Mood: Enlightened
Music: Some old English language music my guide had on CD in the car (ABBA, the Carpenters, Bee Gees among others)
Today we spent pretty much all day heading south in the car. We stopped off just before lunchtime at the Hwanseongul caves. These are a massive set of interconnected caves with a metal walkway leading visitors through about a mile of metal pathways. Some of the caves are almost 100m high and have stalactites and rockflows running down them. One of the most impressive formations I saw was a "bacon strip" formed like a stalactite but in a strip leading down the cave wall from the source of the water.
I would be pointing you at photos of these formations but photographs are not allowed. I was told I couldn't even take non-flash photos because other people would see me using a camera and start flashing away with their own.
We took the monorail up and down from the cave to speed up the journey and get us back on the road as soon as possible. After a brief stop for lunch we carried on our journey, passing through large mountainous regions. The roads had turned very windy but in most valleys we saw the path of the new road being build on a series of bridges and tunnels that will lead straight through the mountain range.
In the late afternoon we arrived at the Dosanseowon (the Dosan academy). It was originally founded by Yi Hwang, one of the fathers of Confucionist thinking in Korea, in 1561. The small school like compound contains a lecture area, housing for a small number of students and some other buildings (a library, a printing house, a shrine and stores). It was one of the top academic teaching places for Confucionism in Korea for centuries and still hosts some ceremonies. As today is the mid point between the summer and winter solstices, they were preparing for one such ceremony while we visited.
This evening I've been delivered to my guest house. I have a small room with sliding doors and a traditional mattress on the floor. Thankfully the floor of the room is heated else it would be rather cold!
I do have electricity and wifi though.
Enough for now. Night all.
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