Camping on a lovely secluded beach on Deokjeokdo Island (덕적도). I stayed 24 hours, enjoying the peace and a hike to one of the peaks. This last minute trip started at 5:30 am, took me to Incheon then a ferry to the island. It was my first time out with a tent on my back and, apart from food issues, it was a great trip.

I’d been to Deokjeokdo twice already in my ‘younger’ days in Korea. These were trips with groups of friends where we stayed in pensions (Korean vacation houses) and had parties on the beach; booze, fires and fireworks. When I got there this time, the vibe was completely different and very nice, i.e., there was nobody there!

I managed to get a good deal on a round-trip ferry ticket by using this website and fumbling around with Google Translate and then, ultimately, with help from my wife. Tickets are usually about 23,500 each way, but getting them in advance was about 13,000 total-nice! Don’t ask me how to use the site; I don’t remember… Getting to the ferry port is a bit of a pain: taxi to Line 1 (Namyeong in my case), train to Dong-Incheon, and a packed bus to Incheon Yeonan ferry terminal (인천항연안여객터미널).

The ferry was an enclosed catamaran, with no outside stroll possible; you’d need to take the car ferry for that. This was doubly concerning considering the current coronavirus pandemic. I had a pair of seats to myself and had uneventful ride over. The ferry stops at an island 100 metres(?) south of Deokjeokdo, then moves to the Deokjeokdo port of Jinri (진리). The islands are now connected by a road bridge at that point so I’m wondering why the double stop is necessary now…

There’s a 1,000 won bus at the the terminal which pretty much only goes one route. It takes about 15 minutes to Seopo-ri (서포리), a small, beach and pine forest focused village. At Seopo-ri, I went straight to the beach and checked signs for anything that seemed to ban camping. Nothing. Unfortunately, the shower block was locked till ‘proper summer’, but the toilets were at least open, clean and functional. The beach was deserted and the weather was perfect. Last time I was here, it was a sandy beach. The only difference I noticed was that the beach had grass on it. I wonder if this stays throughout the summer (peak travel) season or if the beach-goers change it back to sand with their stomping around. I found a nice spot on the north end of the beach. There were two other tents set up there so I set up in the general vicinity under a shady group of trees with a view straight to the sea. Perfect!

Next I strolled around the nearby roads and scouted for supplies and restaurants. There was a CU convenience store and one tofu restaurant. Everything else was shut! I asked a lady at another mart/restaurant when the restaurant part of her establishment opened. She said “summer!”. The whole village seemed in shutdown mode, and the sun beating down added to that sleepy island vibe. Not being a fan of tofu particularly, I bought a few snacks and water and headed back to the beach.

There are a few hiking routes through the mountains on the island. I checked the route to the main peak of Bijobong (비조봉) which has a pavilion on the top before heading off. The trail winds through some rundown parts of the village. It’s fascinating and a little sad as you can see people have pumped a lot of money and effort into making this place tourist friendly, but a lot of the places seem abandoned. There are still plenty of other inhabited houses around though.

Once the hill starts, I entered into wooded mountain areas. The first main wood has a massive bamboo thicket which if I remember correctly, has an abandoned house in it. I didn’t stop to check this time; onward and upwards! However, while walking past the bamboo, I heard an almighty cough which scared the crap it of me, so I guess someone was in there doing something!

The trail goes up quite steeply and steadily, and I got to the ridge in good time. There were great views back to the sea and the beach, plus some distant islands. Deokjeokdo’s mountain has a three-way ridge and I was hiking from the west to the peak. Once at the ridge, I could see quite a way in all directions. The peak was left and up some more, with a scary moment when I tried to kick away a root that was half attached to the ground and I thought I’d trip and slide down the lovely mountain…

At the peak is a pavilion where you get a truly panoramic view of the island. It’s great. I thought about using the free mounted binoculars at the top, until I noticed the eye pieces were covered in caterpillars. Nope.

From the peak, I decided to head to the port town of Jinri where I’d arrived earlier. I knew there’d be food there! On my way down, I bumped into my tent neighbour heading the other way. Straight down the trail went, and through some less abandoned looking villages. I passed by a sea-front village with a lovely painted sea wall. After this, I needed to walk along a road with no path, and of course lots of cars were using it at the same time as me…where have these islanders been hiding?

Down by the harbour I found a place selling kalguksu (noodles). There wasn’t much else available especially at 3 pm. I though about a coffee at what seemed to be the only coffee shop on the island, but I knew I’d be disappointed, so didn’t bother!

Heading back to my camp, I took an alternative route that bypassed the peak and ridge, another pleasant wooded hike of about 4 km. It was way more strenuous than it should have been since I didn’t want to be hiking after sundown so kind of speed-hiked it. No danger of hitting sundown though, as that was at 7:30 and I made good time.

Back at the tent, I took a quick nap, then had a look around the beach at the north end. The sun was setting which changed the light nicely. I snacked then decided to get some proper rest since there really wasn’t much else to do.

The weather so far had been lovely but I needed to sleep clothed to stay warm enough. I also decided right there and then to invest in a proper sleeping mat as the sand wasn’t really doing it for me! Therm-A-Rest? My parents swear by them.

I woke up early, snacked and broke camp and decided to get the bus to the harbour and see if I could get an earlier ferry. Bus, ticket change, ferry, Incheon-easy. In Incheon, I thought I’d try the Sea Train monorail but coronavirus put paid to that idea… I then though, time to upgrade my phone to iPhone SE2. So I called the KT shop, asked if they had one (“yes!”), went there (“sorry, we sold it”) then went home to sulk. Deokjeokdo camping though? Nice!

Seopori beach. Free camping and shower blocks during season: