Inspired by her experience on the Camino de Santiago, retired reporter Suh Myung-sook has led the creation of over 250 km of wildly popular walking trails on the South Korean island of Jeju. More trails are in the works, and I’m guessing the official route will soon encircle the island.
As for walkers already looping Jeju–there must be a percentage who reach the end of the official trail and keep right on going.
And while we’re talking about loops and route planning, any developer’s next step would likely make Jeju Olle an @-shaped route, with a trail to the 1,950m peak of Mt. Halla as the final stage.
As this project goes forward, hopefully its leaders are careful about J.O.’s impact on the island. It’s an island, after all. The options for crowd-scattering alternative routes are pretty slim.
In the first nine months of 2009, Jeju Olle attracted–ready?–200,000 walkers. By comparison, 100,000 pilgrims completed the 800ish km French Route of the Camino de Santiago in 2008. My rough math shows that J.O. is faced with the challenge of supporting a pilgrim density that’s eight times greater (OK, 8.1) than the primary route of the Camino de Santiago. And that’s before Ms. Suh’s worldwide marketing plans kick in.
Fingers crossed…
Official Site of Jeju Olle
OhMyNews–Jeju Olle: The Korean Pilgrimage For Hikers
PS — The island is a volcano.
PPS — With such a surge, is it possible to promote the island as an ecotourism destination with a straight face?
Update–from the comments: “I walked Jeju Olle trails a while ago and found some fragile routes were crumbling down after they were beaten relentlessly by hundreds of hikers every day.”
Tags: 1 Comment
Thoughtful comment, Brett. I walked Jeju Olle trails a while ago and found some fragile routes were crumbling down after they were beaten relentlessly by hundreds of hikers every day. Either they will have to pave the trails with some wood bricks or limit the number of daily hikers. Good post and I will relay your concern to Ms. Suh sometime.
- Jean K. Min