#156 The amazing view from Gunsan Oreum, Jeju

Transcript

Alright, it's the very next day. The cat, mother fucking came back, because I've been mostly doing roughly a day on a day off on this circumnavigation of Jeju Island. But it's July 10th right now, and my visa expires July 24th. So the 23rd really is when I got to be done by. And I'm getting relatively close, but I mean it's still, you know, I got a whole whack of coastline still to walk down. It's just really hard to tell. I mean, maybe I'll wrap this up sorta quickly and have some spare days. But even then, I mean it won't be very many, even if that happens. And what if the opposite happens? What if I just don't quite make it? That's gonna really weigh heavy in the titty of me. Just like, like I almost made it. Why didn't I push a little harder? And during the super heatwave days, you know, it's like, that's a bad attitude to have. I don't wanna go out when it's like dangerously heatwave hot and dehydrate and die, you know. But it's been pretty overcast, pretty rainy seasony lately. And today, it's especially, it's literally raining. I'm sure you can hear the pitter patter on my umbrella. So I just wanted to push it. It's like fuck it. Let's just get up and let's go. Let's go again. And when I left the hotel, it was only just raining just the tiniest bit. And then just as I got to the bus stop, the sky kinda opened up. It started raining pretty fucking hard. And I was just sitting there waiting for the bus and I almost bailed out. I almost bailed out cause it's like, man, you know, this is what's waiting for me on the other side. You know, I can always just hope that it'll clear up as I take the bus out towards San Bang San, which is where I ended last time. It's overcast enough today, by the way, that I can barely see San Bang San in the distance, even though it's this enormous, huge, beautiful mountain. The whole last episode was just basically appreciating the view of it from all angles. Today, it's very hazy. Very hard to see. But yeah, luckily, the bus showed up right in my moment of doubt. So as I got whatever, I'll just get on. The worst case scenario at the Seguapo bus transfer. There is a McDonald's there. I mean, I guess I could just get McDonald's and come home. But then I checked the weather with the bus Wi-Fi. Not only is the rain not supposed to clear up today, but not for the whole week, for many days to come. I think if I wait for the rain to pass, then I am going to fail this mission. And this is not heat wave danger. I mean, I'm actually wearing my jacket right now. I have a feeling I'll have to take it off eventually. But it's actually cool enough that having it on is not like an immediate death sentence. I'm not, I'm sure I am sweating, but not in the way where you can just like actively feel it. You know, the heat's been so bad lately that like, I'll notice that especially if I go into a washroom and I'm in a little contained area. So the humidity seems extra bad in that moment. But I'll look down at my forearms and they're just glistening. They're just wet. That's like, dude, that is some sweating. Today is cool enough that it's like mid 20s, 26, 27 at the worst. I might even be a little lower than that. It's actually pretty nice. And by the time I get out here to stand bang sand, it's not even raining that bad. It's pretty okay. And really, I think my only problem with the rain that I encountered the first time I tried to walk through the rain way back near the start of this circumnavigation journey.

The main problem is just my boots. These boots have actually been super awesome. I bought these boots for about $70. In the shoe district of Seoul, where there's just a bunch of shoe places. And I really didn't know what to expect because I don't know, I was just thinking of like, if you buy shoes from Walmart or something. It's a terrible idea because they're just going to melt off your feet. I try to generally be a bit of a more frugal person, but I have learned the hard way that with footwear, it's kind of worth it to just get, I mean, maybe not excessively mega expensive shoe head type fucking bullshit, sneaker head bullshit or they call shoe people. But just some kind of a brand name so that your shoes don't just just fall apart 5:00 within three months of buying them. So at the shoe pavilion in Seoul, none of it is brand names that I recognize. So I didn't know what to expect. Are these generic sort of Korean brands, which many of them still seem to be made in China? Like, are we talking Walmart level or are we talking actual good level? And I'm glad to report that these boots I bought, I mean, they are big like work boot type things. It would suck for that kind of footwear to not be good for the people that actually need good footwear, but they've been great. They've been amazing, super duper like nothing, they haven't worn down at all, like nothing about them seems bad. They're very super sturdy.

