Muhak Massacre!

Masan is a small town with a big mountain called Muhaksan. Last week my friends and I decided (reluctantly, at least, on my part) to climb to the top for what we'd heard to be a magnificent view of 'Dream Bay', aka, 'Free Trade Zone'. Korean Tourism website developers have well solid photoshop skills. We met at the corner store and my friend told me exactly what we were in for:

Nevertheless, we tied out laces, filled our water bottles, packed our Gimbap (Korean picnic food) and set out on a marvellous, clear day.

We began positively, with Stephanie setting a cracking pace, Kristen in the middle, Shawn and I babbling away at the back, and Shawn loving the trees. It was hard work and, I cannot lie, I wasn't necessarily quiet about it. There was whinging and cursing and sweating and puffing, all the way to the top. And a contributing factor to the breathlessness was that I swore I could smell the pungent aroma of men's love juice! Every few metres I would get this 'whoof!' in my face and would run giggling like a teen; I didn't want to say anything because I thought my friends would think I was so sexually deprived I was inventing a SMELL in my imagination. Eventually though, I could stand it no longer, and asked quite casually, "Can anyone else smell cum?" to which they all burst out laughing, which is exactly what I was afraid of! Luckily though, Kristen is a hiker from way back and had experienced the same thing on other hikes; apparently its the perfume of a particular flower. So, we spent the next 100 metres sniffing out the source and Eureka! here's the little charmer:

Thank goodness it wasn't my imagination otherwise I'd be checking into therapy of some description.

We continued on our way and finally reached the peak, and it was really worth it...

Especially for the well-deserved Hite at the end!