It's all over! In this post, I'll take you through the final kilometres as we walked them...experience it as it was, be there and relive the glory (!)
The last 5km was unremarkable; it was drizzling (again), and we walked mostly along roads through farmland. It was mundane stuff, in direct contrast to the energy of the team, which was boisterous and at times delirious - we were within an hour's walk from finishing almost seven weeks of hiking, the last 5 km out of 735. We were excited, expectant, hungry for the end, but still we had to walk the kilometres!
A kareoke started as we swaggered to within three kilometres of the line. Ki-Jun warbled in his high falsetto, singing 'All by myself', a song that had become something of a theme along the Daegan, being one of the few songs that all three of us knew. I had an obscure number from the 1968 musical 'Chitty Chitty Bang Bang' stuck in my head on repeat...'Up from the ashes, up from the ashes, grow the roses of success!' - how apt! Raby joined in on the chorus of 'Up from the Ashes' and then threw out a lyrically accurate rendition of James Blunt's 'You're beautiful'!
Eventually the karaoke died and as we drew within 1 kilometre of the end Ki Jun asked how our parents met - hardly the kind of thing you could imagine talking about at this late stage in the game! By the time we had translated the fact that our father's family immigrated to New Zealand from Scotland when he was 8, we were within 300 metres of the line. One last slippery downhill section through some forest, and then we saw it - the grey monument that marked the end of the Baekdu Daegan in South Korea. Come on!
Much yelling and cheering followed, I threw my backpack to the ground, stripped off and did a short nude run down the road, then we all took our shirts off and posed our emaciated hiking bodies for a victory photograph in front of the stele. As we posed for the camera, truckloads of soldiers drove past (we were close to the DMZ) and they waved and shouted hello. We shouted back at them and pumped our fists - these soldiers were the only people to see us at the finish of the Daegan. There was no crowd gathered, no podium, no nothing, really. We still had to work out the bus schedule and get back to Seoul - the glory of the finish was rather short-lived, but the glow of victory remains still!
Victory Speech
I should take a moment here to thank all of the people who, through their gifts of food, accommodation, washing facilities, or general morale-boosting encouragement, helped us to the finish-line. I'm talking about my main man Jang-sik (and his family) in Gimcheon; Mr. Baek and his friends and family at the Live Music cafe; the random trail-clearing party who gave us food when we were starving; Ki-Jun's friends who met us with 200km to go and fed us; my main man Carel, who drove an hour and a half to pick us up from the trail, hosted us at a swanky pension in the hills for a weekend, then drove us all the way back to the trail; our friends in Macheon who hosted us for a few days at the beginning of the trail; the couple who gifted us jewelry and a bottle of ginseng alcohol; the countless random people who pressed candy and other food into our hands as we passed them on the walk; the monks who let us stay at their temple and fed us; the family collecting forest plants who fed us; the list goes on and on. Much respect to all of these people - kind people, mountain people, maybe enlightened people?! Their unstinting generosity taught us again and again how to give freely, expecting nothing in return. I only hope I have learnt this lesson well.
I would also like to thank my main woman Mother Nature, for all the trees, the flowers the plants, the birds, rocks and insects. What beauty! What grandeur! What a test you provided for us from moment to moment, and how spectacularly I failed at times, only to learn the lesson, step forward again, get promptly put back in my place, and then go forward again. Slowly I am learning the Etiquette of the Wild (phrase courtesy of Gary Snyder). You cannot outflank nature! Do not fight the moment! Live very particularly, place your feet carefully, don't drift off, boy, you'll trip again! So elegant! I only grasped the very rough details of these ethics, but I shall do my best to apply them back in 'civilisation'.
Finally, to my trail companions, Ki-Jun and Mr. Raby Johnson - thank-you. There were edgy times, brittle times, times of agitation, but these were brief! Humour won through time and again and I have nothing but respect and admiration for you guys! Thank-you for the trail times.
And now?
We are back in Seoul, back where it all began! It was very strange arriving in this mega-city after the rustic Korean countryside. Here, there is everything you might want to recover from the Daegan, but still this place feels dead to me, with everyone clinging to their smart-phones and their external appearance. This opinion is probably influenced somewhat by the emptiness which comes following the finish of a major undertaking such as the Daegan. Still, I feel a need to get out and get into some big country, to get some travel momentum going again.
Fortunately, much plan-making has been happening over the last few days. A tour of the Stans is being organised. We left our passports at the Kazahkstan embassy yesterday, and we should be flying to Almaty next week sometime, and then overland into the mountainous and little-known countries of Kyrgyzstan and Turkistan. Exciting times shall follow, possibly we will blog about it, possibly not. We'll let you know.
Final note
If anyone is thinking about visiting the South Korean countryside, or (heaven forbid) attempting the Baekdu Daegan, then do not hesitate to contact us for more information.
Email address is: mjmbruce@gmail.com, or leave a comment on this blog. We are more than happy to give all the information we can regarding this amazing country.
 |
| Strung out and emaciated at the final monument of the Baekdu Daegan. |
The last 5km was unremarkable; it was drizzling (again), and we walked mostly along roads through farmland. It was mundane stuff, in direct contrast to the energy of the team, which was boisterous and at times delirious - we were within an hour's walk from finishing almost seven weeks of hiking, the last 5 km out of 735. We were excited, expectant, hungry for the end, but still we had to walk the kilometres!