And I've been surprised how even, you know, with the summer heat and stuff, it'd be nice to just wear flip flops or something, but that doesn't work for me. I got flat feet. I need very secure footwear, but I haven't even found that to be a problem. They seem quite breathable. Everything's been really nice.

The only problem is during rainy times, they get all wet and the inside just smells like fucking death. But I'm not even sure if that's so much the boots fault or if it was just the insole, because that's, I guess, once I took out the insole and threw those away and just bought replacement insole, sprayed them down with some deodorizer spray. Eventually my boots returned to not smelling like death. So I think that's really kind of my only real concern. I don't mind getting a bit wet from the rain. I just don't want my fucking boots to smell awful. But I took out the insole today. I don't know, I have like two insole because I've got my little special ones for my flat footedness. I just use the ones you get for planter fasciitis. I think it's called, which I don't have, but if you buy insole from a drugstore that are for planter fasciitis, planter fat. Is it planter or planter? Whatever. If you buy the insole for this fasciitis stuff, conveniently, they just keep my flat feet from hurting. I left those ones in because I need them and they're pretty sturdy. I can take them out and clean them up real good. Yeah, I took out the larger insole, put them in a plastic bag, tucked them away in my inner pocket. So it's like, now we'll see. Is this going to solve the problem? Or is this going to be worse for my boots? Like maybe sacrificing my insole to the gross bacteria and then just throwing them away is better. Maybe now all that will just build up in the boots. I don't know.

Anyway, ultimately it's a pretty minor problem. Just my boots are going to smell bad for a bit.

Beyond that, this is actually pretty nice. Like I was saying, it's really not not even uncomfortably hot today. It's actually nice out. It's just rainy and super misty. And again, if I waited if I waited for the rain to end, then then it's over. Then I have failed because that'll be the end of my journey. Oh, shit. There's an ole trail marker because I was also going to say what I got happened in today is a walk into the great unknown. The reason I stopped yesterday is because I don't know what's going to happen next. I'm at the man, especially way smaller in real life than I expected it would be from the map. Huanggai Qian Bridge, HWA and G, G-A-E-C-H-E-O-N, heading toward Wallabong Mountain. And then behind that, seems like another mountain. And none of this stuff is especially close to the bus line, but not crazy far away. But yeah, I just wanted to get this started earlier in the day, not later, just in case. Because I don't quite know what's going to go on, but this is a good example of I would just go forward across this bridge and see what happens. But the ole trail is saying to go upriver, to hang a left right now. And yeah, just because this is such an odd area and the shoreline here, I could see before from a distance is like an actual cliff. It's one of the worst cliffs ever. It's like this enormous, huge cliff. One of the biggest cliffs I've seen anywhere on the island. This seems like a very good time to follow the ole trail and just go wherever 10:00 it wants me to go. Because yeah, ahead of me, it's just the mountains aren't as big as Sen Bang sign, only like half as big. But they're just covered in trees and they look super sick and dense and forested and just confusing. This whole thing is just like I don't know where to go. I can't just stick to the shoreline, which is my usual go-to because it's just a cliff. And I don't know if I can cut through that mountain. I don't see anything obvious. So yeah, that's fucking convenient.

Thank you, ole trail. I give the ole trail shit sometimes for how super meandering it is and how weird it is that it takes you inland so that you miss cool stuff on the shore. You miss dolphins and things. But it's still very nice to have it. Sure does come in, come in clutch sometimes.

But yeah, a nice rainy day. It's not too windy. The rain's coming down pretty much straight down, so I'm not even getting a specially soaking wet. I get to do an experiment to see if removing the insoles from my shoes helps, helps maintain them without them just turning into bacteria bombs or maybe it'll be worse. I just don't know. But yeah, time to sally forest. Keep on going. Right at this weird period where I'm like, I am pretty close to the end, but I don't know, telling yourself there's not that much farther to go. When there's a lot left to go, it just seems like a bad idea. Because you know, it's all relatively speaking. I don't have that much left, but you know, I've only just completed the southwestern corner of the island. So I still have to walk along the entire like half of the southern shore back to Segwipo. That's not short, you know. But I'm thinking about the other walks. I mean, I feel like I could probably do it in a few days, but it's so hard to tell. It's so hard to gauge what's going to happen. Say, I'd rather push it a little, especially when it's not super hot out. Rain be damned. I was kind of thinking too. I might not complete everything. Even though I've done everything in a row, in the proper order so far, there is a waterfall coming up. That's the final pace of money to see the waterfall, waterfall. And when I get there, then I think I might start going the other way. To start walking west from Segwipo and complete the loop at that point, at that waterfall.

