Gyeryeongsan… Part II
 | Early, early morning. Ready for some hiking in Gyeryongsan National park. |
Me and K went back to Gyeryongsan on Sunday. This time we left Saturday night and got up at 4:45AM! Insanity? Quite possible, but we (and here it should be pointed out that ‘we’ actually means ‘I’) wanted to try and get to the peak to see the sunrise. Given the amount of hiking we had planned, we really prepped in advance. The first hike was made difficult by our lack of water and food. So this time we wanted to have enough to last for a day. At the start of our journey, We get distracted by a temple. We played aound with the night setting on K’s camera to try and get some nice starlit photos.
Our playtime cost us our chance to reach the peak by sunrise, actually we didn’t even get close, the sun rose when we are about half way up the mountain. This however still made for some very nice shots. We even met a man who was on his way down the mountain. He pointed at the sun and gestured and made a big WHOOOSH noise. The sunrise was apparently spectacular. Here’s the shot’s we got on the way to the peak:
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| It’s just me on a rock. I really don’t like posing for photos most of the time but this one did come out quite nicely. K looks great in this picture, the camera had a huge crush on her all day. The light was hitting everything in just the right way. I wish we had made it to the peak, but the trip was definitely still worthwhile. | ||
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I got the this shot of a couple of pogodas and finally the peak. The difference for going in the early morning cannot be stated enough, shots like these would be teeming with people if taken an hour or two later. There was also a striking difference in visibility versus the first hike. The views in the first were still great but they didn’t stack up to the second.
| Here’s something I didn’t think I’d see in Korea, a wild house-cat on the peak of a mountain. But sure enough, there it was. Actually there were three of them, but man is that a cute little cat or what? We walked by the peak later and this guy was carrying off an entire turkey leg he got from one of the locals. This little cat was definitely livin’ the high life up on the mountain. |  |
After the peak we went down the other side of the mountain and into a little crafts village that was a BIG disappointment. There were no buses, no taxis, and everything was really expensive. So what was supposed to be the end of our hike turned out to be the halfway point!! K was already getting tired, so I carried her backpack as well as mine back up the mountain. I had to give it to her and the downward half and by that point we were really aching. At the bottom of the mountain we met a French couple who were very nice, we spoke for a bit, their English was quite good, and i got a chance to practice my french. They gave us a ride back into the city after which was very nice of them. Me and K got home, and after a good (quick) meal, we slept for 13 hours!! It was an exhausting but good day.