Jeju Island Day 1

Excerpt from my journal:

This was the easy part of the trail, soon after the path ended, and we started literally climbing over rocks

The first day here is coming to a close. I am exhausted. Stine (my roomie) and I tried to climb to the top of Mnt. Halla (tallest mountain in S. Korea) today. The hike is 9.6 km one way. On a good day, it takes an estimated 5 hours. Well, we seemed to have caught a bad day....this morning, I checked the weather forecast, which said, "0% chance of rain!" Once we arrived at the trail entrance, it was lightly drizzling, and rather foggy, but we were optimistic! However that didn't last long...before we knew it, we were drenched, having neither rain coat or umbrella. Still, we were determined, and hiked onward...for 3 hours.

Even though it was wet, cold, and clammy, the fog added an eery beauty to the forest.

I made 5.6 km of the trail, before I gave up. Soon after, Stine too turned around, and both of climbed down the trail. All 5.6 km. The whole hike, a little over 10 km (6.2mi), took us about 4 hours, and had the sun been shining, it would have been marvelous! Sadly, the sun was NOT shining, so our moods were rather more on the dark side....I have never, never been so drenched in my life!

The worst part wasn't the wet clothes, it was that my glasses kept getting fogged! ^_^

Unlike Seoul, Jeju Island is quiet. Silent; simply beautiful!