Because I feel like walking all the way to Segwipo, that might be a little less, I don't know, it's just not a great end point. I've already walked that stretch. In fact, it was while I was walking that way that I had this idea. While I was walking west along the coast, that's where I got it in my head like, oh, I just want to keep going. Can you just keep going? Can you just keep walking? So I kind of want to do that. I kind of want to walk along that shoreline west because that's like I'm still I'm visualizing where I stopped before that shore and just like, what's the next thing going next? See what's happening next? Like, go next, go next, whoa. But then I started walking east instead and I went counterclockwise around the island. I don't know, I don't know why I try to describe these things sometimes. They're what the fuck. The point is I'll still walk all the parts, but I might not choose Segwipo as my final point. I might pick a place west early of there instead to sew things all up. Anyway, this is a this is pretty pretty.

Just walking along this little river coming up to another bridge that presumably the Ole trail will send me across. Again, like, who knows what would happen if I crossed that earlier bridge, but maybe nothing. It really didn't look the mountain didn't look very passable from there. So this is almost certainly better. And rain is weird too. It's like I can barely hear 15:00 the rain right now. Very little pitter pattering on my umbrella, but then if I look down at this river, visually there are a lot of those little you know, just the little circles of rain hitting the water.

That's kind of the weirdest level of rainfall where it just kind of doesn't look like or even sound like it's raining, but then you just mysteriously get soaking wet if you don't have an umbrella. That happened a lot in Vancouver, where it's just like raining a little bit and you just kind of can't really see it. And then you step inside somewhere and you're like, wait a second, I'm covered in wetness. How did that happen? Anyway, I'm going to take this coat off now too. It is slowly starting to get too humid, but even this, like that I've been wearing this coat this long, my fucking weather resistant jacket before it got too hot. That's a good sign. It is not overly hot today. Fucking delightful.

This is the Olle Trail. Holy crap, man. This part of the Olle Trail is fucking awesome.

So I guess it was like the Eastern Coast where I was testing out these side-so-jurns of the Olle Trail, and they weren't working for me because instead of the coast, it was just farmland and stuff that was, you know, there were always things there. There was always something to see. There was always like seemingly a reason why it sent you off there, but compared to the coast, I just, I didn't, didn't like it. It was away from the breeze. It was a much longer and I just like the coast. But this one, this one's amazing because like I was saying, I couldn't go by the coast anyway because it's just a rocky cliff face, which now that I think about it, that might be the case for a while. If not for kind of the rest of this, I don't know, we'll see. I guess not the whole way, but there's a lot of just sheer cliffs, just west of Seguapo. Things are going to start getting a lot more rugged. This is my umbrella rubbing against trees. But yeah, this one is called the, there's a little sign, so I get to find out what this part is called. Jinmour Dongsan. Jinmour means a long ridge walk on low terrain. There is a waterway in the rocks to draw water into a rice paddy, which was made with chiseled by locals. Oh, shit, I missed that earlier. I fucking made that thing I was walking along. So yeah, right after I turned off the recorder before, like literally right there, I instantly had a choice because the, the ole trail was leading me a little bit backward and down, down into some weird little valley. I was like, what the heck? But there's a road right ahead of me that's just continuing on into the mountain. But that road doesn't go very far in Google Maps, so maybe there's a path that keeps going. And a little bit of me wanted to just go straight into the mountain, but it's like, you know, as I was saying, this mountain is not very, not very inviting looking, very dense. If there's a bore somewhere around here, it's in there, for sure. And the fact that there's the ole trail right here, obviously it's the curated trail. So whatever other trail may or may not exist, it's going to be a lot more rugged. And it is all rainy and stuff. And I was like, just don't do it, man. Just follow the fucking ole trail. Stop being a dick. And this has been awesome. This is by far the best. You know, I haven't actually gone on very many of the ole little side trails that go inland. But if the ones I have, this is the best. So yeah, it was like taking me along the edge of this stream, which apparently the locals chiseled by hand, which is fucking crazy, because it's like a pretty decent stream. And at first, it felt kind of Christopher Robbony, that feeling of like a rural England walking along a little creek or something. Not that I've been. I've only been to the Netherlands. But in the Netherlands, I remember having that feeling of like, oh, this kind of feels like when I see people on YouTube walking across the English countryside. So anyway, this had that kind of feeling. But then it went deeper into the trees and then it became like jungle feeling with the canopy over top. And I accidentally walked through a spider web with 20:00 my umbrella. And I saw a little spider on top of my umbrella. So I held my umbrella over by a tree branch. And it climbed off and climbed back back to its own world. And yeah, now I'm walking through. It looks like these trees have been deliberately planted. They're really evenly spaced apart. Oh yeah, and here we go. This one has a fruit. So the little tiny ones that are new are green. But there's one that's left, this ripe one. It looks like, I mean, from a distance, it looked kind of like a pair, but like a round pair. But maybe it's Yuzu. Now it looks lemony. But yeah, the mountain is to my side now with the mist going along it.

