Weather: Mostly rain until the afternoon, then lighter afterwards.
Despite the constant rain hammering down throughout the night, I still slept dry and warm inside my tent. When creeping out of my tent, it is still raining. Gathering for breakfast, bus to the rescue again, we get informed that a decision has been made to wait one day before we will continue hiking. In the hope that the typhoon, which we believe this to be, will have passed by by then. This means, though, that we tomorrow also would have to do what was planned for today. A long day in other words, and if it is still raining, it will be harder too. A tiny gamble.
Sudden glimpses of Seonosan emerges from the clouds.
This leaves this day a little short of activities, confined as we are. Maybe it would have been better if we had continued walking. It would have been a wet hike, and we would not have seen anything while traversing over the ridge above us. I guess, we likely would not have been exploring the ridge either. But, we would be doing something. Tomorrow will give us the answer if the decision was right or not. I do not disagree with the decision, it will be great if we would get to explore the ridge. Today, we will not.
The group in the bus, Sinead, Jo and Paula.
With the decision made, I retreat to my tent. I could use some sleep, there are some timezones I need to catch up with. All around, rain is still assailing the mountains. We can see the lower parts of them, the upper parts are disappeared in the clouds. A few hours later, I rejoin the group. The rain is still assailing the mountains.
The boss himself, Roger, in the bus.
We cannot walk freely around and so is confined to our campsite. Ironically enough, without the bus we would have been worse off. Now, at least, we can sit and talk together. It is a little bit fun to think about that the bus originally was not planned to be here at all. Although not sure, I just think that to make things work here, the bus had to follow our support vehicle. I am grateful for it. Going on a solo hike, I would have no trouble coping with rainy days like these keeping me inside my tent most of the time. On a hike with several people, though, the social aspect vanishes if everyone ends up in their own tents.
Our campsite later in the day, the rain has stopped, leaving us optimistic for tomorrow.
A solitary tomb near the Ganbaeksan secret camp.
Then there is the case of the other car, our support vehicle. Given the infrastructure of North Korea, logistics for a hike is probably a little bit different than what we are used with. To get the logistics done for the hike, when it comes to water, food, cooking equipment and camping gear for the staff, we have the support vehicle that will meet us at or near our campsite each night.
A closer look at the solitary tomb, on the stele it is engraved 'the tomb of the unknown warrior'.
We sit inside the bus and look longingly out of the windows, sometimes we go out to stretch our legs and look at the surrounding scenery, and rain. It is actually a nice closed valley we are stuck in, nothing spectacular about it, but we are surrounding by some scenic verdant rolling hillsides. Above us in the clouds lies Beondaebong and Seonosan, the mountains we was to climb up to today.
Cabin at Ganbaeksan secret camp, used as hospital when the secret camp was in use.
We also keep track of what is happening on the other side of the valley. There is a small part of the Ganbaeksan secret camp there, and we can at given times see activity around the camp. There are people coming and going at regular intervals, probably a change of guards of kind. People are disappearing up into the forest. Now and then, people appearing, doing stuff, for then to disappear again.
Inside the cabin / hospital at Ganbaeksan secret camp.
The ridge above us gets illuminated in the afternoon, providing hope for tomorrows hike.
There is good news in the air later in the day, when the rain appear to diminish and the clouds lies higher on the sky. Another good news is that our guides has managed for us to go for a little walk over to the part of Ganbaeksan secret camp that we can see from our campsite. We had asked if it was possible for us to do so. Although, we had gotten the time to pass by in the bus, talking to each others and the guides, it feels good to be able to get a small change of scenery.
Scenery around our campsite.
The cabin at the secret camp is partly hidden by the trees. This part of Ganbaeksan secret camp was used as the hospital for the camp, which maybe explain why it is located a little away from the rest of the camp. Next to the secret camp there is a solitary tomb, a round grassy turf on the top of a circle of stones. Buried here is an unknown soldier who was found with an amputated leg. The soldier had made some kind of personal sacrifice and as a result the medical staff at the camp had worked hard to get better medical supplies for the hospital. Next to the tomb is a small stele with 'the tomb of the unknown warrior' written on it. Further up in the woods there is another slogan-tree.
Mr. Han, our driver, and the two female guides singing for us in the afternoon.
In the afternoon, after we have eaten dinner, we are again joined by two of the female guides from the secret camp. People from North Korea like to sing, and also on this afternoon and evening they sing for the group. I have also been kind of challenged to sing a song from back home (Norway). Normally being quite the shy guy, standing in front of people singing is a big mountain for me to climb, so I cannot get myself to do it. Truth is, I really cannot sing. On the other hand, I cannot even remember the lyrics of any song except really simple children's songs. They are a little bit disappointed, which I can understand, as they are doing a great job of singing for us. I really appreciate the evening listening to them sing, the female guides, Mr. Kim (one of our guides from Pyongyang), Mr. Choi (local guide) and Mr. Han (our driver). Even Roger throws in a short tune.
Spectators listening to songs in the afternoon, Jo, Mr. Choi, Mr. Kim, female guide and Mr. Han.
I am optimistic about the weather for tomorrow. On the way back from the secret camp hospital, there was even a hint of sunlight on the ridge above us.
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