pipelines, tanks, fumes of unknown consistency spewing into the air, and industrial parks. This coupled with the fact that I have discovered a new reason to hate driving in this country – truck drivers and their aversion to obeying red lights. I am not exaggerating in the slightest when I say that I have on multiple occasions seen truck (lorry) drivers driving next to me as we approach a traffic light that has just turned amber, only for me to begin to slow to be ready to stop on red, while the truck driver takes this as a sign to speed up to blaze through the red light. And I’m not talking about sneaking through on amber as it turns red, no, I am talking about the light having solidly changed to red and the truck then plough through it without a care in the world.

This exact thing happened on two separate occasions today. The first time, I could see in my rear view mirror what the chap was going to attempt (that’s how far away he was from the light) and so while I sat stationary at the red light I actually counted off the seconds the light had turned red before he went through (5 seconds – enough for the lights on the other side to turn green).

The second time, I am honestly surprised that no-one was killed. I was sitting at a T-junction in the middle of an industrial estate in the vertical lane aiming to turn left, the light on our side had just turned green and the traffic had begun to move through the intersection with about 4 cars ahead of me in the middle of the junction when two, that’s TWO, huge trucks came haring through the red light at full speed from the right hand side, completely ignoring the red light and with absolutely no intention of even trying to stop, and almost wiped out the first car in the junction.

I hate driving in Korea. People here really are just horrifically dangerous behind the wheel and with no need for it other than they can’t be bothered to follow the basic rules of the road.    

Needless to say, by the time I reached my first destination I was a little over my driving excursion. To be honest, I was feeling a little unsteady and unnerved by the drive this morning, more than I have been at all so far on my trip. It was therefore with very little excitement that I arrived in the town local to the hermitage and discovered the car park I had to use only took credit card payments. Urgh. Great.

I got out of the car and just walked away. I really didn’t have the mental strength to worry about if I would be stuck here later on and not able to exit as happened to me at Jirisan. I simply just wanted to not be near any road traffic or anything to do with cars right now. So off to the hermitage I headed.  

Hyangiram Hermitage is right at the south-eastern tip of Yeosu and because of its location is helpfully included as part of Dadohaehaesang National Park. Interesting fact, Dadohaehaesang is technically the largest national park in Korea given it covers seven different coastal areas across the south and west of the country. Yup, just like Hallyeohaesang yesterday it is another mostly marine location. I have actually gotten incredibly lucky that the hermitage is so ‘close by’ to where I am staying, otherwise in order to get my stamp for this park I would have had to arrange for a very awkward, costly, and time-consuming island visit elsewhere. So right there is a reason to be grateful for today.

And as I mentioned previously, while Yeosu has obviously not enamoured me, the hermitage itself is actually a pretty cool temple to visit with some features I haven’t seen before at others.

The climb up to the temple is a smidge steep and all steps – you have been warned! However, there are some friendly Buddhas on the way up to keep you company. Though I’m not sure where the see, hear, say no evil bit fits in as I haven’t seen this before at a Buddhist temple.

As with Boriam Temple yesterday, this place is filled with wonderful vantage points out across the sea which provides it with a relaxed and calming atmosphere.

The temple also has a number of passages for you to pass through and under that are carved directly into the rock of the cliff side upon which it sits. It does somewhat make me feel a little like an adventurer, giving off a slight Indiana Jones vibe about the whole thing.

There are turtles everywhere here, apparently the symbol of this hermitage; including these little guys decorating a balcony. I’m not quite sure what the bracelets symbolise though, people’s wishes maybe? Turtles I know symbolise longevity.   

And finally, there is a flat rock (which I assume has some religious significance to it) that it is said if you throw a coin onto it from above and it doesn’t bounce off but rests there, you will have good luck for the year. Apparently 2023 is not going to be my year, and I am also 200₩‎ less well off than when I arrived.

I do try and relax as I am walking around the temple. Usually temples are somewhat of a source of comfort to me, but today I am still feeling het up about my drive over and can’t seem to shake it. After about an hour, I cut my losses and head back to the car, hoping getting my stamp will help cheer me up a little more and take the edge off my uneasiness.

Good fortune greets me at the car park I am happy to report. Although I am ready to do battle with the credit card ticket machine to be released from the car park, I am saved the trouble by finding out that it appears to not be working. I try entering my registration number to see how much I owe, but it is coming up blank, and I am sure I am using the machine correctly. As there is no help button on the machine, I shrug my shoulders and decide to try to the barrier anyway and hope there might be some help there. But don’t you know it, as I approach the barrier, it just opens and so off I drive, happy that something good related to the car has just happened!  

But that is obviously cocky of me.

For I drive 5 minutes along the road, into the National Park headquarters for my stamp (score!), and then try to exit, only to find that I am now actually stuck. The barrier won’t let me through because once again the national park ticket barrier doesn’t take foreign credit cards. How can this be? How are tourists supposed to visit these places of national interest?

Anyway, this isn’t my first rodeo and so I push the button, explain my problem and (just as at Jirisan) a ranger has to come running from the office all the way through the car park to take my cash instead, which I can clearly see she is relieved that I have and isn’t more hassle than simply collecting it.

On my way again, I am ready to get the fuck off of Yeosu. Sorry, but that’s how I feel right now.  

I spend late afternoon and early evening at Suncheonman Bay Wetland Reserve and am very glad to do so, though just wish I was in a lighter mood and feeling less anxiety than I do. I am hoping the combination of nature and cranes will lift my spirits before I make the final push back to Namhae.

The reserve is definitely my type of place. It is basically a big open space filled with reeds and mudflats and birds. Just the sort of thing I love. And so do Koreans it seems, for the place is far busier than I would have thought for a Wednesday evening.

But I soon discover why…selfies in the sunset. And today I really can’t blame them, this place is ablaze with colour as the sun goes down.

I only have a couple hours to spend here, but you could easily spend 3 or 4 depending on how nature or bird crazy you are. I take the main walking path through the reed bed, stopping to take a look at the river and the mudskippers along the way.

Once you make it through the reeds (along a beautiful boardwalk, of course), you can choose to simply meander back to the start or make the climb up through the forest to the observatory. Guess which I chose?

For anyone thinking of visiting Suncheonman Bay, bring binoculars. Good ones. It will be worth it. I wish I had some to hand, but at least the reserve is kind enough to have free telescopes for visitors to use and even if they aren’t the most amazing quality, you can still make out the birds better than with the naked eye.

Just as the sun is considering calling it a day, the flocks of birds become more and more numerous. There are plenty of wildfowl but too far away from me to even attempt to identify, so let’s just say ducks of many varieties, and of course there are the cranes.

Now, I like birds. A lot. Though not a Twitcher per se, I have worked with a wide range of birds in a professional zookeeping capacity and so I am more bird crazy than the average person. I like birds of all stripes (and feathers), but for some reason I do have a little more love for cranes, and I couldn’t really say why or where this interest has come from. Therefore any chance to see them en masse and in the wild stirs my heart. Needless to say, my eyes didn’t leave the telescope until the light started to fade and I suddenly realised I still needed to get back down the hill and through the reeds.   

That’s when I hit the reed beds and clearly understood why there were so many people here this evening.

Stunning, right? I don’t think I have seen or enjoyed as many sunsets in my life as I have here in Korea. They all seem completely magical and I have no idea why. But I love them. Every single one.

And with love for birds and sunsets in my heart and mind, I can finally breathe calmly and feel thankful for my not-so-perfect day before making my way home to Namhae.