I may have been wrong about when I would encounter the mountains: I think I got my first mountain today, during the short stretch I walked to my current yeogwan. If I'm right, then it wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it was going to be. The ground went up steadily (which is why I didn't notice the contour lines), until I found myself high above the watercourse, leaving me sweaty and breathing hard, but the inflection point inevitably arrived and saved the day. The downhill walk, after all that uphill marching, was quite gratifying. One more mountain to go. I'm guessing it'll come tomorrow.
As for traffic, let's put it this way: I haven't yet felt unsafe. Things were more dangerous in America, with its roads that are far less walker- and biker-friendly.
By the way... is that a shotgun shell (or more precisely, a spent casing)? Strangely, I had a vision, before today's walk, in which I found a shotgun shell on the ground, as I have while walking along certain American roads. Finding that shell today felt a bit surreal.
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Yes, that is a spent 3" Remington shotshell. There are quite a few places you can rent shotguns, and buy shotshells, to go hunting with. The most jarring one is right next Costco in the center of Daejeon. These rental places are also sort of travel agencies for pheasant, and other assorted game, hunts around South Korea with many of them on Jeju.
And the wonderful cow shit aroma you are smelling on all those beautiful small farms along your walk is organic fertilizer being applied in abundance this time of year. Besides the smells, have you seen/breathed any another other noticeable differences along your walk between Seoul and the openness outside of it? I'm always amazed at the haze of Daejeon and then the clarity of the sky just outside the city limits on the other sides of the mountains that are all around the city.
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