Like the Haenyeo divers’ performance, we’d set aside more than one date to try to participate in a Firefly sighting tour, and we tried to do two bookings: the first turned out to be too challenging as we did not have a Korean mobile phone number, and our Seogwipo hotel was unable to help us with the booking. We managed to snag a second booking with a different provider, and the tour was scheduled for Day 07 evening. As (bad) luck had it, it rained again from early afternoon onwards, and we learnt through our driver Mr. Lee in the late afternoon that our Firefly sighting tour had also been cancelled.
That said; we’d planned for the day’s itinerary from after lunch onwards only as we were having Mr. Lee drive us also to the start point for the Firefly tour and then bring us back to Jeju city. Our first stop in the early afternoon was Hwangsang Forest. This small park is located on the western side of the island and not too far from, and features the island’s distinctive gotjawal ecosystems. In these areas, vegetation grows over uneven lava rock terrain. The park offers accompanying guides, but these seem to only be offered in Korean, so we opted for the self-guided walk instead. The latter isn’t very long – you can cover the entire circuit in 30 minutes, and isn’t physically demanding. The route is a a dirt path and takes you through lush vegetation, and it’s not really possible to get lost as long as you don’t stray from the path.
Continuing onto Hallim park next!