After purchasing a pair of hybrid water/hiking shoes (that I actually had considered buying in the states a year ago), I was ready to go as I walked out of exit 1 at Ab Gu Jeong station. A light rain drizzled and the sky was filled with clouds, but I was leaving Seoul for the weekend in search of a recharge and no amount of rain could change my upbeat attitude.
After boarding the bus, I realize there are many people who know one another. I don’t know anyone. What am I doing? Slight moment of social anxiety creeps into my brain but immediately subsides as I ask to sit next to a single traveler. We end up talking for most of the bus ride talking about life back home and in Seoul.
A few hours later, the bus pulls in to the river rafting parking lot and I am pumped! We are told in broken English to make 6 lines of 8 people and it is quite a mess trying to organize 45+ people. We work it out and are given our guides. My guide is crazy. I’m immediately reminded of Charlie, the rafting guide who for two years in a row, entertained and barreled his way through the Lower and Upper Gauley in West Virginia with some of my closest friends on board. It’s going to be a great ride!
We head towards the river as the men of our crew carry the raft while the ladies and guide hold hands. How cute. We reach the water and are basically told we’re the renegade boat by our guide. You know, the boat that splashes everyone to no end and is super sneaky. Wha ha ha ha. We soak in the river for a minute to get used to the water (in case we fall out) and hop in the raft.
Throughout the ride, we shout “Soju” for each row as instructed by our guide and can’t help but laugh at the hilarity of it all. We sneak up and splash other boats both part of our group and not and start to form a bond. The guide, who later reveals himself as “Navigation,” begins to speak more English as the raft heads downriver. At the important moments, he tells our accidental translator, Lindsay, that the upcoming rapid is important and we have to listen to him. We trust him with our lives which is quite a feat in the grand scheme of things, isn’t it?
The ride ends and while we never navigated through class 5 rapids, I am extremely satisfied and elated. Our group of 45 loads back on to the bus and we head to our lodging for the evening.
The pension is gorgeous! We have it all to ourselves and it’s nestled amongst the mountains. We make dinner including fajitas, cheeseburgers, and Korean bbq and end up playing a few games into the night. I retire around 11:30 to my space on the floor – which is quite a common accommodation in Korea – and awake the next morning to a beautiful blue sky…at 6:30am. YUCK!!!
Three hours later…it’s back on the bus for day 2’s activities. Rumor had it that we were all going to jump off a bridge…ha ha ha!
We get to the start of our path and after a brief (very brief) stretch, I start walking. The hill starts to get steep. It doesn’t flatten out very often. Am I this out of shape? I push forward. My new friend Sandy, is slowing her pace too. Trucks full of Korean men and women pass us…is this a sign? Are we nuts to be climbing this? We continue uphill for the first hour of the trek. The incline is much more than I thought it would be. Three times I think, “should I give up?” But how can I give up? I am no wimp.
At these moments, I start to dig into my arsenal of encouragement. I think back to 8th grade and Mr. Crumell and reading the poem “If” by Rudyard Kipling. Keep going Mb! Keep going! I even think about Billy Blanks at the end of the hellacious TaeBo workout. Oh dear. Either way, it helps and I keep going. Just when I think that I’m not going to go any further, Sandy comes up alongside me and tells me to keep going. I push forward and five minutes later, we’re at the top! Hooray!
Twenty minutes later, we arrive at the bottom of the hill and at the bridge. People are already jumping off. Am I going to do this? The courageous side of me urges me to go. The fearful, trapped side of me holds me back. Sandy asks, “are you going to jump?”
My mind clears. “If I’m going to do this, I’m just going to walk over to that bridge, climb over the railing and jump, as if it’s one fluid movement.”
And that, with the exception of double-checking where exactly to jump (because there were shallow points), is exactly what I did.
I scream at the top of my lungs. There’s no reason to scream, but it feels like an amazing release. I break through the surface of the water and I feel rejuvenated. Imagine the voice of Borat running through your brain saying “Great success! I like!”
The journey continues down the river as we all stumble our way for the next 4 hours over slippery rocks and through trails where only feet have walked. I swim, and climb, and jump, and slide, and walk some more. Towards the end of the trek, five women have grouped together and we start to anticipate the end. We follow a team of Korean m
en and women and after a few miscommunications, make our way to the final stretch. When we reach the end, we all shout for joy…and then run for dry clothing and food.While I cannot say this was the greatest weekend of my life; I can say, without a doubt, that it marks a significant turning point. This trip was a great adventure…and I know, after this experience, that there are many more adventures to come here in Korea.
