So now that it is dark we can begin to set up our hammocks under the open air cabana structures. This is when I unpacked the borrowed hammock for the first time and discovered that it was just a hammock for lounging around in during the day and not for sleeping at night where you want to be sealed out from the elements - or in this case insects and rodents since the fly that mine didn't have wouldn't be necessary as we had cabana tented roofs. So it was tent for me - much less than ideal as I would be pitching on a wood platform with no way to stake it out. Didn't think it was too big a deal at the time as I was not using the fly because I had the tented roof of the cabana to shield rain a bit.
Ken's cabana hammock set up.
Razor wire fencing.
Beach destruction from the stupid winds the night before.
We all got set-up and into our respective sleeping quarters and I remember saying to Ken who was in the cabana a few feet away that I thought it was so strange to not have any breeze at all so close to the sea. I had lived on the Atlantic Ocean and Caribbean Sea the previous three years and don't ever remember conditions like this right on the sea. It was also stifling hot and humid which made it difficult to fall asleep - but eventually sleep came.
I awoke some time later when a cool breeze started passing through the mesh of my tent and thought finally some cool relief from the heat. Only minutes later the breeze became a wind and then became violent gusts bending my tent poles violently as each gust pushed at the tent. I jumped up and zipped out of the tent to see an ugly black sky out towards the direction of the wind. "Oh shit, it's going to storm" I half shouted as I fumbled for the tent fly. The wind was so strong at this point my tent was sliding off the platform (even with my 25 lbs or so of gear inside) as I struggled with the fly flapping and whipping. I got 2 of the four corners attached and discovered the straps on the other two corners had separated from the fly and blown down the beach somewhere. Ken had woken up by this time as his hammock was also swinging quite severely from the wind - but it was probably my swearing while struggling with the fly that got him out of his hammock to assist. Ken rigged the two fly straps to somewhat function, but there was no way to guy out the fly on the wooden platform. I was convinced that rain was coming and the cancan a roof would be useless for all of us due to the heavy wind. I tied off one side of the fly guy out to a tent pole which is probably what kept me from blowing off the platform later. We did a quick check of the weather with my smartphone and it showed only 40% chance of rain and 18-20 mile winds. No tropical storm mentions. Several had been in our general area the past week, so that was my initial fear. I have experienced several during tropical storms during my time in the Caribbean and where we were on the beach would be a terrible place to be should one come through.
We decided to stay and weather it out as the gusts calmed a bit although the wind was still quite brisk. It was 2am at that point. I did not sleep the rest of the night. The winds increased and the gusts became more violent. My tent was tacoing badly with each gust. I held the poles at the stress points hoping they would not snap. Then the wind changed a came in from the opposite direction. I had not tied off that side so the fly was flapping, poles bending and tent tacoing in the opposite direction. I was a bit terrified that my tent would be trashed before we even made it into Russia - but it survived through the night. Amazingly and luckily it never did end up raining.
At first light around 5 am the winds calmed a bit. It was very overcast and looked like it could rain at any moment so I wanted to get my tent put away dry. I heard a truck pulling up to the beach and turned to see 2 camouflage military vehicles park about 100 feet behind us. About 8 solders came walking down towards us packing automatics. I initially thought they would approach us because we should not be camping here, but they continued past stopping briefly every 20 feet or so to check the integrity of the razor wired fence. We had passed several military bases the day before and we we we still only a few miles from the DMZ. Looked like just a routine patrol and the paid us little attention of no more than a glance or two. We decided it was time to leave so we packed up our gear and rode into Sokcho to find some coffee. Probably one of my worst nights camping ever. Glad the only penalty was losing a couple of fly straps and not broken poles or a ripped tent.
I'm guessing this says keep out but not entirely sure.
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