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As I emerged into the sunlight last week after covering a story on Manjang Cave for our Geopark series, I was elated. First, I had never spent that much time — just over an hour — underground, and even though Manjang is an unusually large and spacious lava tube, I’m the last person to take this kind of assignment. Perhaps I’ve seen too many claustrophobic movies (“The Descent,” anyone?) but I recoil from enclosed spaces.
I went, though, to see for myself the glowing recommendation that Dr. Woo Kyung Sik of Kangwon National University, a former interviewee and Korean cave expert, had given to guided tours for the public’s understanding of Manjang Cave and other scientific and heritage sites around Jeju.
Turns out he was completely right. Guides are crucial if you want even the minimum of detail about the science, geology and history of the cave.
Just near the entrance to Manjang is a small office for volunteer guides. I went in and spent some time chatting and getting information and quotes. The guide I accompanied was described by his colleagues as the best of the 42 volunteers on call. Boo Yeon Bae has three years experience and a friendly demeanor. He was genuinely interested in engaging the two families and a few other tourists that made up our typical group.
After some preliminary explanation at the start of the 2-kilometer round-trip walk, we dutifully followed Boo’s flashlight and authoritative voice. At about 200 meters in, a bit of wind picked up as the tunnel narrowed somewhat. It was good to see two emergency phone boxes placed strategically in Manjang. The floor is slightly groomed but not at all wheelchair or stroller friendly. A couple of raised platforms take visitors over the rougher parts of the cave.
The new lighting system is tasteful for the most part, though large swaths of geologically-interesting cave walls remain dark. There are parts of the cave roof that have clearly been modified or even smoothed over with concrete, but these are minimal and originate from decades earlier (the cave was opened to the public in 1967, long before preservation was considered a top-level priority).
Carrying a halogen flashlight, Boo pointed out important structures in the cave that were not even illuminated. In one case, he gave the geology of Manjang some context by pointing out a six-sided columnar structure that appeared melted into the cave wall. He pointed out how the South side of the island has the same group of structures — the easily recognizable Daepodong Columnar-Jointed Lava structures. (This is another of the nine Geopark sites.)
Later, he aimed his flashlight up at a basically unmarked part of the cave wall to reveal some 5-centimeter-long stalactites (structures that hang down from the ceiling of a cave). These, he said, are so rare that the UNESCO inspection team of the Geomun Oreum Lava Tubes (and Manjang Cave) were particularly impressed. Boo said the tiny stalactites were an estimated 100,000 years old or more, and are so important that if they were to be damaged in some way, it could endanger the future of the site designation — which is reviewed at regular intervals by UNESCO.
Without a guide, we would have walked right by these tiny, ancient and awe-inspiring structures.
During the tour, Boo also brought up the Jeju dialect words for what he was describing, which added a nice touch of local flavor.
There was almost nothing by way of detailed explanations on the signage in the cave, though the English was very good. A couple of audio stations were available in Korean, English, Chinese and Japanese. Moreover, there were no English-language guidebooks (unlike a very helpful Korean booklet I discovered with a 17-point place-by-place explanation of cave features), not that it would even help given that it is too dark to read without your own light source.
On the 1-kilometer walk back to the entrance of Manjang Cave, Boo took questions and was very helpful with the history of the place, giving details not included in the literature about the types of safety modifications made to the cave after its opening to the public. My impression was that the visitors left enriched by the explanations.
Boo also invited me back to Manjang with a mutual scientist acquaintance, to go beyond the lava column at end-point of the public area for a future story for The Jeju Weekly. Despite my visceral disinclination, given the fascinating sights on offer at Manjang Cave, I think I’ll take him up on the generous offer.
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