The First of Many

Korean’s are known for loving a good hike, which is a good thing since everywhere you look you can see a mountain. From my 15th floor apartment I can see a mountain called Bowmunsan, ‘san’ meaning mountain, so in full English it’s Bowmun Mountain. This was the first mountain I tackled in Korea, and it’s the mountain that lead me to set my first goal for my time here, and that is to visit every National Park in South Korea. I obviously cannot climb every peak in every National Park, but I hope to climb at least one mountain in every park. Bowmunsan is not in a National Park, but it is beautiful nonetheless, and it is a part of my new view, something that I look at every morning I wake up.

Bowmunsan is 458m high, and marks the city’s southern edge. It gave me an amazing view of the city to the north that I will call home for the next 12 months, and a view of the mountainous countryside to the south.

I went on this hike with my new Korean family, Mary, Ben, and Laura. We brought a beautiful, colourful, and tasty picnic lunch with us, along with a picnic mat, badminton rackets, cameras and our smiling faces. We had our picnic at the top beside a lookout. We then walked along the ridge of the mountain to another of its many peaks, where we saw a great view of the city and caught a beautiful dusk sky with the mountains to the south of us. It was a great first hike in Korea, and a looong walk home since we came down the mountain a different way than we went up and couldn't find a taxi, but it was amazing in every way.