Day 3, Leg 3

I've arrived in the town of Hanam-eup, but since I once again strolled into town around noon, I ate a simple lunch and killed time until 2:30 p.m. before I headed over to my usual motel, the 황토방/Hwangtobang. Normally, when I get there early, the lady proprietor is almost never there, so I generally have to call her cell phone (lots of motels leave a cell-phone number to call when the owner/manager is out, and I've learned not to text because texts get ignored). By waiting until 2:30, I guessed there would be a chance she'd be there, and I was right. Alas, my room is making a funny electric noise that I'm going to have to ask the lady about. I may have to change rooms.

[UPDATE: The noise is a crackling sound coming from the room's smoke detector. While I'm tempted to unplug the thing and remove the battery myself, I don't want to trigger the alarm by mistake. I've never worked with Korean smoke detectors before.]

Despite the current problem, this motel is better than the first yeogwan I'd ever stayed at in Hanam-eup. That place was cheap but filthy—full of loose hairs and mysterious flecks of schmutz and Rorschach stains on the blankets. The Hwangtobang is better, but expensive (W50,000 a night) for what it provides. There's also a muin-tel in town (automated, no staff), which is probably nice but almost certainly also expensive—maybe more expensive than the Hwangtobang.

There was beautiful weather for the walk itself today, but it was a study in contrasts as temperatures went from 2°C (about 36°F) before dawn to 17.5°C (63.5°F) by early afternoon. In direct sunlight, temps felt a lot hotter. I finally broke out my gloves and winter vest this morning, then put those away and broke out my hat later in the day to keep my neck from burning. November is ideally late fall in South Korea, but right now, at the end of October, things feel oddly transitional: the October rains have more or less ended, and cool weather is turning cold during the nights and early mornings. But this afternoon heat feels strange and nothing like the lead-up to winter.

Yesterday's stay at the Nakdong-jang Motel was fine except for these shooting pains I've got in my left ankle—pains that are still with me. The AI god suggests that the pains could be related to pinched nerves and/or diabetic neuropathy; pinched nerves make sense since I had wrapped some tape around my ankle to hold a falling bandage in place to protect my Achilles tendon from chafing thanks to my left Skecher (which is otherwise fine so far; the first real test is tomorrow). I probably wrapped the tape too tightly, thus pinching a nerve.

Upshot: I once again barely slept, and it seems as though that's going to happen again tonight. There's no pain when I'm walking and distracted, but the moment I stop and sit for any length of time, the sensation of pins and needles flares up as a simultaneous itch and burn. I want to pour acid all over the site since constant agony would be more understandable than these flareups, which strike like neuronal lightning every 30-60 seconds. 

Tomorrow's walk will be the first on the calendar to be 30 km. I'll be staying at the Heitz Hotel in Namji-eup for two nights. That first day, when I arrive, I'll celebrate with my traditional, carby chicken tenders from NeNe Chicken. But will I enjoy them with this fucking ankle problem? I'd had a similar problem on the flight to Virginia earlier this year: a big guy like me in economy class doesn't have much choice where to put his long legs, and I ended up crossing my ankles for hours, resulting in pinched nerves and shooting pains. It was a rough flight over. And now, the same pain is back, but even more persistent.

Well, in an ideal world, 30K isn't a bad walking distance, and it's not much different from the 29K I did two days ago, so I ought to survive. The plan, then, is to stay in Namji-eup Thursday and Friday night, then do a 33K walk on Saturday to the Jeokgyo-jang Motel. That'll be another 2-night stay, then on Monday, it's 40K to the Daegu Hong-C Motel. That's where I finally stopped and gave up last year so my damaged foot could heal for a month (see last year's blog here; after stopping in October, I picked up the walk again in December—when it was frigid and there was no rain at all). 

Assuming no rain-related injuries this time, I'll leave the Hong-C and walk 25K to west Daegu, where I'll stay at the If Hotel (or the Hotel If—the hotel itself uses both monikers). Again, two nights, plus my favorite Chinese chicken in Daegu on the day I arrive. Woo-hoo!

I have a total of six two-night stays built into my calendar (click the link on the sidebar to see my itinerary), which means twenty days away from home but only fourteen actual walking days. Normally, I rest an extra night after walking 30 or more kilometers, but the day I arrive in west Daegu, I'll have walked only 25 km. Why? Because I'd rearranged the calendar so I could enjoy my Chinese food the day of my arrival, then spend the second day fasting to avoid angina during the next segment of the walk.

The Nakdong course's segments are longer on average than the ones I do for the Four Rivers, and to be frank, I'm not looking forward to the 40K day that's coming up soon—and right after doing a 33K segment that includes a huge, mean hill that I'm going to have to take very slowly if I don't want a second heart attack.

But that's all a lot of future talk. Today went well except for the shooting pains that are bothering me even as I type this entry on my tiny cell screen. If this pain persists through the rest of the walk, I'm going to have to see a doctor once I'm back in Seoul. In my defense, I did remove the offending tape from my ankle the very first night of the pain, but my ankle is acting as if the tape were still on it. No way I'll be sleeping tonight.

Your daily stats, route map, and ten images are below. I need to talk with the motel lady about moving to another room. This buzzing noise from the ceiling, which sounds almost like the buzz/crackle of a PA system, will drive me crazy if I stay here. 

Enjoy the images.

goodbye, Nakdong-jang

bridge before dawn, with bullet train

my favorite Korean cookie, memorialized

Masa Masa Tunnel, today's exercise in hill-avoidance

interesting post

walking past a lot of farmland

Korean earthworm versus size-13 shoe

river as seen from Su-san Bridge

a busy glove

under-the-bridge couch cat

UPDATE 2: I got moved two rooms down the hall, and they're bringing someone in to look at the smoke detector.