August 14- Songnisan National Park Office

Peeped out of my tent in the morning and saw a group of koreans finish hiking and walk past where I was. The group was primarily composed of old women and a single guide. The distance from where I stayed the night before to Songnisan National Park office was short and I had asked directions from the people I had dinner with the night before.

I also had an opportunity to take a picture of the gifts that the staff  of Woraksan National Park gave me before I left. The gift pack had everything from long sleeves to a night light to a map of the parks though my most favorite gift ( And the one I still have ) would be a full colour english guide of every national park in Korea :)

The high point of Songnisan National Park was called Munjangdae or "the rock" and signboards showed this as I covered more ground. I had more views of greenery as I cycled down to the Songnisan park office though the greatest surprise was yet to come.

Just opposite the National Park office gates, I was very surprised to see a large tree that had metal poles supporting it's branches. Instead of turning into the office compound, I made it to the information board describing the tree and was astounded to learn that the pine tree was 800 years old !











The Boeun Songni Jeongipum Pine tree as it was called is a natural monument and used to be more balanced and beautiful before. Due to heavy snowfall some of the branches had broken. The new information board with a picture of the tree before was then erected.

Songnisan National Park is the only national park with horses which are used for horse patrols. I learnt that as before someone had been told that I would be arriving though he had expected me the day before.





 I was allowed to keep my bike in the granary store ( Basically where the horse feed was kept) and after discussions brought to a campsite nearby which apparently used to be under the park but had been since taken over by a private operator. This operator was kind enough to let me stay there for a day for free since it was an auto campsite. The weather wasn't promising and I made up my mind to try to stay above the ground in case it turned bad.

After setting up my hammock using all the lines lying around ( Most of the trees had raffia lines left behind by the previous campers), I had a peaceful hour of lying on my hammock reading. Made friends with a korean man camping with his family who brought me some korean pizza and a beer on realising I was there alone.

Midway while chatting with him the rain came pouring down and it was just a matter of time before everything was getting drenched. The korean man insisted that I head back to the room ( He actually thought I stayed in a motel) and helped me pack up everything and drove me back to the ranger office.

It was here that another ranger decided to let me stay at his place for the night ( Some of the rangers stay at rental houses) and I got a proper roof over my head. I was totally shivering by the time I reached his place. The ranger was also rather sweet in that midway to his house, he stopped by a GS25 ( Like 7-eleven) and grabbed a few flavors of packet coffee. Back at his place he let me choose which flavor I liked and made me a coffee :) I also got a chance to wash my clothes here.

Heated mattress on a cold rainy day

Having a mocha and sitting on a warm mattress with the TV on, life seemed a far cry compared to what it could have been had I been in the downpour outside. Such was the unpredictability of life and it would be something to look forward to.

Warm and cozy, the best thing to do was to sleep :)