A Very Memorable Canada Day

Last year, I celebrated Canada Day at Julianna's, surrounded by my original "gang" in Suncheon. I thought that it was one of the most memorable Canada Days I'd ever celebrated, but now, I stand corrected.

On Saturday, Christa, me, Jens and Randi took off on our respective vehicles (Christa and I on our motorbikes, Jens and Randi on their scooter) for Wando, where Stu had organized a party on the beach. Weather reports promised us gorgeous weather for the drive there, and certainly didn't disappoint. As we rolled along country roads and highways, past farms, rice paddies and green mountains, I felt supremely lucky to be able to share this with friends.... not to mention being able to ride a motorcycle merrily along. About halfway along, we were joined by Stu on his BMW, and we continued on to Wando.

We got to the beach at Wando and began setting up camp, designating our clandestine campsite "New Canada". Our happy family also included people of other nationalities (because Canada is open like that, you know) including American, Korean, New Zealandian and Australian. Stu had the foresight to get a large tarp that a few of the boys helped string up between two pagodas on the beach. It was quite the production! As more friends arrived, food and drink was brought out, and our laughter echoed up the beach. The weather was still beautiful, although the waves were a bit rough (a random off-duty Coast Guard guy came over to warn us not to go swimming).

As night fell, we had a campfire on the beach, with delicious curries for everyone, and music - naturally starting with as many national anthems as we could belt out. It was an early night for us all, and everybody was tucked away under tarps or in tents well before midnight. I lucked out again as there was a spare one-person tent that nobody wanted. I'm thankful now that I brought all my things into the tent with me.

At some point in the middle of the night, the wind died down and our tiny collection of tents was bombarded with wind and rain as squall after squall passed over us. One particularly memorable lightning strike must have hit VERY nearby. As the night went on, certain tents were blown over and had to be set up again. The tarp fell. Randi and Jens even moved and slept in the hallway of the public washroom near our campsite. In the morning, everyone had a story to tell.

The tent I was in held up beautifully. And, as I lay there in the wee hours of the morning, listening to the storm pass over me, I realized how neat it was to be camping again, snug in a cocoon that protected me from the elements, and vowed to buy myself a good tent.

Everyone was up VERY early, rolling up wet tents and quickly packing their belongings as we surveyed the damage caused by the storm. Clothes and shoes had been lost in the sand or blown away by the wind. Tent poles had snapped. A guitar was damaged. And, Christa's motorcycle had fallen over and was now lying in the mud. Once we managed to pick it up, we realized that her clutch was hanging off the handlebars by its cord. Not a good sign.

The first group of friends picked up and left, hoping to catch an early bus back to Wando and then home. Only the "bike gang" remained (Stu, Christa, Jens, Randi, Garret and myself), and we began picking up and packing everything into one of the pagodas as we slid around in the mud through the intermittent storms that were still passing. A particularly heavy storm left all of us, except Christa (who was in the other pagoda), trapped in one of the pagodas. As we sat there, wet, we realized that we had pots and pans, a camping stove and some coffee, hot chocolate, Pringles and instant oatmeal... breakfast of champions.

Re-reading this, it sounds much worse than it was. In fact, it was all a bit..I'm searching for the appropriate word... . I mean, yeah, you are wet, your feet are covered in mud, and you're picking up random objects as fast as you can in the rain... but what else are you going to do? Cry? You can't control the weather, or the consequences, but you can control your reaction to it. Our little group just banded together, knuckled down and got everything done, which was amazing. It was a great bonding experience, to say the least!

At one point, we found out that our friends were stranded in a different part of the beach, the bus hadn't come - possibly meaning that the bridge to the mainland was closed!! As the skies cleared, Stu decided to chance it and hopped on his bike, returning with his SUV so that we could pack up all the supplies. We still had the broken motorbike to worry about, but it was decided that Christa would leave her bike in Wando and drive Stu's SUV back to Mokpo.

We went back to Stu's place (Nicola's old apartment), ate breakfast and realized that it was only about 9 am! As the rain started up again, we decided that we couldn't get any wetter and our little convoy decided to head out. With Christa and Randi in the SUV, Garret, Jens and I braved the elements. I can't describe how absolutely soaked through we were. The boys' rain jackets offered little protection against the numerous squalls that we faced, my leather one simply sucked up all the water that fell. Our shoes were full of water that sloshed around our toes and we were so wet that when we dismounted our bikes, we didn't even leave a dry patch on our seats!

And yet, it was beautiful. When faced with a 3-hour long drive in the rain, is it better to bemoan mother nature or admire the green of the fields and the crowns of mist and clouds that hang over the mountains you are driving past?

Arriving home to a purring cat and a hot shower was one of the best moments for me. My entire body ached from the ride, I was so sopping wet that I left a puddle in my front hall. But, I still feel like I'd had a good weekend.

It certainly was memorable. Thank you to Randi, Jens, Christa and Garret for being such an amazing team. There will be other rides, I am sure.

Happy Canada Day!