And yeah, this is awesome. This feels real good. This is such a nice trail. This is such a nice part. And without the Ola trail markers, I would never have found this in a million years because I would have either gone up the mountain at that first bridge or up the mountain at that second bridge. You know, just you would never ever, unless you were a local, know to take a 180. You know, hang a fucking turn all the way around and go down into a weird little valley. But then, yeah, this has been like, it's like a really long, too. I've been walking on this thing for a while. And there was a big wooden fence earlier. Now I'm at a fence that's just posts with ropes a little less intense. But yeah, this thing, it's just fucking beautiful, man. And there is one point in it where, especially how I'm always getting lost and losing the trail, where you could see a vague path, like some people had continued on the wrong way, enough so that, you know, you could see that there was less foliage. It was beaten down a little bit.

But they got the nice, big, obvious arrow that's like, no, no, no. Hang a left here.

Oh, man, this is weird. There's like a rail, a single rail. And there's a sign. So this is a Jeju Ole Trail Route 9. Risk of collision. And the little stick man is being struck by a mine cart. Man, so this rail that cuts across this path, I mean, I guess you put a cart on it, but I don't know what you're carting into where. Fruit, I guess, maybe down the valley. That's fucking cool. I've never seen that before. But yeah, this has just got damn gorgeous. I'm still surprised, too. I was saying like last episode how I, I didn't often buy sun tan lotion in my hometown, despite the fact that Canadian summers are really fucking hot. They're really insane. But because I was covering myself up to avoid bugs, to avoid insects.

Oh, here's another one. You could continue on into the field, but the Ole Trail says nope.

Turn left here, go down these stairs. Oh, and I can see a bridge below me. I think I'm finally coming to the end. I think I'm coming back into civilization. But yeah, that Eastern Canada, specifically where I'm from, Frederton, New Brunswick, very marshy, swampy, marshland kind of thing. It's perfect for breeding mosquitoes. And we have really sick woods. And just like the insect problem, it changes from year to year. But when it's a bad year, it is absolutely insane. It's like you can't go outside. It's biblical. And that has been so not a problem at any point in South Korea. But I don't know, I kind of figured by this point, being on Jeju in the middle of the summer. You know, I had those times with the mosquitoes in my room, which I think since I changed rooms, it has helped. There still are mosquitoes sometimes. And it's insane how just one mosquito can fuck up your whole day. But it's been less bad. But that's the weird thing is that the only insect problems I've had are literally indoors. Out here, how are there no bugs? This doesn't make any goddamn sense. If I was back in my hometown right now, I'd be getting bit like everywhere. I'd be getting bit all goddamn day. I would have to really think twice about doing a single day of this Ola trail style walking. We're here. I mean, if you've been listening to these episodes, you know how long I've been doing this? Days and days and days and days and days and days. And insects are almost never an issue at all. It's weird, man. I don't understand it.

