lost or what?

Palgongsan and especially the Gatbawi area are very popular, there is a bus every 10 minutes that goes from the Dongdaegu bullet train station, bus number 1. Here is where you catch it from. It also goes past the airport. Popular it may be, but early on a Monday morning it was quiet.

Yes, I have been here before, last time I did the first part of this hike and came back down again. Today I am going a lot further. I was only convinced it was the same place when I saw this climbing wall.

There is a small city at the start of the climb, lots of restaurants, camping grounds, even a movie cinema I think. I had no time for any of that, so here is a convenience store.

The start of the hike up through the camping grounds (wooden decks) is a nice staircase.

First wrong turn. I went down this path for about ten minutes. It would not have mattered as everything leads back to the same place eventually, but I opted to turn back when I realised. The tiny pine cones were like marbles.

Nice trees, with a view behind them of some of the peaks I would go along later.

View from part way up. Not a lot to see, Daegu in the distance if you squint. The view of Daegu was obscured all day.

Instead, I would appreciate some rock formations.

When the structures such as this started to appear, it was clear I was getting close to something...

There is a cable car that comes up to here. It is not really near the top at all, but there is a path from here that goes to a famous hermitage. Hermitage being a place where hermits live, mythical creatures that can only be accessed by cable car.

Before visiting the hermits you might like an ice cream, or pig leg. I had no time for such delicacies, and actually I was wasting too much time...

Those antennas were my first goal, but actually I should have skipped them, they add on about an hour.

Rock garden started. Not too bad though. Later there were areas of very fine white gravel that were supremely slippery.

That little house is the cable car station. Its a shame it was cloudy from a view perspective, but great from a temperature perspective. Am I using the word perspective correctly?

Gray beard, sweaty blood red t-shirt. Living the good life.

Above these stairs, I should have turned right, but I wanted to get to the highest point, because I am like a cat.

Instead of following the recommended path, I followed this optic fibre cable.

And then I got to this monstrosity.

Lots of barbed wire, over there is an air force radar station (I think). There were lots of fighter jets all day, Daegu airport is an air force base that also has passenger flights, a bit like Darwin airport in Australia.

This is the summit... great view, and about an hour wasted. Well I did get to see some antennas up close.

Also some power wires. There was nobody at all around.

Another view of all the summit infrastructure. The path I took down from here to rejoin the main path was perilous and very time consuming. Poorly sign posted. I back tracked a couple of times to find a better version of the path.

Here is a view down in a different direction.

I think I rejoined the main path here or near here anyway. There is an actual normal candle burning in that box, so someone has been here recently, not that I saw them.

Korean flag and rolling peaks. There were lots of summit areas like this to cross over during my 6.75 hours. Lots of up and down and up and down again.

That is the path. It is an example of where I thought I had made a wrong turn and wasted time back tracking to see if there was another way. On this occasion, that is the way.

A golf course ahead. It is owned by the monks! If you search the internet you will find a story about monks caught renting entire floors of Las Vegas hotels, playing $10,000 a hand poker, and having 100 hookers hired for the night. Those monks were from Korea.

Probably a redundant photo, but gives an idea of all the ridges to still walk along.

This was the section where for at least 3 hours I saw no one. Despite structures like this existing periodically. The hike was a strange mix of occasional stair cases, then rocks with ropes, then even worse, steep downward slopes with very fine gravel and nothing to hang on to except for hope.

To give an idea of how far I had come, in the middle of this pic are those antennas from earlier.

Getting closer to the golf course.

And actually I am getting close to Gatbawi here, hence staircases again for people wandering away from the Buddha area. It may look like you can go down to the golf course, you cannot. It is steep cliffs all the way around.

Those little temple things, are where the Buddha statue is roughly located. I thought I was closer than I am, still have to climb up again to get over there.

And then, here he is, Buddha, with pimp hat. Apparently the most famous Buddha statue in Korea, and its all about the hat. There are certainly a lot larger statues in other places.

Since I came so far, it is probably worth 2 pics.

View from Buddha.

There were a few people about. And loud pre recorded prayer things blasting. To get up to here from over this side of the mountain is the longest staircase I think I have ever encountered. I had to go down it now. It is 600 metres down. The average height of a step is 20cm or there abouts, so 5 to a metre, so that is 3000 steps then. That's a big staircase. There are little rest bits off to the side at regular intervals, but no toilets.

Before starting my descent, you can buy a coffee or an ice cream. Somebody carries them up to sell them every day. That's a tough commute.

Back at the bottom, and here is the predictable temple.

And some mummified babies.

Finally, back to civilisation, long day was long.