A kareoke started as we swaggered to within three kilometres of the line. Ki-Jun warbled in his high falsetto, singing 'All by myself', a song that had become something of a theme along the Daegan, being one of the few songs that all three of us knew. I had an obscure number from the 1968 musical 'Chitty Chitty Bang Bang' stuck in my head on repeat...'Up from the ashes, up from the ashes, grow the roses of success!' - how apt! Raby joined in on the chorus of 'Up from the Ashes' and then threw out a lyrically accurate rendition of James Blunt's 'You're beautiful'!
Eventually the karaoke died and as we drew within 1 kilometre of the end Ki Jun asked how our parents met - hardly the kind of thing you could imagine talking about at this late stage in the game! By the time we had translated the fact that our father's family immigrated to New Zealand from Scotland when he was 8, we were within 300 metres of the line. One last slippery downhill section through some forest, and then we saw it - the grey monument that marked the end of the Baekdu Daegan in South Korea. Come on!
Much yelling and cheering followed, I threw my backpack to the ground, stripped off and did a short nude run down the road, then we all took our shirts off and posed our emaciated hiking bodies for a victory photograph in front of the stele. As we posed for the camera, truckloads of soldiers drove past (we were close to the DMZ) and they waved and shouted hello. We shouted back at them and pumped our fists - these soldiers were the only people to see us at the finish of the Daegan. There was no crowd gathered, no podium, no nothing, really. We still had to work out the bus schedule and get back to Seoul - the glory of the finish was rather short-lived, but the glow of victory remains still!
Victory Speech
I should take a moment here to thank all of the people who, through their gifts of food, accommodation, washing facilities, or general morale-boosting encouragement, helped us to the finish-line. I'm talking about my main man Jang-sik (and his family) in Gimcheon; Mr. Baek and his friends and family at the Live Music cafe; the random trail-clearing party who gave us food when we were starving; Ki-Jun's friends who met us with 200km to go and fed us; my main man Carel, who drove an hour and a half to pick us up from the trail, hosted us at a swanky pension in the hills for a weekend, then drove us all the way back to the trail; our friends in Macheon who hosted us for a few days at the beginning of the trail; the couple who gifted us jewelry and a bottle of ginseng alcohol; the countless random people who pressed candy and other food into our hands as we passed them on the walk; the monks who let us stay at their temple and fed us; the family collecting forest plants who fed us; the list goes on and on. Much respect to all of these people - kind people, mountain people, maybe enlightened people?! Their unstinting generosity taught us again and again how to give freely, expecting nothing in return. I only hope I have learnt this lesson well.
I would also like to thank my main woman Mother Nature, for all the trees, the flowers the plants, the birds, rocks and insects. What beauty! What grandeur! What a test you provided for us from moment to moment, and how spectacularly I failed at times, only to learn the lesson, step forward again, get promptly put back in my place, and then go forward again. Slowly I am learning the Etiquette of the Wild (phrase courtesy of Gary Snyder). You cannot outflank nature! Do not fight the moment! Live very particularly, place your feet carefully, don't drift off, boy, you'll trip again! So elegant! I only grasped the very rough details of these ethics, but I shall do my best to apply them back in 'civilisation'.
Finally, to my trail companions, Ki-Jun and Mr. Raby Johnson - thank-you. There were edgy times, brittle times, times of agitation, but these were brief! Humour won through time and again and I have nothing but respect and admiration for you guys! Thank-you for the trail times.
 |
| The final morning - Raby Johnson looks nervously out from beneath his hat. |
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| The final trail meal: shit weather, ramyeon again, soaking wet - and what of it?! We were 5km from the finish-line and totally unphased! |
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| It's all over! |
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| A truck of soldiers drove by just as the self-timer went off, only Raby stayed focused! |
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| Does this photo belong on the blog? On the subway in Seoul. |
And now?
We are back in Seoul, back where it all began! It was very strange arriving in this mega-city after the rustic Korean countryside. Here, there is everything you might want to recover from the Daegan, but still this place feels dead to me, with everyone clinging to their smart-phones and their external appearance. This opinion is probably influenced somewhat by the emptiness which comes following the finish of a major undertaking such as the Daegan. Still, I feel a need to get out and get into some big country, to get some travel momentum going again.
Fortunately, much plan-making has been happening over the last few days. A tour of the Stans is being organised. We left our passports at the Kazahkstan embassy yesterday, and we should be flying to Almaty next week sometime, and then overland into the mountainous and little-known countries of Kyrgyzstan and Turkistan. Exciting times shall follow, possibly we will blog about it, possibly not. We'll let you know.
Final note
If anyone is thinking about visiting the South Korean countryside, or (heaven forbid) attempting the Baekdu Daegan, then do not hesitate to contact us for more information.
Email address is: mjmbruce@gmail.com, or leave a comment on this blog. We are more than happy to give all the information we can regarding this amazing country.
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