Summer is very hot and humid in Korea and the best place to get some respite is to head to the mountains or the sea. Usually, I head to both, but travelling with an infant is difficult. However, there are some ways to make things fun and easy for everyone.
I bought a new prime lens the sony 35mm F1.8 for my A6000. I wanted to test out how it performs for landscape shots.
Daedunsan Provincial Park is located in North Jeolla Province. The views from the top of the mountain are spectacular. I stopped by Daedunsan because it was about halfway between my house and where I was going (Jinju). I don't really feel like driving for more than 2 hours or so in a single strech with an infant in the car.
This photo was taken with my phone (Galaxy A31), you can see the top of the cable car house which looks like Hanok, Korean traditional roofing.
We stayed at the modern hotel which is at the base of the cable car. We decided to take the cable car up because my wife hates climbing mountains and I wasn't too keen on carrying my son up in 32C, 90% humidity weather. The weather up top was cooler and there was a nice breeze. I felt refreshed when I arrived at the top which is usually the opposite of how I feel when I climb.
I find it interesting to experiment with the different optics of the prime lens compared to the phone. It's definitely not a one-size fits all lens.
I really like all the layers of mountains and peaks. Backgrounds of backgrounds. Background inception. It reminds me of old-style sidescrolling videogames. The clouds sort of do the same too, although the effect isn't as obvious. We really enjoyed taking in the view, even if we earned it the smart way instead of the hard way.
I'll admit I didn't take this photo. But prime lenses do make letting others take photos simple, set it up and tell them where to stand and point.
My wife was more afraid of the cloud bridge than my 6-month-old son and I. Fortunately, she didn't mind taking a few photos once she was safely across. The Daedunsan Cloud Bridge has been around since the 1970s. This is version 3.0 which was just replaced last year. We weren't in the clouds this time which is fortunate because being in the clouds is like being in fog (once is enough), you can't really enjoy the view.
There are a lot of steep rocky cliffs, you can't really appreciate how spectacular it is from this angle.
The bridge was only a 5-minute walk up from where the cable car station is. I really wanted to climb up to the peak of the mountain, but it's difficult and dangerous to climb up and down steep steps with a kid strapped to your chest. I didn't feel like going anywhere there weren't handrailings and they stop past the bridge. Besides, family comes first on a family vacation.
I noticed ropes going up the steep cliffs, but I didn't see any rock climbers, probably because it was a little wet and windy.
I'm not sure if this picture or the next one was my favourite. In any case, after looking at them, I'm impressed with how this lens performed.
Just before we arrived, it was raining a little, we were a little worried the clouds wouldn't break and the view would suck. Fortunately, it stopped raining just when we arrived. Everyone enjoyed the view, even my son. He kept throwing his arms up and making noises. He also liked the wind and how the bridge sways and shakes.
The sky wasn't perfectly clear, there were definitely bands of fog and rain in the distance, but the effect it creates is so neat, it's hard to be disappointed.
Last year, I climbed mountains near my home every weekend. However, this year, I've had only 2 chances. Well, I guess this was my third. I'd never been to Daedunsan before, but I think I will visit again. In case you are wondering, yeah, I'll take the cable car again, too.
You can actually see Daedunsan looking up from the bottom. It's actually not that far up to the cable car house.
The hotel we stayed at is the main tourist hotel, but there were a few other smaller hotels at the bottom. We went to a nice restaurant for dinner. Everywhere sells mountain roots and vegetables. We got Deodeon Cheongshik which is a meal of BBQ roots that comes with like 20 side dishes. I'm not sure if it's vegan, but it was vegetarian.
I took this photo as the sun was setting after dinner. I haven't used the lens much in low light, but with 1.8F, it's definitely more versatile in different lighting conditions than the kit lens.
This has been one of my favourite trips in a while, probably because we had no expectations. It was really just an extended highway stop. The atmosphere was incredible. The dinner was great. The hotel room was fine. The bathing was amazing. The breakfast was decent. But if you are looking for a party, go somewhere else (obviously).
Actually, I went to the bathhouse/sauna twice, once before dinner and once in the morning. If you are in Korea and you like bathing check out a sauna.
I also took this photo with my phone. It's difficult to get anything in the foreground without a blurry background using my SLR camera and 35mm lens.
If you are in central South Korea, near Daejeon, Daedunsan Provincial Park is definitely worth a visit. Actually, I think I will go there again, but probably during a different season. Maybe I'll go back in the fall one time, perhaps to visit the ginseng festival in the nearby town of Geumsan.
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Having a little person along changes how holidays are done, looks fabulous from up there with rolling scenery.
Good to hear you and your family took a break and enjoyed your stay.
Thanks. We did a few overnight stays in the region, but it was nice having our first real vacation. We are going to try something even more ambitious next month.
I think your new lens is great and you got wonderful shots. It sure doesn't look that warm in the photos but it's a good thing you took the cable car in that heat. Congrats on your baby. It's a new dynamic travelling with a little one. Enjoy it, they grow up so fast, (I know because my neice is almost taller than me and she's not even in her teens yet.)
Thank you. I have some other pictures I took a couple of days later that show the heat a little better. Maybe I'll write about that someday. Travelling with young kids is a handful. I've learned quickly to have almost nothing on my itinerary.
Good to see a post from you!
