We wake up on our tatami mats on the 11th floor at 6:30 and make ourselves ready for the first hotel breakfast buffet of this trip. Especially Olga is very enthusiastic about the happening. There is a lot of food, both Western and Korean. And much fruit and vegetables that we missed a lot in the past weeks (Although the children prefer the waffles and croissants).
It’s a very rainy day, not very promising for our bird view park that is on our schedule, but some water will not stop us, so we set course to Suncheon Bay wetland reserve.
Optimistic as we are, we hope the rain will stop, but we drive through heavy grey clouds and pouring rain instead. We seem to be the only one on the parking, and not only because of the weather, but because the reserve is closed today.
As said, we’re unstoppable, so we look for another way to get close to the birds, Tim looks on the map, finds a back road, and we drive for some minutes and park our car. The final meters to a bird observatory we walk through the rain. While yesterday was the first time we used our swimming suits, today is the first time we use the umbrella that we brought.
But there, our persistence is rewarded, as we see many birds: ducks, spoonbills, herons, geese, sparrows, against a rainy mountain backdrop.
Next on our schedule is the world heritage Seonamsa Temple, the temple with the most national treasures in South Korea, such as a beautiful stone bridge, built 300 years ago to ward off evil spirits.
Cleo fell asleep in the car, so Olga stays dry in the car with the kids, while Tim visits the temple. Zeno enjoys himself by testing all the buttons of the car which results in our inability to open the car when, once Cleo woke up, Zeno, Olga and Cleo went outside for some fun in the rain. Luckily we somehow managed to get back in and Tim resets everything so we can proceed with our trip.
Another historic folk village is advertised at the temple parking: Nagan Eupseong Folk Village, which we decide to add to our schedule as we have spare time because of the short visit to the wetland. It’s still raining, but not pouring any more and we enjoy the walk through the 600 years old village which is surrounded by a high wall, climbing the wall gives a really nice oversight of the site.
Zeno is clearly at the age that he prefers to run around with Cleo, but he does not listen at all which is a challenge, but manageable especially when he’s tired of running from stone to puddle to sidewalk and other items that interest him, and agrees to be carried again.
It’s still an one-and-a-half hours drive to Gwangju, but Zeno falls asleep and Cleo plunders our stash of walnuts, so time flies until we arrive at our next hotel for the coming days at 16:30. We enjoy the huge bath tub straight away before heading to dinner. We initially feel that we want something different then a Korean dish, but the only alternatives are Japanese restaurants with not so child friendly menu’s, so we end up with noodles and dumplings once again.
We finish the day together with a convenience store run looking for Pokemon cards for our nephew. Not successful, unfortunately. Then Olga puts the children to bed and Tim makes some night shots of wet Gwangju. They say the weather will be better again tomorrow, but we enjoyed ourselves also in the rain today.
Leave a Reply