We really got the short end of the stick in the land of Canada. Man, the insect problems there are just fucking nuts. So yeah, now I'm standing on a bridge in the middle of a little wee river.

Yeah, this is really fucking pretty. It could also be, I guess, I don't know. Again, I don't know how many times do I have to say I don't know how things work. I think it's a given at this point, right? But I don't know how insect stuff works. But also, I guess it could be because our good weather is so limited in Canada. Like, it is actual insect explosions. It's just fucking crazy. They just explode out everywhere. And if you're a deer or something, I feel bad for you. I've seen deer in the woods that are just covered in mosquitoes. And like, what are they supposed to do so they just deal with it? So I don't know. Maybe the fact that it's just kind of generally temperate all the time. Maybe that helps keep things calmer. Maybe that bug spray that I saw in Busan. I did see a little bit of that out here. Maybe that shit really works. Maybe they've blasted the insects around here. But yeah, all I saw today, like walking through this path was fucking butterflies. You know, it's just beautiful. Beautiful and gorgeous. It's just like, fuck, how awesome.

Oh, I think I just caused a cascade of bad behavior. Very gentle bad behavior in an inadvertent way. But I was just thinking to myself, like, you know, at this point, with this particularly confusing part of the island where there is no coastline to walk across and a bunch of mountains. And I don't really know what's going on. At this point, I'm really glad to have the Ola trail. And also, just in general, because time is ticking, you know, because I'm coming to the end. And I don't want this goal to slip past me. I'm like, yeah, good old Ola trail. Maybe I will just try to sort of follow it the whole way from here on in. Because it's just nice to know that I'm not going to get lost. I'm not going to get turned around and confused. I'm just, it might take a little longer, ultimately, because the Ola trail kind of winds you around a bit. But just knowing that if I just keep going with the Ola trail markers, I will get where I'm going. Is a good feeling when I'm starting to feel a little bit of a time crunch. And just as I thought I was thinking that, just as I was like, yeah, good old Ola, the very next turn at the Ola trail was blocked off with yellow caution tape. It's like, God damn it. Just when I got on your side, Ola, okay. However, I've seen this before. There's a trail if you go up to the the waterfall near my hotel where there's like an elevated park and you can see the waterfall from the top.

You can go walk along the edge of the water above the waterfall. There's a little trail, little jungle trail along that river that takes you to uptown Seguapo. And it's my favorite route to take if I want to go uptown to go to fucking KFC or some bullshit. But I've noticed that anytime it's rainy, just weather like this, it's always cordoned off. But I'm like, you know, I've been on that trail before. I know how it works. It's like a two or three minute walk. It's very small. I can't imagine that it's a problem because the water is very far down from it. It's not close to the water even. And if I don't take it, then it's a long detour through traffic. Where if I do take it, it's a two or three minute walk to another park area. Way, way better. So I was like, let me just check this out. And I think what's going on is just anytime there are rainy times like this. In fact, I did see a sign just earlier today saying, please take this detour during typhoon or rainy weather. I think anytime it's rainy, they just block off these areas that are near water because if it was a really bad flood, those would be dangerous places to go. However, in this case, like the case of by my hotel, it's really fine, you know.

It would have to be 10 times worse before that was impassable. The worst it got even when it was 30:00 really rainy is I'm like, yeah, I guess the water is rushing more strongly. If I did somehow fall down into the water, still very unlikely. You'd have to really try to do it. But your likelihood of getting swept down the river over the waterfall would be a lot higher. So I kind of get the feeling that these caution tape things. It's more like, hey, if you're 75 years old, don't do this right now, just in case. Just walking by a coffee shop. What kind of music we got today.

It sounds like a song I should know. It sounds like a, I don't know, like a sound alike, like a royalty-free version of some song I do know, maybe I don't know. But, you know, like I was saying last episode, generally the music in South Korea. It's kinda cool. That song was kinda cool. That was alright. Like you would never hear that song in Japan, ever. You'd hear something that has vaguely jazzy elements, and it's just like annoying. No offense, lovers of Japanese pop music. I mean obviously that one wasn't even Korean, but I guess that's where the North American influence is a bit handy.

