Mt. Illim....this was ALMOST my waterloo!!

One of the teacher's at my Girls' Middle School has become a really good friend. Her name is Kim, Kwang-Soon (Koreans put their family name first). She asked me to join her and her WHOLE family for a hike up Mt. Illim. I felt honoured to be included with all her family and gladly accepted the invitation.

WHAT WAS I THINKING!!?? Actually it was a great day and her family are warm and friendly even though very little English was spoken and my Korean certainly isn't up to scratch. HOWEVER, this hike was a MARATHON!! About 2.5 - 3 hours later we reached the top of this mountain that was covered in azaleas. Beautiful sight but man, were my knees screaming!! The sad part was.....what goes up, must come down. Poor Kwong Soon she felt so bad that she had suggested this hike and I was really in pain. I tried to assure her that it was OK....all the while, I just wanted someone to shoot me and put me out of my misery. The way down was even worse because coming down a very steep precipice is harder on bad knees...at least on my bad knees. Try to picture this.....a beautiful azalea covered mountain, surrounded by gurgling brooks, rocks, a narrow path......AND thousands of Koreans, walking sticks flailing, pushing and shoving up and down this path.....AND ME.....the ONLY foreigner. In hindsight, it was pretty funny but at the time, I WAS NOT AMUSED!! Anyway, on the way down we found a road that was a more gentle descent which was somewhat easier on the old 'pins'.

Just a note.....Kwang Soon's family members weren't exactly thrilled with the length and difficulty of the hike either. All in all though, we had a GREAT day!!

Enjoy the pictures.