Zip Lining in Herb Hillz

Last weekend we headed up to Daegu with our friends Luis and Linzy to a place called Herb Hillz. We got the train up to Daegu then got the bus 'Express Line' no.2 just down the street from the station. Herb Hillz was designed as an 'Eco-Friendly Theme Park'' and the park itself had perhaps seen slightly better days. We were welcomed with an 'exciting water zone' which was made of concrete and looked very much like a car park. Around the park there were many different old school amusement rides like the viking boat and dodgems. However, the main form of entertainment seemed to be the photo points. There were literally about 100 different photos points in which Koreans could take funny or serious (and it was mainly serious) photos of themselves doing things such as 'driving a bus', 'getting married', or those head through the wall ones where you can see your face but you have a gorilla's body. It was hilarious watching one Korean woman plump up her hair and check her make up before moving behind a cardboard cut out of a bus! We had a wander around the park and found the 'eco adventure centre' where you could do the zip lining. We were given a briefing in Korean in which we just about managed to work out what our guide wanted us to do. We had a little practice circuit then we were free to pick our course! It was a close contest between 'The King Kong Course' and 'The Tarzan Course'. The Tarzan was technically more difficult and the Korean guide warned us that it was very hard but I guess we didn't really take him seriously....... how foolish we were. The first challenge of 'The Tarzan' was a hefty wall climb which wasn't actually too bad, it was quite long but we all enjoyed it, everyone's spirits and confidence were high! The second challenge then removed all confidence entirely! Bearing in mind we were now quite high up, it was a long row of large stirrups swinging down from the trees. There were no instructions on how to go about completing this challenge. Nina ended up in some sort of awkward crab position clinging desperately onto each saddle. Luis seemed to have similar difficulties. However, Ed, with his super long limbs just managed to do the challenge in two long lunges! Each obstacle was equally awkward and challenging. Although it wasn't quite the flying through the trees with minimal effort that we had envisaged, it was really fun (perhaps a little more in hindsight rather than during) and we all really enjoyed it. We all survived the course relatively unscathed although our friend Linzy managed a get a hairline fracture on her foot from trying to stop at the end of the zip line but hitting her feet and bouncing all the way back up along the zip line again! The first thing Ed said after completing the course was, "I need a beer.".
We had most definitely earnt our lunch so we took the bus back into town and walked (poor Linzy hobbled) to the all you can eat Sushi bar and feasted. Our photos of the trip are courtesy of Linzy's camera, thanks Linzy!

Camping on Jinha Beach

We decided to make the most of the slightly cooler weather by heading to Jinha Beach just south of Ulsan for the weekend. We got up early enough to see sunrise and hopped on 3 buses in order to get to the beach by lunch and get a spot for our tents in the shade. Thankfully when we arrived it wasn't too busy and we managed to set up our tents in a circle under pine trees looking straight onto the beach. John Adams our inflatable killer whale made another appearance although the sea was a little chilly to swim in so he just kept watch of the camp for us. While we were setting up we were joined by quite a strange elderly korean woman. At first she just stood there and watched us set up our campsite but soon she started shouting "USA" at us while biting a 10,000 Won banknote between her teeth. There was a point that we thought she would never leave, but to our relief she walked off soon after. We saw her intermittently throughout the day and steered well clear each time! After settling in, we chilled out on the beach for most of the day. We did some penalty shootouts and had some epic America vs. England beach volleyball matches. Yet again Ed was dressed in his 'anti-sun' attire. Fashioning special sleeves, and a hat he got from the £store which made him look a little like Lawrence of Arabia. To his delight, he didn't get sunburnt! Hooray! Although he did mysteriously start peeling on his arms a few days later.
 As the sun was going down we prepared our BBQ dinner on our gas stove before making our very own bonfire. We had a bit of trouble starting the fire but after a while it was providing us with much needed light and warmth. We then went for a nighttime stroll along the beach to see the island which had been lit up. Whilst walking we stumbled upon a strange blubbery mess on the beach, we weren't sure what it was so we decided to poke it with a stick! We realised that it was a washed up jellyfish which we thought was just a one-off but the next morning while walking we saw that there were loads of them dotted all along the beach. Before going home, we explored an old Japanese fortress you could climb which overlooked the beach and the town. It gave us a really nice view of the coastline and was a great way to end the trip.