The Korean peninsula has very pronounced seasons. Summers there are very hot and humid while the winter season is cold and dry. This is because of the monsoon effect in the summer and the reverse monsoon effect in the winter.
The interior of the Eurasian continent becomes very hot during the summer, which creates a persistent thermal low pressure zone in it, which draws in warm and humid air from the Pacific. During the winter the reverse happens and the cold dry winds from the north prevail.
Interestingly, the average nightly minimum in Seoul in January is -6 C, which is almost as cold as in Helsinki. The daily maximum in January in Seoul is a +2 C while that of Helsinki is -1 C. Seoul is much warmer in the warmest month (August) with the average daily max/min being 30/22 C whereas in Helsinki they're are 22/15 C in July, the warmest month. Helsinki is MUCH drier in the summer: 65% in July. The interior of Southern Finland is somewhat drier than that.
I live in Lahti about 60 km to the north of the Gulf of Finland. The region that has the most similar climate of all on any continent outside Europe is north-central Alberta, Canada. Somewhere between Edmonton and For McMurray is the locality that matches the climate over here almost as perfectly as possible on Earth.
The Rockies convert the latent heat in the moist air from the ocean brought by the prevailing westerlies into higher temperature while reducing the moisture and thus taking the edge off from the frigid northerly winds that sweep the North American plains unimpeded in the winter. The Scandinavian mountains do the same to the moist air masses from the Atlantic. Finland is similarly exposed to southerly winds bringing in very warm air masses during the summer.
Eastern Canada has more pronounced seasons. Northern Ontario and Quebec have warmer summers and colder, snowier winters. Even Saskatchewan has colder winters than Alberta. I think Winnipeg in Manitoba had the coldest winters of all the large metropolises of Canada. It's right in the center and does not benefit from the warming effect of any large body of water thanks to the prevailing wind direction.
I've lived in both Seoul and Toronto long enough to get a feeling of the weather.
Seoul's winters are very dry and enough snowfall for any activity is rare. I miss Canadian winters sometimes. They are a lot more fun.
In Korea, most of the rain comes July and August. This year we had one 24 hour period of 150mm in July and another of 300mm in August (A 120 year record). The latter overwhelmed storm drainage and flooded low-lying parts of the city. I wasn't near any of the areas that got flooded, except the rivers and streams where that is normal.
Southern Ontario is interesting because of the lake effect. The great lakes have a unique impact on the weather.
I recall that there wasn't any natural snow anywhere at the Winter Olympics in South Korea in 2018.
300 mm of rain in 24 hours is a huge amount. Average annual precipitation where I live is 637.7 mm.
The lake effect not only moderates the temperature extremes but it can result in massive snow dumps when cold air freezes the water vapor emerging from the lakes. It's more likely to happen on the eastern shores of the large lakes but any locality near the shores is susceptible. Keweenaw Peninsula in Upper Michigan is the snowiest place in the Great Lakes region.
If it winds from the east-southeast, Helsinki may experience what is called the St. Petersburg snow machine early in the winter. After the Gulf of Finland freezes over that does not happen.
An acquaintance of mine lives in Missisauga. He wrote in his blog that he experienced +27 C and -10 C within a single week in one March about 20 years ago.
I definitely experienced some weird days when I lived in the Toronto area. I recall wearing t-shirts outside some days in February and like a week later it was -20C again. The western part of Canada gets something called the Chinook Wind which also creates a weird local weather effect.
I've never seen the frozen ocean before, other than maybe looking out an airplane window. Ontario does have a railroad going up to the ocean, ending at a small town called Moosonee, but I don't know anyone that's ever been up that far. I'm not even sure you can drive up there except during winter and running out of gas would be fatal.
The Chinook wind is called the Föhn effect in Europe. That's what makes Alberta warmer than the more easterly continental provinces.
Although the Föhn effect caused by the Scandinavian mountains is somewhat attenuated when it reaches Finland, it may still cause notable warm spells in the western and the northwestern parts of the country in particular.
Moosonee is at the southern tip of James Bay, which is a southern extension of Hudson Bay.
There could be a winter road to Moosonee from the south. Google Maps shows a road between Moosonee and some more northerly localities along the shore.
I've watched Ice Road Truckers. It's a fascinating show. Those people have to deal with some pretty extreme conditions.
Trying to drive up there would be ill-advised indeed. You could bring enough fuel with you but your car could break down or the road might be impassable or too dangerous to drive on.
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Wow! It's beautiful nature
Indeed!
Oh wow @abitcoinskeptic, this park looks like paradise on earth! Your photos are out of this world! I honestly did not realize just how beautiful Korea is, simply stunning!
Well deserved rewards for a stunning blog!
PS excuse all the exclamation marks, but I'm really wowed by your photography and the landscapes!
Thank you. It's always hard narrowing down the photos, but O went with a lot that jave the nicer views.
A lot of people rarely leave the cities Korea or only go to the nearby or popular natural tourist spots. I'd rather not deal with the crowds.
I would also rather choose seeing the natural beauty of a country over crowded cities, especially when there are breathtaking views like that!
I've never been much of a city tour person myself. I live on the outskirts of the city which is where I like it.
Thanks. We try to do a lot of things together.
I like the sony lenses, too. Canon would be another favorite, that will be my next camera.