Tell me, just tell me. I grew up with that type of shit. I can't help it. That's what I like. So yeah, I got very comfortable with ignoring, because it was always blocked off that one by my hotel. Every time it was rainy, and it was always fine. It's like, yeah, this is a, I see that you're just covering your back just in case, but it's fine.

So I thought I'd test that out in this case of like, well, it is obviously very rainy. Maybe this is blocked off for similar reasons. So I just went under the little police tape, the yellow caution tape, the danger tape. In fact, I'm passing some right now. Like all of them are blocked off. There's all kinds of these go down by the water areas. But I'm skipping all these ones, because it's fine. Like now I know I'm on the right route. I'm just still following the Ola trail. I don't need to go down these ones. But that first one, it's like, well, if I don't go down here, I don't know where to go from there. And I don't want to lose the dang trail. So I just thought I'd go check it out. And yeah, it was a similar thing. It's like, there's a walkway down quite near the water. So it's a similar situation. If there was a flood, yeah, this thing would be fucked, but it wasn't. It was fine. It was no problem. So I'm not saying you should disregard the do not enter tape, but it is always there as a precaution. As soon as it gets rainy, they just put up this tape at a bunch of areas that are near water. So anyway, I cut through there. It was a nice little walk. And then I came up the other side. There was more tape. But importantly, there was a washroom.

I was very much hitting the point where I needed a washroom. It came up through the tape and I saw parking lot across the street. And there was a washroom.

And there was no traffic around. So I crossed the street to head toward the washroom. But I had just broken two things. I just came out from under some tape that you're not supposed to cross. And I crossed the street while it said, do not walk. And on the other side of this little, again, there were no cars around. But on the other side of this intersection were four young Korean guys, probably late teens early 20s.

And that's where I set off a cascade of bad behavior of, you know, because I crossed the street. And honestly, I didn't even notice that there was, because there's many times that there is no light. You just got across, you know, you got to take your life into your own hands. So I didn't even notice that there was a crosswalk. And I would await it probably, especially if someone else is waiting. I don't want them to be like embarrassed that they're following the rules. And now I'm just some dickhead foreigner who's not. But just because I saw the washroom, I didn't even think twice. It's like there's no traffic. The washrooms there start walking. And then I realized like, oh, those guys were waiting. And I know there's this little red hand saying don't cross. So well, whatever. But those four guys, they just glanced amongst each other and just started crossing, because I think it was this sense of like, well, fuck it. If Mr. Four and her man's not going to wait, why the fuck are we waiting? Let's just cross the street. So I was like, whoops, I, whoops, sorry, guys didn't mean to, I didn't say shit, but that's what I was thinking. And I started to instill in you a bad habit. 35:00 But then on my way across the parking lot, I glanced back and they were all standing at the danger tape and just kind of peering down past it. And then they were similarly, they were like, well, fuck it. I don't know. Mr. Fucking visitor guy came out through there. Let's just go down. So they ducked under it or stepped over it and they all went down. And again, it's fine. There's like nothing. Nothing's going to go wrong down there. It's just a prominent near some water. But I just thought it was funny that these guys were all just following the rules. And I don't know where they were heading to, but what they were planning to do. But as soon as they see Johnny no good Nick, Johnny rule breaker come fucking step over the danger tape and not pay attention to the fucking crossing light. You know, I just was like, oops, I just, I just caused them to spiral into delinquency because they were, you know, none of it mattered. No harm done. There was no traffic around. There was no water flooding danger. But I was like, whoops, did I cause that to happen?

But I can totally see it if you're just hanging out with your friends. And then it's like, I don't know, maybe not embarrassing, maybe just like slightly cloying. Like why are we standing here following all the rules of this jerk off is following no rules.

Alright, so the Ole Trail is pointing me finally back toward the coast. Still big time mountains up there. Big, heavily forested, impassable looking, crazy ass mountains.

