Walking on Thick Ice
By John Redmond
Contributing Writer
I'm thinking, ``What the hell am I doing here?'' One crack in the ice, one slip and I've got about two minutes before shock and hypothermia take their toll. Either way it seemed like a good idea at the time. A pleasant stroll on the frozen Imjin River, a stone throw from the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ).
A frozen river resembles more a huge salt plain rather than a tranquil Korean river. What is equally weird is the silence. We were the only people around for miles.
Our journey started at the suggestion of one of my Korean friends who has a small plot of land north of Paju, Gyeonggi Province. With the holidays in full swing, we wanted to go somewhere not too far from Seoul but as far away from the hustle and bustle one associates with the holiday season, we couldn't have made a better choice.
Paju is not a tourist destination by any means. It's a tiny town at the northern end of the North South border that's about 15 kilometers south of the DMZ. It reminds one of a hamlet.
The part of town we drove through had no buildings higher than two stories tall. It would have taken us about five minutes to drive through the main street, which was barely wide enough to accommodate two car widths (yet the odd bus still managed to navigate it's way around), but we had to stop for supplies.
At the one end of town is a community water filling station that taps into a local spring. Where we were going there was no running water so we filled a few containers with fresh water.
The main street has a few shops either side, mostly selling farming equipment; a huge church, the biggest building in town; and a bus stop. On streets that narrow you forget how difficult it is doing a U turn, as we did. My Korean friends were hell bent on having a barbeque so we stocked up on beef, beer and soju.
The highway heading to Paju is pretty straight and well sign posted. It's the main highway heading north toward Munsan. What is kind of spooky are the triple barbed wire fences on the north western side of the highway as you get closer to the DMZ.
These barbed wire fences are equipped with spotlights, loudspeakers and armed guarded stations about every 50 meters. I couldn't take any pictures as there was no stopping on this particular stretch of road.
Once you leave the main highway the road narrows dramatically as you approach Paju. After you pass through Paju the road narrows even more. Because you're in very hilly territory these narrow, bending roads become quite treacherous.
Finally, the road ends and the rest of the journey is on foot, down through dried out undergrowth and dead rice fields to a cliff that leads down to the Imjin River.
The air quality is noticeably cleaner, but it's the wildlife that took me by surprise. Toward sunset, there appeared to be endless flocks of wild geese heading south.
Scaling down the hill we came to the Imjin River. My friend, Phillip calmly walked out onto the ice. The river at this time of year is covered with about a 30-centimeter layer of ice. Even so I was still pretty cautious. My Korean friends thought it was a bit of a joke. Two local dogs were even more wary than me.
As I got closer to the middle of the river to take pictures I was only too aware of what I was standing on. Because the three of us were the only people around for miles (at one point two people stood on the north bank checking us out) if anything went wrong we would have been history.
Funnily enough my mobile phone worked. I made an international call to an old friend. Again the silence was eerie. As the light began to fade the ice tended to emit a light of its own, I decided that enough was enough. Being completely isolated and that close to the DMZ was a weird sensation.
After climbing back up the hill we had an open fire barbeque and some soju. Shortly after we headed back to Seoul. The roads around there are not lit so it was a little nerve racking. Fortunately on our way back, as on the way there, we didn't encounter any oncoming traffic until we got into town.
Once on the highway the journey back to the center of Seoul took about 90 minutes. Not bad for a day out and a stroll on a frozen river.