Fun fact: "-san" actually means "mountain" in Korean. :)
Thursday morning we woke bright and early to catch the bus from
Gwangju to Yeongam. About an hour or so in length, it was a little nerve
wracking not knowing exactly where to get off the bus. Many of the towns
sounded the same and all the signs I saw along the way were written in Korean!
Luckily, we waited long enough and the bus terminal was written in
English - "Yongam." I think it ended up being the fourth stop and we knew we were in the
right place. We caught a taxi to get the rest of the way to the mountain and
were there so early that we didn’t see anyone at first. The information centre
we first came across looked closed, but luckily I tried the door anyway and we
scored ourselves an “English” trail map. We walked along a little garden of
statues on the way to the trail.
After a little stretching (because they have
areas with outdoor signs with stretching poses for you to use!) we started our
journey. The incline of the path was already warning us of what our
legs were in for that day! We hit a fork in the road and chose the
path that lead to a waterfall. It turned out to be the best idea because the
path was well made, and ran next to a river and had gorgeous views. The water
was so calming as the stairs burned, haha. There were so. many. stairs. At
some points it was so steep to climb that there were ladders, too.
Eventually we had the cloud bridge in view and that motivated us to keep going! We were so
close!
When we got closer to the top, the weather started getting
colder. As we went along we were passing signs that said “Watch out for
Lightning”, “Watch out for Falling Rocks” but finally, we came to signs that
said “Watch out for Falling Ice” we realized that there was more and more snow
near the top and we looked around and found icicles! Finally, some winter here
in Korea!
And then, we reached it! The Cloud Bridge! We couldn’t
believe how high we were! We crossed the 52-meters suspended 120 meters from the ground. We made it!
We wanted to continue on to the peak but the trail is closed off until the end of February. We made our way down by a different path but boy was that difficult. It was all natural rock, not much to hold onto and there were patches of ice and mud that we had to try and navigate.
The best part was talking to the fellow hikers! Korean hikers
seem to be the happiest people! Smiles and hellos and exhausted faces rooting
each other on. Despite the language barriers, we still all communicated and it was
such a lovely experience. There was a sweet couple from Seoul that stopped for
a few minutes to talk to us. They asked us where we were all from, and even
gave Fran a hug when he found out she was Christina’s mother! It was their
first time climbing the mountain too and we offered each other encouragement
before we all continued in the opposite directions. Those are the kinds of
generous souls that make me happy to be here.
Nearer to the bottom we walked past a couple of temples, a bamboo forest and a special grave/ memorial. Many beautiful things. To end our day at the mountain we went into the cozy cabin-like restaurant on site and ate spicy ramen soup and breaded pork. So yummy. I also had an iced Jujube tea - a type of fruit not to be confused with the candy back home!
It may have been hard, but I loved every second of it. I don’t
think I’ve done anything so beautiful or as challenging as Wolchu mountain.
The most pleasant surprise is that I don’t feel very sore after doing it. Climbing
all those stairs to my apartment every day over the past month must have made a difference!
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