Our trip to Geoje Island took us to a tiny beach town called Gujora. From there we had to walk up to the climbing location (called a "crag"), which was above an even smaller town called Mangji. Not knowing exactly the way to get to the crag (we could see it, but not the path to it), we walked for an hour from Gujora to Mangji. We spent another hour puttering around Mangji looking for a place to stay. Then a restaurant we could eat at. Finding neither, we walked back halfway to Gujora only to find the restaurant along the way was out of all food till summer. Our two friends had finally arrived (and had brought food), but the 2 1/2 hours waiting for them were a very trying moment in the travels of Shannon and I.
We took a cab (thank goodness) to the crag several hundred metres above Mangji. Our cab driver was down-right batty, and even Matthew, the Frenchman who had been taking private Korean lessons for a year through his company, could hardly figure what he was ranting about most of the time. Still, he got us where we needed to go, and some food helped make everyone feel better.
The climbing was quite fun, though ultra-relaxed. There was a Korean group at the crag who said they came to climb all weekend, but spent all of 2 hours on the wall and the rest of the time camping and drinking soju. They gave us a ride into Gojura around 5:30, which by that time I had only spent 20 minutes on the wall. The second day was quite a different story however.
We got a good early start the next day, getting a ride from one of the ajosshi's in Gojura to the crag. We then decided (well, everyone else decided and I just stood there nodding) that we should do a multi-pitch. This is where you climb up, anchor into the wall, bring everyone else up, and continue on from the point you reached on the first climb. Sounds fun, until I got up there, just me and Matthew, and I nearly pooped myself.
I've added a picture I drew to help you understand what it was like, but here's my verbal description to go with it: There's a 60cm cable hanging 20-25 metres in the air. Matthew and I are dangling from this cable and nothing else, waiting for Shannon and our friend Heather to come and join us, at which point 4 of us are now hanging from this small cable and over 70 feet in the air. When I first got up, all I could
think was how badly I needed to get down "RIGHT NOW!", but I got through it with some nice coaching from the others, and soon the four of us were leaning there, bodies pressed against each other, Heather and Matthew sorting out the rope and belay for the next climb. Being the least experienced and most nervous, I was given the only chunk of rock to sit on, meaning everyone else was hanging from the wall anchor, pressing their feet against the rock to keep themselves upright and balanced.
The next stage of the climb was interesting, and quite challenging for me. To start with, if you fell, you would fall on the people below you. Once past the first bludge though, it was quite easy climbing, and the next anchor was one we could sit down at. After that, it was a simple climb to the top of the mountain, where we relaxed with some watermelon and pictures (on Matthew's camera, which is why I don't have any of them up yet).
The trip home took over 6 hours including the 30 minute cab ride to the bus stop. We get Friday off this weekend, and so it might seem like a nice time to recover from all this activity and traveling, but the next three weeks have me playing some long rigorous games of ultimate to get ready for the tournament in China. I'm really
packing every spare moment in with something exciting here in Korea, and I'm looking forward to July when I'll have a moment or two to breath, relax, and have a little down-time. Well, I'm not "looking forward" to it really, since I'm way happier doing these more exciting weekend trips, but I know I'll appreciate the break when it comes.
2 comments:
Krafty, this is actually quite creepy. I've been meaning to write you for a while and tell you to go to Geoje-do. I was thinking about it just yesterday, in fact.
Barb and I went there and biked around the island - it was probably our favourite place in Korea. We biked up this long steep hill and at the top, in the middle of nowhere, was a pickup truck selling smoothies. Very Korea.
Geoje-do was amazing, the 4 of us who went there couldn't stop talking about how un-Korean it was, what with all the tranquility, clean beaches, thick forests etc.
I missed out on smoothies from the back of a truck, but the tourist season hadn't started yet. I did get invited to spend the night in the basement of an old ajumma's house though - a house held together with sheet metal, paint chips and not much else.
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