Gangneung

Well the showers clearing forecast should have read, wild seas, strong winds, flooding, snow, flying iron and no taxis.

I was trying to sit out the storm in my hotel room on Jeongdongjin, when at about 10AM the power went out. I was impressed that the reclosing circuit breakers were able to have 4 goes and we had power a second time for about 5 minutes before it completely went. I though it would be dull, and was worried as the trains are electric. But they closed the hotel and kicked me out into the downpour. So I caught the train to Gangneung as was my original plan, but i caught the 10:30 train instead of the 12:00 train.

However, by the time I had arrived at Gangneung, the storm had worsened, and by the time it was my turn to get a cab in the queue, about 11:30, the cabs had given up. This morning, looking for the PC Bung, I saw that many houses still had sandbags out the front. After a few hours in the station, I decided that it was no use. The girls at the Tourist Office had recommended that I walk to the intercity bus terminal, only 30 minutes. But I was soaked running the 10 meters to their office and they had to let me inside to keep me from drowning. On a second visit they recommended a good cheap hotel. This is the largest town on this part of the coast, so I felt relatively safe here.

Watching the news, it seems I made the correct decision. Seroksan, where I planned to go today, had 15 cm of snow yesterday and there were pictures of very soggy sightseers. So I will travel to a different part of the mountains today. Other pictures on the TV showed flooding all along this coast and washed out roads.

At least today it has decreased to the occasional rain shower. The forecast is for 20 to 60 mm of rain on top of the 200-300 mm that fell yesterday. And still they said "showers clearing in AM". :-( The storm came out of the north pole.

I will walk the thirty minutes to the bus terminal, if it is not raining.

The USB ports on this computer do not seem to work, so I will upload the photos another time.