Seohaerang Gil | Day 21 – 27

17 – 23 April 2025 | Course 5 – 14 (Jindo Island)

We base ourselves in Jindo and complete all the courses surrounding the island.

It rained a few times, we caught lots of rural buses which were free but infrequent, noticed lots of foreign farm workers and visited the local bakery virtually everyday.

Day 21: Thursday 17 April. Hello from Jindo, the third largest island in South Korea and home to the native Jindo dog 🐕 On our first hiking day here we caught the rural bus, which was full of locals no younger than 75 years old. We completed 18.3km along courses 7 and 8, which included 486m of elevation, tons of wind, and misty views of nothing at the mountain peak ⛰️ Had to get the hiking sticks out climbing down Cheomchalsan Mountain which was pretty steep and slippery. Caught another local bus back to Jindo town (this time full of foreign male workers) for a some Korean dinner 🍲

Day 22: Friday 18 April. We are getting used to catching these regional buses now, which can be a little tricky to figure out due to the infrequent timetables and unnumbered buses 🚍 Today we completed 20km along courses 9 and 10, encountered lots of growling dogs and passed by quite a few hikers too which haven’t seen a lot of until now. It was extremely misty throughout the day, making the trails appear quite eerie. Most of the course was along the coast which was quite enjoyable, passing a ferry terminal and even an old fortress ⛴️ Finished with a very cool trail which we renamed the ‘roller coaster trail’ because of all the erratic twists and turns 🎢 After getting the bus back to town we had a traditional Korean dinner of 순두부찌개 soft tofu stew and 비빔밥 bibimbap 🍲

Day 23: Saturday 19 April. It was forecast to rain in the afternoon so we made an early start to complete courses 11 and 12. We did about 15km which took us along the western part of the island with views of the many islands just off the coast of South Korea 🏝️ There was a lot of farmland with many locals planting their crops for the new season. It was really misty and windy in the morning but became quite warm and humid towards the end. We dropped into a cute seaside cafe called ‘Front Cafe’ before catching the bus back to town. And of course, it didn’t end up raining until we were walking back from dinner! ☔️

Day 24: Sunday 20 April. The rain from last night was still easing up this morning so it was quite misty and humid today. We knocked out 19km along courses 5 & 6, which were a little different to what we’ve been doing as they took us around some more touristy areas like Jindo Tower, the cable car and Yi Sun Shin statue, which is enormous with a big spiral staircase for viewing 🚡 The course also took us along the water, past farmland and crops, and we finished near the tourist complex for a Chinese lunch, which was so filling that all we could stomach for dinner was some drinks from Mega Coffee later that night 🌙

Day 25: Monday 21 April. We took a day off from the Seohaerang Gil courses to trek some of the nearby Jindo mountains, namely Cheolmasan and Buksan Mountains ⛰️ We did a 12km loop which took us through town and around the back trail, leading us to a small valley between the two mountains that had exercise equipment with a view. Cheolmasan is the higher of the two at 304m (but only by 5m!) but the view from Buksan was far nicer, so we sat there for a while to have lunch, enjoy the scenery and tried spotting all the different landmarks from above 🏫

Day 26: Tuesday 22 April. Another rainy day meant no hiking ☔️ We ended up doing our Korean study lesson with our tutor before going for a run around the local sporting grounds. Dinner at Jindo Kimbap and one last visit to Myeongdong Bakery to give the lovely baking lady a gift. Tomorrow we will say farewell to Jindo and head towards Haenam so we can continue hiking our courses along the Seohaerang Gil 🥾

Things we have learnt about Jindo:

It only takes about 10 minutes to walk between the town and farmland where you will see masses of the older population planting their crops
Rural buses take a bit of local knowledge; sometimes they show up and sometimes they don’t
Jindo dogs are everywhere and growl a lot
There are a surprising number of foreigners in town but they all appear to be workers
If you climb a mountain closer to the coast the only view you will have is mist

Day 27: Wednesday 23 April. We finally departed Jindo and made our way to Munnae-Myeong, a small town part way to Haenam. We completed 22.5km along courses 13 & 14, which took us through farmland, endless fields of vegetables growing and an interesting looking tourist resort and campsite ⛺️ It was pretty quiet but give it a few weeks as they weather warms up and the place will be pumping. For dinner we discovered 백반 (baekban), a meal focusing on the local produce with loads of banchan! 🥬