Out And About In Korea – Yeongwol

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  I had wanted to stay at another pension and possibly combine it with our yearly river rafting trip.  Due to being unable to schedule a river rafting trip last l summer we had missed a year, so I was itching to get back on raft, and back in the water.

  Mi Jung found the La Mansion Pension in Yeongwol, and we made reservations.  The pension had a nice cabin like feel to it, out in the country.  *I liked the atmosphere, but Mi Jung did not like the fact that they did not provide transportation service to and from the train station, and had no room cleanup, including our trash, and food recycling.  The pension was within a 10 minute walk to the river rafting facility on the Danggang River, though about 15 minutes from the city center, restaurants, and stores by taxi.

  I got off work early on Friday, and having packed the night before we were able to immediately head off to Cheyongyangni station, via Line 4 at Namyeong station.  A word of caution: if you are using Namyeong station as a starting off point and have allot of bags.  There are no elevators in the station, so expect to carry your bags up multiple flights of stairs.  I would suggest using Samgakji station which does have street, and track level elevators, or take a taxi.

  We boarded the train, and 3 hours later were in Yeongwol,  We arranged with the station master to leave our bags in the office and headed out for a late afternoon Kayaking session.  The original plan was to get 2 single kayaks, but we were talked into getting a tandem.  We had a good time paddling around the river, and introduced ourselves to another family that was also enjoying an afternoon on the water.  On our way back we ended up capsizing the kayak, and I lost my brand new Go Pro4!  We tried to right the kayak, and get Mi Jung back on board, but it was of no use.  The only thing we ended up with time and again was a swamped Kayak!  I ended up swimming Mi Jung and the turtled Kayak to shore, where we were able to pull the boat out of the lake and de-water it.  Then we paddled back to the rental office.   Bruised, battered, covered in river slime, but alive.  We then showered off and were given a ride back to the Pension were we could rest and start preparing our dinner of BBQ steaks and pasta salad.  This is the pension life!

  Here is a look at our pension room.

This is the bedroom / living area.  It was quaint with a lot of wood trim, as I mentioned earlier it had a really nice mountain cabin feeling.

This is the kitchen area, with a refrigerator, sink, microwave, rice cooker, and single burner stove.

The pension had a large BBQ area, and a central kitchen with a large stove, another microwave, and shared plates and utensils.

  The next morning I decided to grab my camera and take a walk down by the river, which is about 8 minutes away from the pension, Each city in Korea usually has a mascot or character that represent what the region is famous for.  As we have seen in other blog posts, some areas are known for mushroom farming or fishing and have signs with the (sometimes strange) city mascots.  Apparently Yongwol is known for their grapes, and some kind of strange caped squirrel.

I also passed many  river rafting operations along the way, and observed many Bongo and Porter trucks taking stacks of rafts (Presumably down to the starting area.) 

I got a chance to play with my Sigma 150 – 600mm f5.6 – 6.4 super telephoto that I had bought for our Mekong River cruise.  I was hoping to get some bird photography, however I think I was making a little too much noise.  This is the only bird photo I was able to get, and as you can see, it is nothing to write home about.

I did manage to get some really good pictures of this man fly fishing early morning on the Donggang River.  The tranquility of these pictures starkly contrast the tension being felt in the country right now, as the two Korea’s seem to be the closest they have been to war since the shelling of the Yeongpyeong islands in 2010.  I guess when the going gets tough, the tough go fishing.

 

   Our rafting guides picked us up at the pension, and we are off on today’s adventure, rafting the mighty Donggang River! 

  It has been over a year since we have last went river rafting, and I was itching to get on another raft.  It is not often enough that I get a chance to get in the water.  We have met some very interesting people on our rafting trips.  A couple of years ago we rafted with an indoor swimming club from Busan.  They were most concerned that the foreigner might not be able to swim.  Which I found extremely amusing.  

 

  This was the longest rafting trip that we have done, and took about 3 hours to complete.  It was also the calmest river, with little or no rapids.  However the mountain scenery was excellent and we had some great water fights with the other rafts!

  Once the rafting was complete, I retrieved my camera gear, and took another handful of pictures, with several different lenses.  Here is the landing beach where most of the rafting operations end their days rafting.  This picture was taken with my 16-34mm f2.8L.  Which has become my workhorse lens for wide angle photography.  I tend to use this even more then the 35mm f1.4L prime unless I need the extra depth of focus, or larger aperture for lower light.

I then pulled out the Tamron 150-600mm f5 – 6.3 super telephoto lens that I bought for the Mekong River cruise.  I have been very impressed with this lens, remember that I was trying to purchase the Canon 100-400 f4.5 – 5.6L II lens, but ordered this instead as the Canon was back ordered.  I have gotten some really great pictures with this lens, even if it does not get used much.

These were shot hand held, at 150mm with VR (Image stabilization).

I also setup with a Tripod, and it was funny watching people’s faces through the view finder when they realized someone was on shore taking pictures of them with a REALLY long lens.  This photo won the “Summer Fun Portraits context on Pixoto!

 

  We then went back to pension for a BBQ dinner of steak and sausage with pasta salad.  I went to bed early, only to be awakened at 10pm by an excited Mi Jung, it seems she found a store that sold fireworks, and bought about $60 worth of roman candles and fountains.  We walked back down to the river, and promptly set them off.

  Waking early next morning for our ATV riding appointment.  This was all done on a prepared track.  While fun, it was not quite as exciting as our last ATV excursion in Gangchon province where we basically were allowed to free ride.

After the ATV riding it was time for our last planned event, Paragliding!   Now, don’t get these confused with Parasailing, where you are towed behind a vehicle such as a truck or a boat at a height of a few hundred feet.  Paragliding you are using an inflated wing using thermals or ridge turbulence to generate lift.  We start from the Byeolmaro observatory at an elevation of 788m (2364ft), and glide down to the landing area in town for a flight time of roughly 15 minutes.

You can watch the video of me paragliding here, Mi Jung has taken off in front of me.

 

  After all our adventures, it was time to go back to the train station and head home!  It was a great 3 days, with many great adventures.  Both Mi Jung and I agreed that we would like to come back to the area in the fall.

Yeongwol train-1Yeongwol train 1-1How to get to Yeongwol from Seoul

Take line 4 to Cheonyeongny Station
Then take a mugawha train to Yeongwol station

You can also take an express bus from either Namseoul or Donseoul Bus Terminal.

I highly recommend the La Maison Pension, it had a great quiet atmosphere and was conveniently close to terminus of the river rafting.  Please support Brent’s World and future travel blogs by using THIS LINK to reserve your room through Expedia.com today!

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*NOTE: Most pensions do not support daily room cleaning, and you are responsible for separating your own trash per Korean law.