Naksan-sa and Seoraksan

And so the blogging continues. It feels rather like I'm chasing my tail here as there is an ever growing folder of photos on my desktop waiting to be posted and written about. My new camera is proving to be somewhere between a blessing and a curse. I have some great photos to share with you, but I now have so many it's a marathon job just sorting and editing them.

This means that there will be fewer words in this post than normal. Pictures are far more use here anyway, as this is the document of a trip to Seoraksan National Park, widely considered to be the most beautiful national park in Korea. I hope the phtographs do it justtice, as it is truly spectacular. Huge sandstone rocks jut out against the sky, before sweeping down into slopes covered with many hundreds of greens. I'm really glad that summer is here, as all over the land is turning from an arid brown covered with slush to a lush green. It really is rather pretty over here.

The first few shots are of Naksan-sa temple, which is literally on the East coast, followed by some shots of the hike we took along the bottom of the valley. We were supposed to be climbing to the highest peak in the park, but we were not allowed to. More details on that post-pictures.

The insect museum close to Naksan-sa. Occasionally my old house in Guatemala looked a little like this.

This guy liked banana and almond bread.

My first Korean newt!

Amazing dual coloured cherry blossoms.

This is a spring where the water has a very high iron content, which is why it looks more like the site of a human sacrifice.

So just one short story to tell you before I go then. We arrived at the base of the trail up to the highest peak in the park at about 1pm. We were informed by a park ranger that we couldn't go up, because the trail closed at 3pm. Why did the trail close at 3, we enquired. "Because we don't want people on the mountain in the dark". "Fair enough, I suppose. So what time does it open again in the morning?" "3am." Grrrrrr.

I think that's enough about this little trip. I plan on taking a little break from doing stuff so hopefully I will get caught up on the blogging. It's already going much better than my Guatemala effort though. Coming soon: posts on my debut for the town football team, shark-diving, Buddha's day parade and some other gubbins.

Hasta entonces,

A