Day 11, Leg 8

My feet are still intact, and I managed the 33K with only a few aches. I've had a persistent twinge in my left ankle since before the trek started; there's not much I can do except to walk it off. 

Today started off at around 3°C (37°F), but the sun shone as the day rolled on, and it got warm enough for me to strip off all my winter gear, leaving me to walk in my UnderArmour shirt and short-sleeve tee. I'm resting an extra day tomorrow, and it'll be sunny and warm again. Tuesday, I'll walk farther north to Libertar Pension; this'll be another over-30K walk, so I'll be staying at Libertar (next to Gumi Dam) an extra night as well. After that, I have three days in a row of walks. The third day will be an ass-kicking 36K—the longest segment of this final half of the trek. Weather on Tuesday and Wednesday looks good, but from Tuesday to Wednesday, there's a significant drop in daytime temps, which will undoubtedly be more pronounced the farther north I go. 

Today's walk took me out of the Daegu region and over to Chilgok. I'm staying at the Lee Motel as usual, but the big news is that this room's bathroom has a French-style bidet in it! Alas, it doesn't work, so I guess it's more decorative than anything. For people who only know the bidet function on a Japanese-style smart toilet, though, seeing a real bidet might be educational. I've included a photo here as a bonus #11.

Speaking of photos, I regret not photographing a friendly cat that ran up to me to beg for food. It meowed insistently; I felt bad that I had nothing to give it, and it was too skittish to accept any scritches. At this late point in the year, there are fewer living things to photograph, but I did manage to catch a lone Joro spider on camera—the only one I've seen thus far. 

I'll be showering and overhauling my tape and bandages once I'm at Libertar. Tonight, I washed my hair, my face, and my nether regions, and I also washed my underwear. Fuller laundry will also be done at Libertar. This will be my first time staying at the pension for more than a single night. Being a pension, Libertar is never cheap, but they said they had an end-of-year deal, so I paid W170,000 for two nights instead of W200,000. Whatever works. Tonight's motel cost is only W70,000 for two nights. The Lee Motel is humble but decent, nonfunctional bidet notwithstanding. 

I left late this morning: 6 a.m. This allowed me to sleep in an hour extra; I was exhausted after yesterday's walk, and I also knew I could afford to arrive late at the Lee Motel since I'd be staying an extra day. Confession: I'd done some stairs work before embarking on the second half of this trek, but absolutely no practice walks. You'll recall that I didn't declare myself fully healed until the Tuesday before departure. I was also still finalizing my Thanksgiving prep, so there was simply no time to do any walking. This means I'm retraining right now, as I'm doing these segments. Today, despite being much longer, went better than yesterday. I'm less tired. 

Plus my BMR, that's about 5600 calories burned.

Daegu: Keimyung University's big hospital

"The Arc [sic]," an aquaculture gallery

Gangjeong-goryeong Dam certification center

We love delapidation!

Earthworm! What're you doing out on the path this cold morning?

I guess solar farms make more sense in a small country like Korea.

Much later on the path: a lone, defiant tree.

gone fishing

Perennially hilarious: "stank district." Uncorrected after all these years.

lone, 7-legged Joro spider

Rest day tomorrow, then a long trek on Tuesday. Stay tuned. 

And here's that bonus pic:

That's what a real, French bidet looks like.

PS: I left at 6 a.m. and arrived at 4:45 p.m., with about 90 minutes of down time for rest breaks. 10 hours, 45 minutes minus another 90 minutes for breaks. 33 km in 9.25 hours is 3.57 kph. I blame the shutterbugging.