The good news: I arrived at the Nakdongjang yeogwan today at 2:45 p.m. after eating a nice lunch of tangsuyuk at a local joint run by a very talkative grandmother. Today's walk was barely 19 or 20 kilometers, which makes it short relative to some of the walks I've done. I did indeed encounter The Final Hill from Hell today; a sign giving the degree of slope said the hill had a 10% grade for only 200 meters. I had to call bullshit on that: the hill was easily 500 meters on the ascending side. Well, whatever its length, the hill is behind me now. Get thee behind me, Satan!
The bad news: my room (for which I'm paying W30,000) doesn't have any accessible WiFi. Last time this happened, I still slapped up over twenty pics for the blog post, but my monthly allotted cell data took a big hit. Today, I'll put up only a tiny handful of pics; expect more later. And take pity on me for being unable to watch YouTube tonight. Oh, the humanity.
The walk started late today: I left the Hwang To Bang Motel at 6:45 a.m. The sun was already rising. Today's terrain started off mostly flat, and it wasn't until I was about six or seven kilometers away from my destination that I encountered my big hill. After that, the terrain evened out again. It's going to be like that during my final two days of walking.
In a total turnaround from yesterday, today's weather was and is gorgeous; it was mostly sunny, windy, and cool: what I think of as a perfect day. The forecast through Monday looks to be equally awesome.
The blister on the ball of my left foot is now cartoonishly huge. I'm surprised it hasn't popped on its own yet. It hurts now, but only when I stop walking and take off my sock. I have other aches and pains, but they're all minor and temporary-- the sort of thing you just walk through.
Did I mention that I finally learned the name of that weird, golf-like game for seniors? Learned it a few weeks ago during the walk: it's called park golf (파크 골프), and it's essentially a lot of aggressive, enthusiastic putting on mostly flat ground. The park-golf ball is much larger than a regular golf ball; I imagine that this is because it's been designed for old people to hit. Is this a Korean-made sport, or does it come from outside of the peninsula? More research is in order.
Tomorrow's walk is about the same length as today's: around 19-20K. I'll stay two nights in Yangsan City, which ought to give me time to upload a few more days' worth of photo essays. My pants have been begging for a good washing, so I'll do them with the rest of the laundry tomorrow. The second set of my red-thread stitches ripped a little bit several days ago, while I was etching my message into the sandstone after having summited the first hill from hell. My poor pants. They deserve an award for the torture they've been put through: the miles and miles of walking, the fetid misery of crotch and ass-crack sweat, the incessant farts, and the criminal overstuffing of pockets, filled to bursting like the engorged cheeks of a desperately bulimic squirrel.
Sorry not to leave you with very many images tonight; I'll upload more once I'm in Yangsan and have access to WiFi.
More pics later!
UPDATE: here are some more pics:
1 comment:
Ouch! That blister looks like a full moon! Will it hurt more or less once it pops? I seem to recall you've had better luck with letting them decide when to explode.
Good to have the last hill behind you and a rest break tomorrow. Enjoy!
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