May 9th, Man's eternal struggle against Nature

My phone erupts with an ostentatiously loud, undeniably Korean alarm call. 6:45. Six. Fucking. Forty. Five. On a Saturday. And I'm awake. It's a long way from being on the dole, crawling out of bed after noon; regarding the monthly 8:30 rise to 'sign on' in Dominic Street as being an ungodly, body-clock wrecking ordeal. The reason I'm up at this hour is the 'Sangju to Jeomchon Hike' - a gruelling twenty-eight kilometre trek across the mountains and farmland of Sangju county. A trek into unfamiliar territory.

At eight o'clock, I joined Joe and my fellow Sangju-ites Julian and Jessica at the bus station. Joining us were a couple of lads from Jeomchon and Gumi (Giovanni and Thomas), a few Koreans, and Margaret, whose place I had taken at Sangju Elementary. After waiting for everyone to assemble, and being introduced to Julian's faithful mascot 'The Commissioner', we set off into the hills near Sangju. At first, my worn Asics runners were struggling on the dry, hilly terrain through the forest, but I found a good old stick to help me with the treacherous downhill pathways. The first two hours or so were spent on the mountain. We took a wrong turn at one stage, despite Jessica's assertion that she was '190 per cent' sure of the way! We eventually descended into the rice-fields, taking a few dirt-tracks before resorting to the road. A bus-driver actually stopped upon seeing our group, and presented us with a cake. Can't beat Korean generosity. Don't think that would happen with the Limerick City bus.

Just before we reached the reservoir, we saw a baby snake - which our Korean friend Whee insisted was poisonous. When we got to the reservoir, we stopped for lunch. I brought a Twix, a Snickers, and a couple of cans of tuna. Apparently, despite being motivated for an all-day hike, I'm too lazy to make sandwiches. After recharging the batteries, we ploughed onwards. Our next landmark was a river, and we reached this at a small, ramshackle village, apparently named 'Daegu'. Since the village shares its name with the bustling metropolis down south, many a joke was had about Korea's third-largest city falling on remarkably hard times. We happened upon a small shop, where Giovanni purchased a bottle of soju. The few shots I took seemed to reduce the pain in my legs, as we battled toward the river.

The river - just as the reservoir had - provided some outstanding scenery, with several rocky outcrops and evergreen trees in the backdrop. After coming through a particularly nice pathway, crossing an orchard and a nice bit of hill, we came to a dam. Julian advocated that we wade across the shallow part of the river, scale the dam (a vertical, 20-foot climb if we couldn't find steps up) and try to find a path which didn't actually seem to exist. While I admired our Fearless Leader's rustic sense of adventure throughout, that one was - literally - a bridge too far, and the group elected to go the longer, but considerably safer, way around.

The last ten kilometres of the journey was generally through flat farmland - seeing a squirrel was arguably the highlight. We stopped to rest outside some farmhouse, as a heavily crippled man stumbled/crawled up to us to inspect our strange Waegook faces. Myself and Joe then - rather guiltily - speculated that he had come from Monty Python's 'Ministry of Funny Walks'. We're possibly both going to Hell.

The fatigue was starting to kick in then - it was pushing six o'clock, and we had passed the 23 kilometre-mark, with about seven left. We ploughed on, crossing the train-tracks. Julian suggested we follow the tracks to Jeomchon, but thankfully we didn't take up that route - the train sped by a few minutes later. We reached a small village, where cans of beer and ice-cream were imbibed. With the light fading, we finally made it to the outskirts of Jeomchon. Fifteen minutes of agonising hikeage later, we found our final destination, the beef restaurant - which, to our horror, was closed. After what seemed like an eternity, we found somewhere else, and sat down to our delicious dinner of Samgyeopsal - grilled pork slices. Yum.

All in all, it was about a 31 km hike, give or take a few kilometres for elevation in the initial stages. It took roughly eleven hours, and I'm still quite stiff and sore, writing the day after. It was well worth it, though. Saw some excellent scenery, nice views, a bit of wildlife, and had a good laugh with a nice crowd. I would gladly have stayed along for more booze, but I had left my wallet at home, and had barely brought enough cash for food and the anticipated bus home. As it turned out, myself and Margaret were offered a lift home with Whee, and it made sense to take it.

It was only on the way back that we realised how far we had trekked. It was twenty-five minutes by car, taking a direct highway. Easily my longest ever hike, and a thoroughly enjoyable one. Can't wait to do more.