Ep 020: The Jeju Olleh Trail – The Hike of a Lifetime | Outdoor Jeju

Ed (05:48) Yeah, you just follow the ribbons. They’ll be hanging from poles or from trees, and yeah basically it’s going to be like your breadcrumbs that will lead you to the next part so you don’t even have to worry about navigation.

And so you mentioned earlier that there were 27 routes and that takes you all over the island. You’re walking over Oreums, you’re walking along beaches, you’re walking into the Gotjawal forest, you’re walking into fishing villages and farmlands. Yeah, you just basically are going everywhere. That was a really great experience for me because when I just walk, I just put on my earbuds, listen to a podcast or listen to my Korean lessons and just keep walking.

So one thing I was wondering, Sora, is like, what does Olleh mean? Because in Spanish, it means, my God, yes, Ole! But I’m sure it’s a different meaning, right?

Sora (06:40) So actually the word Olleh comes from Jeju dialect. It’s not Spanish. So in Jeju dialect you know in the past we had like many traditional houses in Jeju and between the traditional house and then the main village road, there’s narrow pathway connecting those two houses and the main village road. So these kind of small pathway was called Olleh in Jeju dialect. That’s why we put their name as Olleh.

And then let’s talk about the system of Olleh trail, like how you register. I mean, you need something to get the certificates after 437 kilometers walking. So can you explain us how to get this certification? What do you need?

Ed (07:34) Yeah, I’d just like to push back a little bit Sora. First of all, you do not need to register for anything. You can just walk it. You don’t need to use the system. You can just follow the ribbons and just walk. Just treat it, if you want to just treat it as an easy signpost that will guide you to a fantastic walk. It may be much longer than you plan it to be, but if you want to, you can just follow the ribbons and just have a nice walk for half a day or full day. That is enjoyable, beautiful and great.

Sora (08:00) I see, of course, it is beautiful walk. You don’t need any reward. I mean, it is rewarding to walk. But the thing is, people like me, Koreans, I want some documents after I finish. You know what I mean, like me.

Ed (08:23) I know exactly what you mean because I have that paper too. I did finish it but for me I’m a completionist. I like to finish things and so once I get started for me there was no question I was gonna finish it. The paper wasn’t so important to me because when I climbed Hallasan and I came down I didn’t even bother to print the certificate. It was just not important at all.

And so coming back to the system, if you choose to actually follow the system then the first thing you’re gonna do is you’re gonna want to pop into one of the many visitor centers, the Olleh visitor centers around the island and that’s where you will buy one of the passports. And this is not an actual passport, it is just a place for you to collect your stamps. And these books are kind of like a pocket size, they’re kind of small. They come in two colors. And the colors are going to be the blue and the orange of the Jeju Olleh trail. Sora, do you know what these colors mean?

Sora (09:21) So the blue is representation of the sea, the ocean of Jeju, and then the orange color is of course the Jeju tangerine.

Ed (09:33) And so you will have the passports, the little booklet and in that booklet you’re going to find like some information about the trail. It will show you the maps of the trail. And then most importantly, it is where you’re going to stamp each time you reach a checkpoint. And each trail has three checkpoints, a beginning, a midpoint and an endpoint. And coincidentally, not coincidentally, the endpoint of one trail is the starting point of the next trail. So you actually, if you’re doing a long hike you actually stamp twice. So at the end of course 17 you will stamp on 17 and then you flip the page and then you stamp on 18. So that is the system.

You’re allowed to miss a few of the midpoint stamps because sometimes people get lost because they weren’t paying attention to the ribbons. There’s no time limit as to when you need to finish the whole trail, if you choose to do the entire trail. For me, I did most of it in three weeks and then I came back six months later to finish the Chujado segment which was on an island that’s quite far away from Jeju Island itself. That’s like three and a half hours by ferry. But the rest of it is going to be on Jeju Island or on the islands near to Jeju Island.

So again, that is only if you want to be a through hiker. I think most people who even want to try this will probably do one trail or half a trail or a mini trail that I invented.

One other thing is that the colors that Sora talked about, the orange for the tangerines and the blue for the sea slash ocean, also means the direction of the course. So if you look at Jeju Island, if you walk in a clockwise direction, so you start from Jeju city and you go clockwise, that is going to be the blue color. So when you look, while the ribbons are going to have two colors together, if you are looking for directions and signposts you want to find the blue signs that point you in the right direction. So if you come to an intersection or different paths there will almost always be an arrow that is in the color of the path you’re taking. So if you’re going clockwise around Jeju, you follow the blue arrows and the blue signs. If you’re counterclockwise or anti-clockwise, you will follow the orange signs or the orange signposts.