We have bombarded the blog today in order to catch up. Wireless access in Jeju is restricted to the hotel lobby and it is not the most comfortable place. Given we have toured long hours, the inspiration to sit in a cold, draughty open space is just not there ...for some reason. Tomorrow we return to Busan on the mainland. Wireless access should improve from now on.
A much needed change of pace today. ' First visit was to amandarin farm. It is the Korean equivalent of the Australian “pick-your-own” strawberries. You could eat all you caould at the farm and pay for any fruit left in your basket at the exit. They had a wonderful sales trick though....... provide secetuers to the 3yo children.
Any one knows how obsessed they are with scissors and cutting things, so it wasn't long before we had a barrow-full at our feet. No matter how quickly the adults ate, there seemed to be a larger pile of fruit to work through, so it came as no surprise that no-one was ready for an early lunch.
By consensus the walk along the Jeju Ole Trail was extended from a one hour to two hour walk. The Ole trail is famous in Korea as a coastal walk. With about 200klms of coast around Jeju Island, Olle is a Korean word in the Jejudo dialect that indicates an alley theat runs from a big road to a house.
In this case the trail is divided into 14 sections. Pensions or Hostels abound at the end of each section. One really doesn't have to carry much in between as there are stalls every 500m or so on the more populated sections and almost as often conveniences too. We walked the seventh section most famous as the setting for one of Korea's more famous movies.
The first half of the walk began on well defined sections of boardwalks and pavement. It seemed the walk would be quite flat. A highlight was the natural beauty of the volcanic coast. The water was crystal clear and being volcanic dropped off quickly allowing the sea to appear a wonderful deep blue colour.
I was quite glad to have decided on the longer walk too. Soon after the first section had been cleared, the path became much less manicured. Paving gave way to rock hopping for a considerable length. It was easy to follow the path though as the sheer weight of numbers had alloed rocks to be worn sufficiently by those on natures pilgrimage. Later paths were much like tracks in Australian Parks and one followed the red/blue ribbons. It was nice to see Asia in a more relaxed and relatively unpopulated setting. This is the Jeju I imagined.
It can be said that wildlife is not abundant to the average eye. Birds are the main animals one sees and they have been quite interesting. There is a different Magpie down here to the mainland. They have a black/white patterned body, but the chest feathers do not reflect teal in the bright sunlight. I noted a bird much like our silver-eyes and wouldn't be surprisedif it was known by the same name. Crows abound in rural areas and we have seen quite a few hawks and several give the usual harrassment by local magpies chasing them away from their territiries.
A few of us had decided to go shopping but after a late finish everyone pretty well gave this the flick in favour for an early night to pack for transfer to Busan early tomorrow.
Hi Bill, yes - see I do read your blog!!!! Now, if only it was up to date like other peoples!
ReplyDeleteAnd, where are the fishing photos??????