Bird watching in the Demilitarised Zone (DMZ)

Last Saturday we went up to the DMZ on a "bird watching" tour. John, who is a teacher at Carla's school found this tour and a few other teachers and us decided to go and see what it was like.

The DMZ is about a 2 hour drive north from Seoul, where you follow the Han river for about 50km, and then travel along the side of lots of smaller rivers. It really is quite scenic and was strange to see quite a few of these large rivers nearly completely frozen over, or at least a thin layer of ice on top over a large area and then clumps of ice floating in other areas.

We went up on a tour bus, and there is one thing that is amazing, in buses or taxis, during summer the aircon is put on and the car is around 15c making it sometimes uncomfortably cold, in winter, the heat is put on to over 30c. There seems to be no in between setting, either hot or cold. I was sitting in the bus in a short sleeve shirt and was still hot, while the temperature outside was around -6c.

We first had to check in to the DMZ at an area called Goseokjeong, and hand over our passports to be registered. While there we went for a walk down to a river that was frozen over, and had a frozen waterfall. It really was nice. Of course the guys had to try and walk on the ice, but it was really thick so it was no problem.














Statue of Kkok-Cheong Im (Robbin Hood)
Near to where we parked, there is a statue of Mr. Kkok-Cheong Im, who is said to be the Korean version of Robbin Hood. Around the 1560's increased taxation put many of the local working class into absolute poverty and the large landowners took over. Mr. Im organised raids on government warehouses and gave the grain back to the people who needed it. I don't think it lasted long, and Mr. Im was beheaded in 1562.

We went from here to the 2nd Infiltration Tunnel. This tunnel was made by the North Koreans and discovered in 1975. It was discovered when 2 Korean military guys heard some underground blasting in 1972 and then took 3 years to find the tunnel. Now this is over 20 years after the "end" of the Korean war (as they are technically still at war and only on a cease fire).

2nd Infiltration Tunnel
The tunnel was alright, we were not allowed to take any pictures inside or of the guards around. The tunnel is around 3.7 km long, and goes under the DMZ, from the North Korean side, into the mountains on the South Korean side. The DMZ itself is supposed to be 4km wide, 2km's on each side of the actual border line, however the North has not fully followed the 2km rule and at times have pushed their northern fence very close to the actual border.




The DMZ and North Korea
After the tunnel we went to an observation point where you are able to look out over the actual DMZ and into North Korea. I must say, to me the DMZ itself was the best looking part of Korea I have seen. As no one can go into it, it is totally natural. The only problem is that it is littered with mines.

South DMZ fence





Cranes... if you look carefully
Oh, I nearly forgot about the bird watching. While driving between these places, you were able to see two types of cranes that had come over from Mongolia and there were even some vultures in the distance. It was strange, because here Carla and pictures of being able to sit quietly in a hide, and watch the birds or whatever, but we went driving by in a bus at 60km an hour with the guide saying that there is a crane out the left window. Not the best way to bird watch.

White Horse Memorial
We did see some other sites along the way, including a burnt out building which was the North Korean Labour Party building and the White Horse Memorial, which is a hill with a monument where major battles took places during the war.

It was a long drive back to Seoul afterwards as the traffic had set in, but we arrived back at around 19:00. Everyone came back to our place for wine and dinner. It was a really nice day, but as usual not exactly what we had expected. We will still need to go on a different tour with the USO to the DMZ to get a better overview.

Taebaek Mountain

We were supposed to drive to Taebaek mountain today to see ice sculptures that are made in the snow. It is a mountain on the East side of Korea, about 3 1/2 hours aways. It looked quite nice. Unfortunately Carla is sick, caught Strep Throat (acute tonsillitis) which has been doing the rounds at the school. We will have to try some other time and hopefully I don't catch it.

It has bee snowing quite a bit during the week, but today is clear skies and about -8c.

Article

We found this article the other day while we were at a pub in Itaewon (3 Alley's), and thought it was quite good.

