a US-based reader writes in

A Komerican lady based in the US wrote me an email to say that she and her husband are planning to walk the Four Rivers trail and Jeju next year. She had read the concluding entry of my 2019 blog and decided to contact me. She mentioned some really ambitious time frames, though: only 8 days to circumnavigate Jeju (assuming they're planning to circumnavigate the whole island—she wasn't clear on that point), and only 20 days to do the Four Rivers from Busan to Incheon (i.e., backwards from how I normally do it). She also kindly invited me to join her and her husband on their walk; I politely declined, saying that she was going at the wrong time of year for me (spring 2023 instead of the fall, which is my preferred season), that I tend to walk slowly and would become an annoying burden to the couple, and that my introversion means I normally prefer to walk alone, on my own schedule. She seems friendly enough, so I hope she takes my rejection well. I'm sure that she and her hubby will have a fine time without me. The lady didn't have many questions about walking except for one: how to locate area minbaks, which she was having trouble finding on her preferred app, something called Komoot (never heard of it, but it's apparently a lot like Strava, a popular app for bikers). I told her she could look up minbaks via Naver.

I wrote the lady a longish reply (including the part about looking up minbaks); whether she'll write me again is doubtful: most women who receive a text dump from a guy tend not to respond. All the same, I hope she and her hubby have fun on their trip. It was by walking the Four Rivers path that I became aware of just how truly beautiful this country is, and my wish is for her and her guy to have the same experience.