Four days of Fun and Frivolity
For all the photos, check out my flickr site.

So I got back from Japan, only to find out on Monday that I had a 4 day weekend coming up. Thursday the 24th was Buddha's birthday so we were given that day off. I think my school decided that since we had Thursday off, we might as well make it worthwhile and take Friday off as well!
I love working in this country.

So on Thursday, I got up and went over to Miji and Tony's place for a massive feast of seafood. Miji's Mum owns two fishing boats on Jindo island and cooked up a massive meal for us to celebrate Buddha's birthday.

After this massive chow-down, I jumped in the car and drove over to Gwangju to catch up with Virginia. She went back to Canada for three weeks and had just arrived back in S. Korea that morning. I stayed in her hotel over night and got to hang out with her and JP, a guy that use to work in Wando but left soon after I arrived. He's back for another year and he and Virginia will both be placed in Mokpo. I think with all my friends now in Mokpo, I'll be spending a lot more time there.

The next day the real adventure started. I dropped off Black Betty for the weekend and hired a minivan for three days.

"Why would he do that?", I hear you ask.

For the first Jeollanamdo Photography Roadtrip of course!

Myself and a group of 7 friends jumped in the car and spent two days driving around the provence taking photos. I'd spent days planning a route that would take in some beautiful scenery and some interesting stops.

We went first over to a little town near Jirisan to see a steam train that runs 10km's between two stations.


The patriotic train.



Locomotion; Old and New

Unfortunately we didn't have time to wait for the next departure and have a ride, but it was cool looking at the old locomotives and playing around at the theme park there.


The driving force.


All aboard...

Then we meandered our way down a valley to Jirisan and the Korean Black Bear rehab program. There use to be many bears in South Korea but sadly they were almost wiped out. Now they are starting a breading program to try to build up the population and re-introduce them into the wild. They believe there are about 20 bears roaming around Jirisan, with another eight at the breeding center, including two cubs.


One of thirty-odd bears left in Korea.

From here, we went down another amazing valley. The whole way I was thinking I would have to come back there on my motor bike. As I was having this thought for the thousandth time, we came around the corner and lo and behold, on the side of the road was a motorcycle gang.


Hells Angles? ... No, it's Club Shadow.

This looked like the Korean version of the Hells Angles. Of course we had to pull over and take photographs with them.


Very cool bikies.

Far from being the scary type gangs we often associate with these kinds of groups, these guys were super friendly and posed for numerous photos with us. After telling them I had a bike, one of them gave me a business card with the groups website address on it. Not exactly the sort of thing you expect from a "Hells Angles" type group.

Here's the link if you wanna go check it out...

Club Shadow (since 2002)

After our stop here, we skipped over to Suncheon to watch a Korean National sport, Gumdo. This is a martial art based around the use of a sword. It was great to watch. Both graceful and deadly.


Looks dangerous.

That night it was onto Boseong and a hotel for some well earned rest.

The next day we were up and travelling again. Not as many stops on Sunday.

The first stop was just outside Boseong at the most famous tea plantation in Jeollanamdo... and possibly all of Korea.


And not a teabag in site...

We followed the coast down to a small town called Maryang and did two short ferry rides across to Shinji island for a play on the beach. Unfortunately it was a bit windy for a good swim, although Richard managed a quick dip.

From Shinji it was a quick lunch and long drive back to Gwangju to return the car, pick up Black Betty and do a U-turn back down to Wando.

Yet another amazing weekend!