But, Ole saying to go this way. So let's see, let's see how far in it takes me. Oh, and here's some Yuzu trees. Yeah, that's definitely what those trees were before.

Unless, I mean, it's possible these are lemons. I don't know the difference between a lemon and a Yuzu. But alright, heading up into the grayed unknown, into the wilderness. I guess let's see what happens.

Alright, so I ended up walking around that Woolabong mountain, which was the right choice because the Ole Trail around it, like I said, was mega beautiful.

So now I'm on the next mountain, Goonsan, G-U-N-S-A-N. Although this sign says Gul-Me-Orium, G-U-L-M-A-E.

So it's one or the other, and man, I'm glad I did not bail out earlier today, waiting for that first bus when it was raining really hard. Because, yeah, it's still like rainy, but it's hardly raining. I don't even think my feet are wet. My worry is about my boots getting gross. Because I don't know that the boots are letting water in. I think it was just so rainy those other days, that my pant legs were getting wet. And then that was transferring to my socks, and then it ran down my socks and filled my boot. I kind of suspect, you know, maybe a bit is getting in.

But it's kind of cool the way these boots are designed. There's no holes for where the laces go. It's just little like metal toggle things, little eyelets.

And the tongue isn't even separate from the boot. The tongue is connected all the way up. It's all just kind of one closed-off system. So maybe some water's getting in somewhere somehow, but I think it was actually just my socks where, you know, around my ankle wasn't sealed tight enough. That's my suspicion. But anyway, today, yeah, my feet feel totally normal. They don't feel wet, even amazing.

And yet it is rainy enough that I haven't met anybody on the Ola trail. Like I said, I met those four near-do-well teens walk past a couple of construction workers and stuff like when I got more into civilization. But on these trail parts, not a single person. This is all me today. However, because it's this kind of weather, it's funny up here. There's two of these signs that are like, here's the various views. Like number six here, even though I can't read it, it's not in English, but that's Sunbang Sun. You can't miss it. Oh, and over here, there's the Horse Mountain. Oh, and there's the various islands. Oh, and there we go. Number one, way over here, that's the southernmost point in all of the Korean territory. It'd actually be great to see this on a clear day. Maybe I'll come back here if I have any more clear days while I'm still on Jeju Island. 40:00 This would be worth it. That would be a fucking great view. That's kind of like all the greatest hits of the southwestern corner of Jeju Island. You can see them all from up here. But I can't. I can't see fucking anything. I can barely see beyond the trees that are right in front of me. And then on the other side, at first I couldn't see anything, you know, heading over to the east where I'm heading toward. It has now cleared up just a little, like I can see the valley floor down below me. Jeez, I'm really high up. I was thinking, like this was a fairly gradual ascent. There were no steps. It was all just like when they lay out that nature carpeting. It was a pretty gradual uphill, but it just kept going up and kept going up and kept going up and kept going up until I got to the point that I was like, what the fuck? When do I get to the top of this goddamn thing? I have no idea how high up it is. But high enough. Oh, here we go. 234.5 meters. Pretty much directly from sea level. So that's the actual height, you know, how I've learned that these heights, the literal height doesn't always matter so much for a mountain. It's the prominence, I think it's called, like how high it is based on the things around it. But because I started pretty much down by the shore, very near the shore, and that is not the entire 334 meters, but a good majority of it. I did actually walk up. So yeah, that was a little ways. And yeah, the ground looks really far from up here. It's actually clearing up more to the east, not to the west, to the west even worse. But yeah, I can actually see a ways. There's apparently mountains in the distance that I'm coming up to, but I can't see any of those, so I don't know what they are.

Yeah, it looks like just farm-type stuff mainly coming ahead of me, but I can see it a bit. Yeah, this is really beautiful. The Gulmei Aureum Penorama. Yeah, also that you can see all the way around, or theoretically. But yeah, to the north, I can't see anything to the south is probably a pretty sweet view of the ocean, but not today. Yeah, this will totally be worth it. I'm going to try to come back here on a clear day if I get one, because this is pretty fucking intense. Dude, you can just see, you can theoretically see everything. But even though I can't see anything, it's still neat. It feels cool. I'm in the clouds, I'm in the fog, I'm in the mist. It's kind of sweet.

