Date envelope #2 gave us a map and some cash to help us get to one of the many Jeju Olle trails – a major network of more than 20 individual routes connected back-to-back to completely circle the island. We’re hoping to get through all the trails before we leave the island – we’ll see how we do!

Our first Olle day was this past Saturday, spent on Route 8, starting about a half hour drive east of here. We drove to the end of our trail and left the car – good motivation to make it the whole way! We were stopping in a small village, so we walked to a convenience store and miming, asked the clerk to call us a taxi. We managed to work out that she needed to know where we wanted to go. Thankfully I had a map with the words written in English and Korean (very few village-residents speak English around here). Our taxi came and took us to the trail start, about 20 km away.

The path started at a port – most of the coastal villages are fishing villages with ports for squid boats. They have super bright lights that make it look like there’s a city off the coast every night. Squid is a major industry here, and it’s unusual to get a meal or walk through an open-air market that doesn’t contain tentacles.

Looking down the coast from the port – what a beautiful way to start our hike!

The trail was hugely varied. A lot of it was a “normal” hiking trail along rocky cliffs, rocky or sandy beaches, or forested palm/pine mixes. But then we’d walk right along a farmer’s stone-walled garlic fields, watching workers wearing cloth face-masks and cloth-draped hats squatting along the rows to pick or plant. And around the next bend, we’d walk onto a city street with significant traffic, and then another few km along we’d walk straight through a tourist attraction. But not through the front gate, but sneaking in the side and not realizing we were somewhere of note until we start seeing signs and logos. It was a really neat way to get a cross-section of the area, and it really felt like we just got to walk and observe.

Palm tree forest – there were so many of them! They are not native to the island, but there are a lot of them around. I’m guessing they’re used as wind-stops, since they’re mostly around farms.

Walking in a field really close to non-fenced in cows. Look – cows! Right there! No fence!

There was so much more than I can easily share here, but here are some of the highlights:

• Jusangjeolli cliffs: “columnal basalt” according to a photo-geology consultation. 🙂 These cliffs stretch for about 2km along the coast where lava from Mt. Halla cooled quickly at the sea about 100,000 years ago. They are hexagonal columns many stories high, and the waves crashing around them were spectacular.
  

  The beautiful hexagonal cliffs, with waves crashing at their base. So beautiful.

• Jungmun Resort: one of the top Korean honeymoon destinations. We walked right through the CENTER of the resort with fancy-dressed couples sipping drinks and gazing over the ocean from manicured lawns and verandas. Weird hiking trail feature.
  

  Walking on the lovely manicured lawn into the resort. What? This is a hiking trail?

• EcoPark: this nature center / arboretum had signed nature paths that we started noticing far before we could see any of the buildings. Their mascot seemed to be a cartoony bumble bee and lady bug, but since these insects only spoke Korean, I’m not sure what kind of story they were telling us. 🙂 It was really peaceful and nicely laid out, though, so might come back here to explore more of the bog walks and flower paths when more things are in bloom in the spring!
  

  The apparent “mascots” for the eco-park. Most of the park was very subtle with small signs along pathways, but this little performance space was adorable, and an awesome positive use of a road underpass!

• “Buddhist sanctuary”. At least that’s what the sign said. We had two path options. Downhill to “grass and pond” or uphill to “buddhist sanctuary”. It was still early in the day, so we opted for uphill, and stumble right into an enormous Buddhist temple, housing the largest Buddha in South Korea. I’ll let the pictures tell the story, but what an amazing addition to our hike! So unexpected and amazingly beautiful. Several dozen Chinese tourists were there, and we joined them to admire the paintings, statues, carvings, and thousands of tiny golden Buddha statues lining the walls.

The stunning temple, as I first saw it after emerging from heavy tree cover. Wow. Check out the two guard tower in front – the closer one has a huge side-ringing bell and the far one has a similarly huge drum.

A fountain devoted to Buddha. I believe the blue dippers are used for some kind of ceremony / prayer where you offer one scoop of water for each year of your life. If anyone knows more about this than the limited bits I could gather from signs, please let me know in the comments!

Some of the beautiful intricate painting on the guard tower.

All of the temple windows had carved shutters like this one, each depicting a scene from the life of Buddha.

After taking off our shoes, we stepped just inside and saw these hanging lanterns decorating the ceiling of the entryway.

The interior was open to all three stories, all decorated and beautiful. The dragon carvings wrapped up each support pole.

The centerpiece of the temple. The center statue is the largest Buddha in South Korea. Most people coming in took cushions to the front of the temple to lay prostrate in front of the Buddha. The side Buddhas were sitting in front of beautiful carved walls.

We managed to find our car again (thank goodness!) and made it home. This time we packed our lunch, but next time I’m thinking we’ll just stop at one of the amazing looking fish restaurants along the paths. Can’t wait to try out the other 19 or so routes! Check out way more photos below, and then see some real gems from Patrick’s “Olle 8” album on our photos page, too! He brought the big camera and got some amazing shots.

A couple of women farmers, decked out in the typical cloth-draped wide-brimmed hats and working in the fields. There seems to be a lot of garlic planting happening right now.

We walked SO many steps on this hike. Who knew a coastal trail would be so hilly? Our volcanic island has a lot of “failed volcanoes” (called “oreum”) everywhere that are sizeable hills in their own right. Thankfully this trail was well maintained and had mostly even and mostly flat stairs to walk. This was just one tiny section getting up this oreum!

A beautiful lunch spot overlooking part of the columnal cliffs. Amazing day for a hike!

A lot of nicer homes and guest houses around here have beautiful metal gates like this one we saw along our trail.

Olle trails are very well signed, but in lots of different ways. Every few dozen meters and at any intersection you’ll see paint, or ribbons, or wooden signs in blue and orange, to help point you in the right direction. Here’s Patrick with one version…

Some of the markings are pretty subtle, like this paint on the sidewalk.

Another paint marker along some in-town fencing.

Patrick with some of the ribbon-style markings dangling from trees.

Our hiking trail – along a busy road.

Bamboo! Just growing next to the road. Very cool.

Some beautiful flowers hanging from a tree on the trail. I’m amazed at the photo, because it was REALLY windy when I took it!

One of the resorty busy beaches. I guess the season just ended – had we been here a few weeks ago, there wouldn’t have been room to open an umbrella!

Another port along the trail – very square fishing boats in the harbor with a lighthouse in the background.

Beautiful cliffs. And see those people-shaped dots on top? Yep, those are local standing on the edge of really tall uneven cliffs, fishing with fishing poles in the ocean! What happens when the big one tugs on the line??

One of the last beaches on the hike – look at the rocks, the water, and those clouds. Lovely end to the day.