Last Day in Byeonsan Bando

After we left Jikso Waterfall in the midafternoon sometime, we were only a few kilometers from the park entrance. The plan was to hike back towards the entrance, via the path we had seen on the way to Jikso, and get close enough to make leaving the park the next day an easy task. This would allow more time to make sure we got to the bus station in Jeonju in time to catch a bus home. Kent could take any number of buses going to his area of Korea, but there are only four buses to Ulsan from Jeonju, and they stop early--the last one is at 5:00.

Things didn't work out quite as we had wanted, though. The trail back to the entrance was so easy that it only took about an hour to finish it. Furthermore, we couldn't find any camping spots along the way. Although the trail was flat, all the area around it was at a steep incline, or too densely wooded, or too close to the main trail. We saw a tiny trail going downward, and took it, thinking it would lead us to a field we could kind of see below. It just led us to a road on the border of the park. After walking along that road for a few minutes, we found we were at the entrance we were trying to avoid getting to that day.

Going back into the park seemed like bad idea by then, since we might not find a spot by dark. The best option at this point was to go to Seokpo Camping Park, which had been our backup plan in the event we could not find a place to camp. So we walked back toward the road we took to get to the park originally, and found the entrance.

Although we had passed the camping park on the way to the park the day before, we didn't look past the sign. One would expect there to be a road leading into the park, with some sort of entrance booth along the way, leading to what we think of as a camping park, with places to pitch tents or park RVs (I doubt they have those here, though), small buildings for bathrooms, etc. We found something entirely different, though.

The sign pointed into the base of what looked like an elementary school playground. The school was on the far end of the playground. Instead of a road, though, there was a military-style obstacle course. Passing by, I had seen it, but had assumed it was playground equipment and didn't give it more than a cursory glance. It seemed like the camping park wasn't a public park, but a military facility. There went that idea.

The only option now was to get a motel. I had seen one as we had walked through Gomso, so we continued our trek back into town. We ended up spotting a nicer looking motel than the one I saw, perched at the end of a small peninsula, so we went there. It was quite expensive for a small-town motel: 70,000 won (about $70). The place was relatively nice, but small, and the bedspread smelt like mothballs, which made the whole place smell like mothballs. We had a balcony, but of course it looked back into the town. We did not get a view of the water.

Completely exhausted, we just ate supper from what was left of our camping food instead of going to a restaurant. The next day we slept until ten. I was still pretty wiped out, having not gotten any sleep on Friday night. But we made our way out of the motel and to the bus stop to start the trip home.

We waited for the city bus for about 15 or 20 minutes, and it was about 30-40 minutes to get to the Buan bus terminal. The bus didn't actually drive into the terminal, but the driver told us where to get off. We didn't really know where we were, so we got a little lost and had to ask a taxi driver where the bus terminal was. As it turns out, we just had to walk about a couple hundred feet the left of where we were dropped off, but we had gone straight, because there was a long line of buses parked along the street there.

Once in Jeonju, I was told that the two remaining buses to Ulsan that day were full, and the next bus didn't go out until 9 the next morning, which wouldn't get me back to Ulsan in time for work. I almost flipped out for a minute there, but then the lady said there was a bus at 3:00 to Busan, which is the nearest big city to Ulsan. From there I was able to easily get a bus home. They go every ten minutes.

So that's my adventure in Byeonsan Bando. It was a lot of fun, with very few hiccups. It was a good substitute for the island I had wanted to go to, Ulleung-do. I hope to do more backpacking soon.