Thursday 18th - Boeun, Signmaker, Solarpanelfarm, Beopjusa and a new first regarding sleeping quarters

My throat is aching, but finally I managed to catch some sleep. As I woke up it was already daylight, 9.25! I have not slept this long since 2012!

Packing took some time, so I came down a few minutes late. The team had already had breakfast.

The new club is from Boeun, it took about 1 1/2 hour to get there. We started by a cup of tea at the local Rotary office. After a short discussion we drove to a print house for signs that one of the Rotariens had. He has done it for 28 years.

Next we headed up towards the Beopjusa Temple. On the way we stopped by a farmer of Jujubes, a fruit, that grow on trees a little smaller than appletrees. He had 5 years ago built a first solar panel park, almost 600 panels that each can generate 170 W. The investment looks at a payback of 5 years. It seems the businesscase flies, as he now is in the process of expanding the panel area to 3 times the size of the orginal one. The current that it generated now was about 100 A at 300 V DC. He said because of the clouds its not generating more than half or so of what it could generate. He also picked up his phone and showed an App that he can use to realtime monitor the electricity it generates. The inverter he uses is for 100 kW by HiFlex.

We continued to lunch, a large meal in the town at the entrance to the Songnisan National Park which is known for a pine tree that lifted it's branches for a passing king. Now 9 branches are supported with poles so they don't break the tree.
This is a habit we have seen at very many places in Korea.

At lunch we took the time to present our group to the hosts. Then we continued to the entry gate and into Beopjusa Temple. It was a nice calm temple area, with many temples still being repainted or under slow repair. The standing goldplated Buddha that is 33 m high is imposing, but fit nicely in to the mountain environment, as did the wooden pagoda and the temple buildings.

We then drove to our night quarters, a set of wooden villas where the team got 2 houses, the teamleader and guide each their own. The wooden houses are nice, maybe 10 square meters with a small washroom, a kitchenette and a heated floor. Bedding is in the cupboard and to be used on the floor.

Dinner was barbecue duck, that again was delicious.