South Korea part 6

The beginning of the final week saw two days bank holiday, a rare event in South Korea, so I got a chance to go out with Grant again which was great. One of the days was to celebrate Buddha's birthday. However this was probably more of a subdued celebration as the country was still in shock and deep sadness from the recent ferry disaster.

On Tuesday, we went to Gyeryonsang National Park with a colleague of Grants from the University. Beautiful day, lots of people and a lot of climbing. Visited the temple on the way, a very nice day out. We stopped to watch people pay their respects and took in some refreshments.

We could hear quiet a few Blue-and-White Flycatchers and Eastern Crowned Warblers as we walked up into the hills along a steep stony track.

After this and a nice curry it was time for me to catch my coach back to Incheon. I booked a hotel room which turned out to be an apartment next to the airport, it was pretty much 5 star and only cost 50 quid or so! In the morning I went for a walk over some open ground and had a look at some waders on the sea, however, this was near a busy road and an airport security van appeared so I decided to leave, I walked over to an open area with a large reedbed, here there were Skylarks singing, presumably the far eastern race, Kentish Plovers seemed to be on territory plus there was at least one Fan-tailed Warbler, this I didn't recognise at first as the song here is completely different from the song in Europe. Then that was it, I had to catch my plane. The plane was delayed for a hour whilst they fixed the wing or something, but I still managed my connection in Helsinki. It was strange to be back, but even stranger for Grant suddenly not having me at his flat!