Focusing

A couple of busy weeks later, I am now sitting on seat 36A, on board a Lufthansa A350. Still docked at Gate Z50. It's ridiculously hot inside, making it impossible to cool down after a sprint from my delayed flight from Zurich to the gate to my connecting flight. 

Nonetheless, I am relieved to finally be on my way. Away from the snow, the mountains the daily grind. 

The last few days, I really had to pull myself together, concentrating on the details, finishing up my planing. As good as I can at least. Part of thru hiking is always dealing with the unknown. A thing which, initially always brothers me a bit, but eventually adds to the, at least for me, satisfying nature of these longish hikes. 

Since I have an 11 hour flight ahead of me (taking me south of Russia and north of Iran through a narrow corridor over  Azerbaijan) and a growing delay due to some faulty/missing technical documents, I can give a quick outline of how my next couple of days will look like (if we finally become airborne):

Arriving in Seoul Incheon at around lunch time (hopefully), I will take a train to Gimpo, the airport my flight to Jeju leaves the next day (on the 21st). I booked my self into a hostel, right next to the airport. Depending on when I arrive, I will have a walk around the neighborhood, acclimate myself a little bit, changing money, activating my sim card. The usual stuff.

On the 21st, my flight to Jeju leaves mid-afternoon. Once on ground, I walk straight to Iho Tewoo Beach. Roughly 4 kilometers from the terminal. A public campsite, located halfway into Route 17 of the Olle Trail. Perfect for a first night on Jeju Island. From then on all I have to do is following the markers. Somewhere along the way, I might get lucky and find some camping gas and a Jeju Olle Passport. A passport shaped booklet, that you can complete by stamping at the starting, halfway and finishing point of each of the routes. While not "required", it's still a cool thing to do I think. And a great souvenir.

Until the passport is full, I still have a bit of walking ahead of me. 437 kilometers to be precise. But for now, all I can do is sit back, relax and trying to enjoy my flight, which, by now, finally made it into the air.