Yeah, what time is it? I think I can even squeeze in some more. Walk in today.

Five o'clock. Yeah, I'm making some okay progress today, and like, let's just keep going, fuck it. If I can get on till like seven o'clock, why not? Why not? I guess we'll see. We'll see what happens as far as bus stops go. Suppose if this trail takes me somewhere near a bus stop, and then it appears to be veering me back away from bus stops, then we'll see. That'd be a good time to bail out.

But I guess no way to find out without going, and there's actually kind of not a ton of reason to dally up here since I can't see anything. It's still really cool, and yeah, just judging by. It's so weird to see the picture set up. Here's what you are supposed to see, and it's like, yeah, that's pretty good, man. That looks like that would be pretty good. Yeah, it's like this is so neat. I know what all this stuff is. Again, the southernmost point of the Korean territory, number two, is the island that that Dutch guy wrote about, in like the 1600s, the first time the Western world became aware of it. Number three is this little double island that they say is really cool for sunrises and sunsets. People take pictures a lot. Four is horse mountain. Five is that dragon coast or whatever that's across the street from Sunbang Sun, and six is Sunbang Sun. That's fucking sweet, dude. I can't read anything. I can't read a goddamn thing on this. It's all in Korean, but I know what all that stuff is. That's fucking cool as fuck, man. But all right. Quit patting yourself on the back, dick bag. Gotta keep going. Gotta keep on going.

Well, this is pretty fucking lucky. Looks like I won't have to come back this way after 45:00 all, because up the trail a bit went even higher, higher up into the mountain, and everything just cleared up, like goddamn magic. Like it's still misty and generally overcast, but this is fucking insane. This is the most clear it's been all day, by a lot. Like I can see everything now. I'm way up at the highest peak, and it is. It's a total panorama. This is nuts. I can see everywhere around me. In fact, maybe I shouldn't think about this too hard, because I wasn't feeling any fear of heights till I just said that. And it's like, oh yeah, I am. I'm floating in space right now. Above everything. This is unnerving, but yeah. So I got the coastline. I can see all the little pharmy type stuff in the coast. The cliffs have receded. It is just down to down to the shore, just the black volcanic rock, and it looks like it's going to be that way for some time, because I can see way down the coast. To the west, there's the two islands that I said are like the one where people take pictures of the sunrise and sunset. I can very vaguely see the 1600s Dutch island, but not really. So then the the farthest point south, little mini island, I can't see. So that's the extent of, but I mean, that is again, the farthest point in all of Korea. So I can't quite see the very farthest edge, but there's Horse Mountain. There's Sen Bang Sen. That thing is insane. I can see now that I'm seen it from a distance, that back part where there was the Buddhist temple that I found out you're not allowed to walk up there till at least 2032, I believe they said, but it does seem way more accessible from the back. It's way less deep. But yeah, that thing is quite quite a fucking mountain, dude. That thing is intense. It's the one thing around here that still has mist clinging to it. I mean, I can't believe how fast everything blew over, like how clear it got. It's fucking weird, but Sen Bang Sen is still misty. That thing is fucked. Oh, and I see there's the from the other side of Woolabong, where I saw the factory where its towers seemed as tall as the cliffside. You can see those factory towers and Woolabong Mountain.

Then to the south, I mean, who the fuck knows, man? Who the fuck knows what all that shit is, because I never, you know, did any of that stuff. I've just been going along the coast, but there's just just these little mountains everywhere. There are those like little volcanic cone mountains. Apparently, there's like 300 of them spread around Jeju. So from here, I can see, well, I can see a whole mountain range that I assume ties into Halasan. I don't know, though. That part is cloudy, so I can't really tell. But once they become individual, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve. And then I guess 13 with Woolabong, 14 with the one that I'm on, 15. I can see at least 15 different little mountains from here. Like I can see everything, every side, every, it's fucking insane. And then yeah, coming down ahead of me is just, uh, just looks like pretty, pretty easy little coastline walk. Might not be a ton going on over there, but should be pretty easy to pass by. I can see like a sports field down there. A lot of farm stuff.