August 13 - Movement towards Songnisan National Park

Today would be the day to bade goodbye to Woraksan National Park and I did so with a heavy heart. Having spent 2 days with a group of staff who seemed more family, I wished I could stay longer.

Packing up my things back to road mode, I took a picture with the staff before leaving. It was very touching when a staff got me a cup of coffee before I left, as was my routine before any journey, be it a hike or a ride.







I would be heading down the same way towards Mireuksaji temple and today the distance seemed much further compared to yesterday when I took a ride down :) Made my way through the Sojoryeong and could not resist stopping to take a picture of the view just past the tunnel. The weather had completely cleared up and it was blue skies and mountains almost all the way.

From what I had heard from the rangers at Woraksan, the distance was do-able in a day but I decided to break it up to 2 days after climbing up Mt Worak.


My destination today was not decided and I made up my mind to find a place towards the end of the day. As I was rather tired and aching, I figured it'd be good to find some shelter and stay there for the night. It was a relief that I came across signboards showing the way to Songnisan National Park.

Came across the information board for Songnisan mountain and stopped by to read awhile. The cycling route enroute to Songni mountain was rather steep and not very level most of the way. The scenery was stunning though and I stopped by many times to just appreciate the surroundings.

Took me a few times to realise this but the country roads are usually somewhat level with a decent number of sign-boards. The smaller roads however, that usually snake through the national parks are very steep and have fewer signboards, mostly in korean even. These are the ones where I would get lost a few times. It was also more difficult to ask for directions at such roads since there were very few people walking around.

Came across a really nice campground, with a clean toilet ( With background music even) and a nice shelter. I absolutely fell in love with the maple tree and decided to stay there. Most toilets I saw do not have a shower. What I did was to use the cooking pot i had to collect water from the basin and shower. My stuff is mostly packed into neat plastic boxes ( something I learnt from my previous job) and one of these is the toiletries box, rather convenient to unpack and carry around.

 My chosen campsite was at the foot of some park and though I did not venture much further from where my tent was, it seemed quite nice. There was a provision shop at the same compound and I made a quick meal of ramen before taking a quick shower.

I started talking to a family just outside the provision shop and they invited me to join them later for dinner. Back at my tent, the owner of the compound ( This was a private campsite i learnt), turned up and said it was 10000 won a night for a shelter but on seeing that there was no family but just me, he waived it off !

The two grandmothers 

Dinner turned out to be a birthday celebration for their mothers and it was good to be part of it.

One was them was 84 and the other 81 and it was very sweet to see the entire family involved in the birthday celebration. Got to try a drink that was supposed to be good for digestion that tasted really sweet and thick.

I had a good dinner of barbequed pork and a few cups of Soju before it started drizzling again.

Perfect weather to sleep !