Gwangdeok Mountain Hike

Sunday 24th September

Lately the weather has changed a lot. It's no longer unbearably humid and sticky; it's warm and sunny yet cool in the shade. The sky is clear and cloudless and there's a slight breeze. I love autumn in Korea.

Gwangdeok temple (just before the funeral!)

Sunday was yet another gorgeous day and me and Ric decided to make the most of it and go for a hike. We headed south of Cheonan to Gwangdeok Mountain. It took just over an hour to get there on the bus.

Gwangdeok temple

At the base of the mountain there is a temple (Gwangdeok temple). Cue yet another culturally awkward moment. We were admiring the temple when the courtyard suddenly filled with sombre looking men and women wearing long black robes... carrying a framed picture of a monk. We'd only gate crashed a Buddhist funeral!! Oops! The temple is home to that famous walnut tree I mentioned in a previous blog, only we were too ashamed of ourselves to go and check it out and so we just headed straight for the mountain.

As Ric and I aren't exactly budding fitness fanatics we chose the shortest route up the mountain. Unfortunately, we quickly learned that the shortest route up a mountain is usually also the steepest, and we had to drag ourselves up for 3km, first up man-made steps, then up a dirt path, until finally we were clambering up over jagged rocks. We did get some impressed looks off other hikers who had gone up the long route and were descending the steep route.

Pure stairs: the first part of the hike.

Finally at the top the view was stunning: a 360 degree view of mountains rolling into the distance, Cheonan just a tiny square of concrete rising up in the middle. It was well worth the burning thighs and the back sweat. Whilst catching our breath at the summit we befriended a middle-aged Korean man by sharing our snacks with him, in exchange he offered us his bottle of wine! The wine was surprisingly delicious and I got to practice my Korean skills by attempting to make small talk with him.

Stunning views from the top of Mt. Gwangdeok

Cheonan in the distance

Tired and sweaty at the summit

Going down the mountain was when the adventure really started. We planned to take the alternative, longer, less steep route down the mountain back to the temple where we could take the bus home. However, somewhere we took a wrong path and got ourselves lost. When we realised we were lost Ric suggested we turn around and climb back up to the summit so that we could take the same route down as we'd taken up. Cue me sitting down on a rock and crying that I couldn't make it back to the top. Too much lactic acid burn. Although in hindsight Ric had a sensible idea.

Instead we just carried walking down the mountain, at that point anything was better than up! After about 45 minutes of walking the sun was beginning to set and we realised that if we didn't increase our pace there was a real possibility that we'd have to descend the rest of the mountain in the dark! Half jogging we made it to the village of Gangdang and although we still had no idea where we were, we felt relieved to see a couple of houses.

Gangdang, a quirky village 

Being stubborn, we continued to walk along a deserted road in an unknown direction until finally, a car approached.  Impulsively I stuck my thumb out and the car stopped. We were saved. The couple in the car were lovely, they spoke English and laughed at us when we told them we were trying to get to Cheonan. They seemed shocked that we'd managed to find our way to such a remote mountain village. We gratefully accepted their offer to take us to the nearest train station and were soon resting our aching muscles inside their car.


Finally we made it home having learnt a valuable lesson: if you're lost up a mountain in Korea in the dark, just keep walking and get into cars with strangers... it'll all be OK in the end!

Logistics
You can take the 600 or 601 bus from outside Shinsegae in downtown Cheonan and get off at the last stop. The bus took approx 1hour 10minutes (in Sunday traffic).