If you have trouble reading it, just click on it and it should enlarge, if that doesn't work, right click and save it to your computer.

Back Again

Well we have been back in Seoul for over 2 weeks now, and from the time it has taken us to write more on the blog, you can see how busy it has been. Straight back into work and into the normal hectic pace of life, oh well, what can you do...

Other than work not a great deal has been happening, the weather has generally been alright, except on Sunday and today, the temperature has really dropped, I think today it was -9c earlier, but warmed up to -4c, then add a bit of wind chill...

It seems we may be going to the DMZ (demilitarised zone) on Saturday, for a "Bird watching" tour, we will have to see what is all about, but actually looks quite good. We should be able to see all the tunnels and normal DMZ things, with a plus of seeing some birds. I've been wanting to go to the DMZ for a while, and having been asking Carla to book, so finally we will get to go, only problem is that now it may be -10c when we are there.

Australia Day 11 – Christmas day

Christmas day started with us all opening presents that were under the tree, just like old times. It was nice to be with the family again, the last time we were together for Christmas must have been around 11 years ago.

The main activity for the day was to go to Ken and Jeanettes place in Gympie for lunch. Every family had to bring food and this was all put together to share amongst the 34 people going for lunch.
Before this we headed to see Jacqui and Jacques property up in Gympie. They have bought a 3 acres plot of land up there and plan to build on it in a few years.

Lunch was great, and having everyone together was quite chaotic at times. After lunch, a toast was offered to the newest member of the family, which was Rob, and after this he offered a toast to someone else. By the time it was all over, every person had received and offered a toast. It was quite unexpected, but was really great and I think it is going to be continued in the following years.

The pregnant ladies
We also played the game “Secret Santa” otherwise known as “Dirty Santa”, where everone brings a gift ($10) and puts it into a pile, you can choose a gift and then steal someone else’s if you don’t like your own. It was great fun, and we ended up with a Texas Holdem Poker set.

Rohan, Arron & Shannon

Australia Day 9 & 10 – Noosa

Sunday was a quiet day, Carla and I drove down into Noosa and walked around a bit. We walked along the Noosa river and watched the pelicans, they really are funny birds, especially when they sit perched on the lights trying to look elegant.

We went for a drive all over the place on Monday, starting at Tinbeerwah lookout which is a great place to look over the whole of the area.

Next was Noosa National Park, we had a short walk to what is called the Boiling Pot.

Along the way Carla spotted a Koala in the tree which was really great to see. Carla had demanded to see Kangaroos and Koala on the trip, so now she had seen both.

We picked up Rob who had been working in the morning and went to a restaurant a little out in the country where we had Kookabarra’s watching us eat our lunch.

Rob then took us to Cootharaba and Boreens Point, there were the larger wild Kangaroo’s (The ones on the property are actually wallabies) there. Carla and I were able to get quite close to them and watch them eating.

We went to Christmas Mass in the evening in Cooroy. It is a small little church with only one Mass as the priest does all the services for the whole area.
Later that evening we went for a drive to see the houses that had been done up with Christmas lights. Some areas were quite spectacular with the amount of effort people had put in to doing up the house for Christmas.

Australia Day 8 – Noosa

My sister had a baby shower, so Carla stayed for that and the guys were delegated to driving to Gympie which is about 45km away to help put up marque for Christmas.

While Mom got everything ready, Rob took us to the Eumundi market to look around. It was nice, but very focused on the tourists.

Carla was introduced to a lot of the cousins, especially the ladies as it was at the baby shower. I think she is starting to get the hang of who is who in the family.

When we arrived back after putting up the tent, I was introduced and reintroduced to many of my cousins and their wives. It is amazing how much I have missed over the last 18 years.
Carla and I went for a walk around the area where Mom and Rob live. It is really nice with many of the places being on large plots of over 7 acres and having a few cattle and horses, quite different from Seoul.