Island Adventure (night two - Yeondaedo Island)

There I was, staring at a giant map on the wall illustrating various islands in the TongYeong City area. We had just completed night one of our island adventure and were contemplating our next destination, when an English speaking Korean guy offered to share his insights. He recommended 3 different islands and from those we chose the most isolated one of the group, Yeondaedo Island. Only a small group of farmers, fishermen and their families called this island home. They were all extremely friendly and were more than willing to help out a group of ignorant Westerners. One woman walked us through the village to the back side of the island where we found a beautiful rock beach. Amazing view, but very rocky. A good place to take pictures but a horrible place to sleep for the night. So, we decided to search the island for a nice, sandy beach. After walking several kilometers up and down the rather steep roads and trails, we found a small patch of sand near an abandoned school building. We set up camp for the night and were extremely proud of our construction work...until we noticed the rising tide. After a half-hearted attempt of building a mote/sandwall defense structure we quickly realized that the ocean had plans of her own. We quickly relocated to the old school yard and erected our tents as the sun disappeared over the horizon. We'd been surviving primarily on cheese crackers so we decided to hike back to the fishing village in search of a proper meal. We landed at the only eatery in town, a make-shift general store housed in an elderly couple's sun-porch. Spent the next two hours eating Korean noodles and a bit of rice while watching the Olympics on television with the old woman who ran the general store. The Korean female weight lifter won a gold medal that night. We cheered as though we had lived in Korea all our lives. The elderly woman smiled and served the local children icecream before bed. We then returned to our campsite in the old school yard where we built a campfire and watched the stars play "hide and seek" with us as they peeked in and out of the fast moving clouds. Early the next morning, I decided to explore some of the more secluded areas of the beach. Found a walking trail leading through a pretty dense section of trees and decided to follow it. I'm glad I did as it led to the top of an amazing cluster of cliffs overlooking the village on one side and the ocean on the other.