20170704 : Hallasan / Mysterious Road? / Manjanggul Lava Tube

4/7/2017 : Hallasan National Park, one of the 3 "Soul Mountains" in Korea.  It is the highest mountain in SK with height of 1950m above sea level.

 We took the shortest trail, about 1.3km uphill, about 30min one way. So did not get to the actual peak and to see the crater.(1160m above Sea Level)

The aerial view at Eoseungsaegak top was awesome.  Windy! a bit cool despite summer time!

We refused to come down the mountain :)

Lying down looking at the sky!

Computer Simulation of Mt Hallasan in winter and summer! LOL

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No choice but to finally come down from mountain experience:)

Drove past this Mysterious Road?

We tried putting the neutral gear in the car and yet it looked as if the car was moving uphill instead of downwards! Like defying gravity but actually it is a mere optical illusion! Very interesting road indeed!

But what was more gratifying was that I had a try on archery!

Hmm. Tough activity.  Couldn't get the bow and arch right and the arrows went off course!

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Manjanggul Lava Tube

Unesco's World Heritage

MY FAVOURITE of this Korea Jeju Trip!

It was not the original as planned.  But the afternoon was scotching hot after the archery.  So we decided to 'hibernate' in a cave! AND guess what? When we went down to the lava tubes to explore this segment of the lava channel, it was so amazingly cool down under (about 15-18 degrees??)!

 There are many such lava tubes in Jeju Island.  This particular one is the largest cave and the only one that is open to public.  The total length of this cave is about 7km long and 23m wide at its widest point and 30m high at its highest point.  There were 3 entrances that were made from the collapse of the ceiling.  But currently only a section of  1 km is open to public.

Imagine this formation around 300,000 to 100,000 years ago! Mind boggling geography! So here in this cave, my memories of geography came alive after 30 years! LOL. Right here in Jeju, Korea! Hey! I am stepping on the real lava stuff.  See the Lave flowlines, shelves, stalacitites, columns &  flowstones & quartz!

Volcanoes!

What amazing educational time!

Here standing at the edge of another crater - Sangumburi crater (formed  by explosion without the lava and has one single hole known as Marr Crater.  The rarest type in Korea and the world. Exterior circumference : 2km Interior circumference 756m. Height of 438m and depth of 132m. Now inhabited by various wild animals.  

A place where some K dramas were filmed too....