The sun was out this morning and the weather forecast was golden – sunshine and 20°C – so, I gave the hiking option a second go … and – the bus today did show up.

I made the trip down to Samneung for some further graves of kings, before making my way up the valley for a proper hike. The Namsan area of Gyeongju National Park offers nature, great views and the occasional Buddhist artifact from the Silla  period. This section of the park is part of the  Gyeongju UNESCO world heritage site – the artifacts are real (often restored) artifacts at their original location (or  nearby) and make the hikes so much more interesting.

I had spent close to seven hours in the area, concluding my hike at Sambulsa Temple – after about 14km, 800m (in total) up an down.