Taean Seashore National Park

After a great day on Daecheon beach, we woke up and made the upsetting discovery that the weather had turned bad, with cold winds and some light rain. So we decided to go in a new direction. Just in front of Boryong there is a long peninsula, mostly part of the Taean Seashore National Park. Because on the maps they show that there is a beach every 3-4 km, we were curious about how they would look like, so after crossing the usual terrible traffic (one hour for 30 km on the highway!) we arrived there. 

After arrive we immediately realized that Daecheon beach is an exception on the western coast of Korea. Nearly everywhere else on the western coast the beaches do not really exist, but there are instead kilometers wide esplanades of mud where one cannot really go to swim, but on which koreans love to go to dig up huge shells and crabs to cook on the fire. This was really fascinating. In fact, although these beaches are not really made for a swim, they have their own special and very wild beauty.

The second thing that has hit us was the local architecture. Unfortunately I do not have photos of the weird buildings that are in construction in this "national park". In effect they were a funny imitation of the architecture that you can find in Europe, but all some how converted to a Korean style. Very weird.

In the middle of the first beach there was a large outcrop. If you look carefully you will notice a large plate where a story in korean is written, but I cannot remember what it said. You can also see in the second photo some people coming back from the mud plateau with their dig and proud of their booty.  

The landscape, so flat, was quite amazing, silent, very very calm. Places like this exist in northern Europe and in northern Australia and in general where the coast ends on a continental plateau (look at the sea depth: 1 2). However suddenly the silence was broken by a loud voice! We turned back and we saw that many trees in this little paradise had a loudspeaker attached to them, and that this loudspeaker was announcing something in korean. Maybe they were just telling people to go back as the tides were rising, I don't know, but that suggested us a bit a "1984" atmosphere, like if somebody was always observing us. Very weird! 

This photo shows how many people were at work there. It is really amazing. Every one of these little men and women, there in the mud, is just looking for and digging up crabs and shells. They may spend there the entire day, before going back to cook their prays. They say "Macchissoyo" here, which means "delicious".

A view also to the other side, where less people were hunting (or fishing??), I don't know why. Maybe it was far, or maybe it was somehow less convenient for finding crabs, who knows! I really will have to try this, sooner or later.

It was quite cold and we were not prepared to that so Dorothea invented a new style. Doesn't she look like dressed like Victoria Beckam?

After the surprise of the first beach we moved a southern to see if they were all the same, but we had time enough only for another one. Here we found instead some cute villas for summer vacation. Again I have forgotten to take photos of the architecture. We were probably too stressed by the kids. However the beach looked more like a mediterranean beach, but that was probably only because it was late, almost at sunset, and the tides were higher.   

I know that I look ridiculous with this scarf, shorts and sandals on the beach, but it was really windy!

And finally a tired look of Renee and an hungry one of Marlen told us that it was time to go back home...