Adrenaline Overload

I'm coming off a few days of too much fun, activity and adrenaline and not enough sleep or rest...

On Friday evening, I wisely decided to go to a Mokpo Ladies' Night hosted by a girl named Michelle. This brought the number of nights out in a row to three and guaranteed a happy Saturday morning. In all honesty, it wasn't that bad, I left at a reasonable time and was able to get up and moving on Saturday with no problem.

Saturday, I met up with Alex, Jongwon, Ian and another new couple (whose names escape me) at the bus terminal for the trip to Wolchulsan, a glorious collection of ragged granite peaks. The sky was a perfect blue (a blessing after 10 days of rain) and we were all in high spirits. Once in Yeongam, we were joined by a few other folks, including Stu, bringing our numbers up to twelve people. And off we went...

Instead of following the main trail (too crowded, said we), we took Stu's famous "Goat Trail", meaning that you have to be as sure-footed as a mountain goat to survive it. Two of our group headed back after the first few kilometres, while the rest of us slogged on, sweating and puffing but admiring the amazing views that we were starting to get. We passed a few signs telling us that the trail was closed and that it was dangerous, but kept on going.

Imagine that you are standing on a smooth granite rock, flanked on all sides by empty space leading down to a valley where you can hear the rush of a hidden waterfall. It's beautiful, but dangerous. The realization that one false step would either send you crashing down to the valley or, at the very least, break your leg suddenly hits you. There are nine other people around you, moving about on their own rocks, scrambling and jumping, calling to each other and laughing. And you have to climb off this rock, onto another rock, using a fraying rope ladder....

I had two "freak-outs" as we climbed up the Goat Trail. Without getting too dramatic, let's just say that I'm thankful for friends like Stu, Alex and Ian who placed my feet one by one into niches, guided me or even physically carried me, so that I could continue.

Once at the top of the mountain, we were able to enjoy the views... it took us roughly 6 hours to climb - about 4 hours up and just over 2 hours down. Physically, it's a challenging day - you are constantly using all four limbs to move yourself over boulders. Even the "trail" isn't that easy, as it consists of rocks to scramble over or vertical metal stairs that you cling to.

Find pics on Facebook (for those of you who are there...) or on Stu's blog and Flickr.
...

But, our day was not over yet. We (Ian, Mike, Stu) drove on to Gwangju, where there was a bit of a "meet n' greet" for Canadian Connections people. We found Jessica, Monique, JP and Sloane and headed out for supper at Outback. As we finished eating, we were joined by Ty and we headed on to the Wa Bar, where we met up with Shane, Andrea and quite a few CanConx folks. Feeling absolutely exhausted, I'll admit that I pretty much just sat at my table... I just didn't feel like being the social butterfly. We eventually moved on to the Speakeasy (yes, that would be FOUR nights in a row), where we managed to have a pretty good time until the wee hours.... you know, typical Gwagnju Saturday night.

I'm going to stop here and post this.... Sunday was a surreal day of cats in dresses and other random-ness with Ty and I'd rather do two smaller posts than one huge long one that nobody will read....