Journey to Jeolla Nam Do - Day 3

With no daylight savings time, morning comes quite early in Korea. For today, that served me well as I was able to keep my vow of baptism by green tea, which would hopefully keep me afloat through the final adventures of this fantastic journey. The clear night had been replaced by a foggy morning with threats of showers lingering in the clouds above. Thankfully, the heated floor of last night's lodging dried out my shoes and I still had one clean shirt to wear. I rearranged my backpack, hung my hat on my back and headed for the hills...the green tea hills again. Boseong is the green tea capital of Korea with several thousand acres of green tea fields that grow from the sea to the the mountain peaks. With only 14 of us fresh enough to participate, the bus delivered us to the Daehan Dawon hills before anyone else was even out of bed. We were told that picture taking is much better early in the morning, but you be the judge.

I literally had to be dragged away from this bountiful beauty, as the bus driver (and official shepherd) sent a fellow traveler to fetch the "little white lamb" (me) from the fields. There was no time to linger as the day's docket had 3 more dynamic destinations before we would make the trek back to Seoul. As I boarded the bus, there were deliberations already underway as to how to make the most of the day, but avoid the holiday traffic in order to return by a decent hour (as everyone had to work the next day). The group-at-hand opted to omit the visit to a nearby temple, insert an immediate hot breakfast and shorten the stays at the last 2 sights. We had a plan, now it was time for action. The hungry bunch bee-lined for a local restaurant serving typical Korean breakfasts of bibimbap (rice with vegetables and a raw egg on top) and various noodle soups, while the bus driver took the rest of the gang back to the hotel to clean up, get their gear together and goad the others to get going.
In the hour or so it took to reach Damyang, everyone was briefed on the new schedule and agreed that the earlier the arrival the better. Keeping that in mind we made a brief tour of the Juk Nok Won Bamboo forest and saved enough time for a leisurely stroll down the famous Meta Sequoia Tree Lined Road.

Wet, 'walked-out' and weary, most of us were looking forward to a peaceful and quiet ride home. Unfortunately, the late-sleepers gained control of the karaoke screen and found a way to show the movie Iron Man...at full volume! A handful of us were from various places south of Seoul, which meant that we would have to backtrack once we finally arrived. In view of this, we approached the tour director and asked if the bus could drop us off at a rest stop somewhere south of Seoul where we could get taxis to take us to the nearest train station. So, at the final rest stop, 6 of us bailed out of the bus and got our bearings as to where we were exactly -- only an hour from home for any one of us, albeit in different directions. As luck would have it, our location was on a toll road and taxis will not pick up there. Instead, we would have to hike across the highway to the nearest gas station and call for a pick up there. It looked easy enough -- the SK station was directly across from us and someone had spotted an "overpass" just a few meters down the road. So, our troupe trudged through the rain, all 12 eyes searching for the stairs or ramp that would lift us up and over the freeway now frenetic with holiday traffic. All to no avail. There was indeed a path over the road, but it would require scaling a slippery rock wall on this side and then crawling over a chain-link fence lined with green construction mesh on the other. Deflated, but determined, we did an 'about face' and discussed alternative ideas. As we walked along the shoulder of the road, I noticed the rain water pouring down a cement slide in the drainage ditch. So I piped up and pointed out the possibility of an "underpass". One of the traipsers hurdled the guard rail and descended into the tunnel. "Yes" echoed back through the pipe and the rest of us scurried to catch up with her. Once safely on the south-bound side of the toll road, we called for 2 taxis and tried our best Konglish on the service station attendant while we waited. Finally at the train station, 3 of us went north and 3 of us went south -- one more transfer and I would be homeward bound. As our six-pack parted company, I wondered what I would have done if I had been alone on this last adventure of my journey, and all I could think of was: it wouldn't have been nearly as much fun!