Seohaerang Gil | Day 42 – 45

8 – 11 May 2025 | Courses 45 – 50 (Buan)

Four days in Buan with some lovely courses, more bus anxiety and some great local food!

Day 42: Thursday 8 May. This morning we catch the intercity bus from Gochang to Buan and drop our bags off at our motel. The motel is unstaffed when we arrived so we leave them at reception, as Korea is generally very safe, with a note saying we will be back later. As we have started a bit later, the plan is to hike courses 49 & 50 as they cut right through the centre of town 🥾 The rural buses were a bit confusing but the locals help us find the right one and all the oldies on the bus seem very amused, including the bus driver who questions why we are heading to a stop in the middle of nowhere. Course 49 is tedious (mentally); it mostly long flat paths of nothing but empty farm awaiting crops. Today is by far the warmest day we have had so far at 24°c ☀️ We eventually make it to town and stop by a bakery cafe called Bear Brothers. The bread and smoothies we had were so good! Continue to course 50 and visit the local fish market 🐟 Today is also Parents’ Day, a tradition in South Korea where children give carnations to their parents to express gratitude for their love and care. We come across some Parents’ Day entertainment including locals dancing to live trot music 🎵 Head to dinner then check out a sports place nearby that offers bowling, archery, shooting, baseball, table tennis and roller skating, which we might hit up tomorrow as it supposed to rain all day. Also manage to score a win in the claw machine, first go! 👾

Day 43: Friday 9 May. Rainy day in Buan! It’s forecast to rain all day so we scheduled a ‘히링데이’ (Healing Day) and explored the city of Buan. We start at a local bakery cafe called Ariul where we try yuzu tea, Injeolmi bread and dried persimmon bagel 🥯 Have a good wander through the local fish market which is pretty quiet. We have also been saving towards the ‘hiking pants fund’ and pick up a few pairs today from a local sports store called Kolping. The shopkeeper is so lovely and keeps giving us ‘서비스’ (service), which are basically freebies included with our purchase. We walk out of there with not only the two pairs of hiking pants we’ve paid for but also two shirts, four pairs of socks and five multipurpose neck bandanas 🧦 We then drop into the nearby sports plaza and hit a few baseballs in the batting cage. Even at 70km (less than half the speed from MBL pitchers) those things fly pretty fast! ⚾️ Head back to the same place for dinner as last night as it was cheap and cheerful, and just down the road. The owner also gives us some Yakult at the end of our meal as a ‘서비스’.

Day 44: Saturday 10 May. Forget everything I said the other day about ‘trust the printed timetable boards’! Local buses are tricky to navigate in Buan and a source of much anxiety; even the printed timetables aren’t as reliable as other towns we’ve been 🚌 We have some bad luck with a few buses today so only manage two courses instead of the four we have planned. Today’s courses are very nice coastal trails but it’s super cold and windy all day 🌬️ We complete 17km along courses 45 & 46. Luckily the rain holds out and the bus stops have carbon-heated benches! When we finally arrive back in town we head straight to dinner. The noodle place we have in mind is closed (typical) so we go back to ole faithful for the third day straight, much to the amusement of the owners. We have a nice chat with them but it’s so tricky when Korean elders use different terms to those younger than them, so we have a bit of trouble understanding them at times. Also make a stop at yet another bakery! 🥐

Day 45: Sunday 11 May. Hike 17km along course 47 & 48. Course 47 has been deemed one of the prettiest courses and it certainly is! ☀️ The weather is much nicer than yesterday, and being a Sunday there are a lot more people out and about. We pass lots of other hikers, all who are very friendly, and are in awe with the beautiful views at every turn of the trail. We walk via a few beaches (Gosapo and Byeonsan) and make a rest stop at Cafe Couchant to load up on sugar 🍓 Nearby to our end point is the world’s longest seawall (33km!), so long we can’t even see the end of it. After catching the wrong bus in (it was express and missed our original stop) we finally have some luck and only have to wait 5 minutes for the bus home. Most businesses in small towns are closed on Sundays but we are lucky there is a Noodles Tree open for dinner where we are able to have 콩국수 Kongguksu again 🍜