After 메즈렌드 (Mazeuh Lendeuh...can you figure out the Konglish?), I went to 만잔굴, or the Manjangul Lava Tube. Being that it was a cave, I didn't get too many decent pictures. If you want to see you'll have to come yourself!
Here's where we went in:
The temperature plummeted immediately upon reaching that first landing, still at the mouth of the cave. Signs warn you at the beginning that the cave is cool, damp, and wet, that the steps would not be even and the floor would not be smooth. I thought, “Well, duh, it's a cave, right?”
Little did I know.
The floor was very wet. I kept thinking it looked like thick, slimy mud, but it was cold and solid to the touch, not at all gooey like I thought it should have been. Periodically huge drops of chilly water would splatter on my head, dripping from the ceiling of the cave.
The scars left by the lava flow were actually quite fascinating. The lava lines, long scrapes along the wall indicative of how high the flow of lava reached, were always taller than I was, which was an infinitely sobering thought every time I thought about it. Not that lava was still flowing through this thing...but if it ever did again...I would be so small compared to it. Not that I'd survive the heat anyway - it made hard rock drip like melted chocolate - but it was still awe-inspiring to think about.
I was so cold though, dressed for sweltering island heat and instead traipsing through a freezer, that I was more than ready to come out.
What a sight for sore eyes, the light at the end of the tunnel!
And then another delightful bus ride back to Jeju-si to eat and sleep.
Here's where we went in:
The temperature plummeted immediately upon reaching that first landing, still at the mouth of the cave. Signs warn you at the beginning that the cave is cool, damp, and wet, that the steps would not be even and the floor would not be smooth. I thought, “Well, duh, it's a cave, right?”
Little did I know.
The floor was very wet. I kept thinking it looked like thick, slimy mud, but it was cold and solid to the touch, not at all gooey like I thought it should have been. Periodically huge drops of chilly water would splatter on my head, dripping from the ceiling of the cave.
The scars left by the lava flow were actually quite fascinating. The lava lines, long scrapes along the wall indicative of how high the flow of lava reached, were always taller than I was, which was an infinitely sobering thought every time I thought about it. Not that lava was still flowing through this thing...but if it ever did again...I would be so small compared to it. Not that I'd survive the heat anyway - it made hard rock drip like melted chocolate - but it was still awe-inspiring to think about.
I was so cold though, dressed for sweltering island heat and instead traipsing through a freezer, that I was more than ready to come out.
What a sight for sore eyes, the light at the end of the tunnel!
And then another delightful bus ride back to Jeju-si to eat and sleep.
