Day 19, Leg 15

 

Cloudy and cool all day today.  Now that I've taken to wearing a bandage on my nose to protect it from the sun, the clouds have moved in and made my labors unnecessary.  

Wardrobe malfunction:  another rip in my pants occurred, right next to where I'd made my repair.  Figures.  I'll hold off on doing any sewing until I've got another rest day in three days.  Just have to get through a 25K walk tomorrow, then a 42K monster on Sunday.  So here's the walk schedule for the next few days:

Sat., 10/17:  from Motel Boom to Weonang Parkjang yeogwan, 25K.

Sun., 10/18:  from Weonang Parkjang to Jeokgyojang yeogwan, 42K.

Mon., 10/19:  rest day. Repair pants.

Tue., 10/20:  Jeokgyojang to CF Motel in Namji-eup, 33K.  Eat awesome fried chicken.

Wed., 10/21:  rest day. 

After the walk to Namji-eup, there will be one more walk that is exactly 30K.  After that, all the rest of the legs will be sub-30.  I have at least two nasty hills between me and Busan, maybe three.  I need to check last year's blog to remind myself. 

Today's highlight:  an older lady was out watering her plants this morning when I passed by.  We talked a bit, and I learned there was a US military base close by, so the lady sees tons of foreigners all the time.  At the end of our conversation, she ducked into her house, then popped back out with a bag of tangerines that she tossed down to me.  Sugar, fiber, and vitamin C, baby.

The Japanese-sounding southern accent is as thick and annoying as I remember from my year living next to Daegu.  And now I'm in Daegu, at the Boom Motel, or Motel Boom.  These motels can never get their word order straight.  Only W40,000 for a pretty decent room, which is nice. 

I read my entry for this leg of the walk on last year's blog.  The entry mentioned "a few minor hills," but I don't recall hitting any significant hills today.  What the hell was I smoking last year?  There was one inconvenience:  a detour right at the beginning of the walk.  I had to stay on the wrong side of the river for several kilometers, but on the positive side, I now know that an uhwero (우회로) is a detour, not a right-hand route (I'd been thinking of 우회전).  Walks like this are always good for learning practical vocabulary. 

Until later in the afternoon, it was too cold for long naps, even with my windbreaker on.  So I didn't have a decent nap until I was about ten kilometers from my destination.  I also went against my usual protocol and had lunch while still on the road.  I normally try to arrive at my destination early enough to grab a late lunch and finish eating by 4 p.m. or so; today, I figured my ETA to be between 5 and 6 p.m., so when I stopped by Gangjeong Dam around 3:30, I grabbed two rolls of tuna gimbap for lunch from the local convenience store that's right by the dam's admin building.  I figured the risk would be worth it, given that I had only five or six more kilometers to go until the end.  Where possible, I prefer to get a hot meal and not convenience-store food, but the gimbap was being billed as handmade, so how could I resist? 

But what you want is pictures, and who am I to say no to your wishes? Some pics from today, then:

So is my goal 205 km away, or 220?

An acute case of spider-crotch:

The juxtaposition of a Mercedes and a portable toilet was too much to resist:

My stitching held, but the fabric ripped:

Where I got my tuna gimbap:

PHOTO ESSAY: