Cycling - Busan to Incheon, Sth Korea - Top tips

This post is a summary of our learning from doing the Korean Cross Country - if you want to read the individual day blog posts start at the beginning.

This is a fantastic ride, and although it is flat in many places, it is not a flat ride. There are many hills & mountains with some being quite steep and challenging. On the route there are signs informing you of how steep the slopes are, these are usually accurate, but sometimes, they are not.

Most of the route is on bike paths, however there is some road riding. The Korean drivers we came across were courteous and made room for cyclists.  The route through the mountain range is on a road, however, there was very little traffic. From the signage on the roads on this mountain route, the approach from the Busan side is an even 7% incline pretty much all the way up, the Incheon approach was much steeper at between 12 & 15%. The same for the next climb very shortly after - it was much less steep approaching it from Busan.

We rode from 5 June to 13 June. This was a very hot time of year to do it with the temperature reaching 33 & 34 degrees celcius. The hottest part of the day was from 1:30 through to 4:30pm after which the temperature dropped significantly to low to mid 20's right on 4:30pm.  We took a few days to work this out and changed our riding to getting up & leaving around 7am, doing as many kilometres as possible before lunch, then resting in the shade until 4:30 when we would head off again. This was how we managed to get the big numbers on the last few days. The sun did not set until about 8pm. Sunscreen is a must as sunburn will happen at this time of year.

The region south of the mountain range is mainly farmland, (where the farmers are not happy about anyone riding through their land) with very few big towns that are quite far apart. You need to leave the bike path to search for food and sleeping and sometimes it is quite a diversion. We both agreed that the region south of the mountains is much more bike touring friendly - the signage is better, the bike paths are well marked and smooth, the passport booths are near convenience stores (often, but not always) with toilets a minimum 500m to about 3 kms apart. (Most toilets were very clean, there was only one shocker), and many shady places to rest away from the traffic. The people riding on the tracks were also very friendly and would also wave, nod or greet us in Korean.  North of the mountains there is much more air pollution, less toilets en route but the towns are closer together with more amenities. The quality of the bike track and signage is totally dependent on the district you are riding through and how much money they prioritise for supporting cycling.

Korean is the national language and not many people can communicate in any other language, which can make it a bit of a guessing game as to what you will end up with after our trial of sign language & pointing.  Most of the road signage has roman alphabetised names alongside the Korean,  but on menus and hotels certainly it is not very common. Being flexible and not being uptight about what you will get is the way to go. Targeting restaurants that had photos on their menu was our game plan. We spent between 6,000won & 17,000won per dish. They have chicken places called Mexicana Chicken and Chicken & Beer - the servings are huge. We over ordered and had enough for breakfast & lunch the next day. 

Due to the remoteness of some of the places we passed through, we rented a wifi egg from SK telecom at Busan airport which we then returned at Incheon airport on our departure. It provided unlimited data for up to 3 devices for 5,000 won a day - this was a lifesaver & allowed us to connect to the navigation apps we were using. It does need to be recharged every night to last a full day on the bike.  Naver (네이버 뉴스 ) Google maps, Google translate, Waygo (picture translation of signage) and a Korean biking app called Bike Go Korea  자전거 행 (you need to search for it in Korean on the app / google play store).  We used these apps constantly to figure out where we were, where the next checkpoint is and where possible food and lodgings are.

CU is a convenience store chain throughout Korea, they were our saviours for snacks, ice cream, fluids and the best product was ice sold in a plastic cup. They have prepared burgers, noodles and other food that can be heated up in the supplied microwaves or boiling water. There were more CU's south of the mountains than north, with 7-11's being more predominant in the northern region. 7-11's are not as good.

The symbol for love hotel found on the sign boards & neon lights.

Love Motels in Korea. We stayed in some fabulous ones and some that were somewhat passed their prime. They ranged in price from 35,000won to 70,000won, sometimes the price matched the facilities, but not always. All of the motels supplied shampoo, conditioner, body wash, and moisturiser, so unless you are picky about what you wash in, save some weight and use what is supplied. Every room we stayed in was air conditioned & had a fridge in which we kept our water in overnight, some had a freezer which was a bonus. Most rooms also had a deep bath, and one had a spa bath - perfect for a long day on the bike. On check in we were always given a package of wonderful products - beauty masks, toothbrushes, condoms, body cream etc. The staff were very good about giving us a place to keep our bikes that was secure, only one place did we need to bring them into the room with us.  They all took credit card. To find accommodation we looked for the sign of hotel 모텔  on buildings but we ended up just targeting any building that had flashy lights which was normally a Love Hotel.

Although we were in Korea for about 10 days, we only had 7 days of cycling. We spent most of the day cycling and did not do much else along the way as we needed to ride between 80 -100kms a day to reach Incheon before our deadline. But, this guide in English would have been useful for us to look at a bit more often ... The Rivers Guide.

On our route we were diligent about getting our stamps at the checkpoints, and sometimes took shorter routes than the bike paths would have taken us to save miles and time. At the end of the trip on arrival in Incheon we were pleasantly surprised to see a big finish sign to ride through, however, the passport box is very far away from the actual certification centre, which was not very well signposted. We were also surprised with the news that if we supplied a Korean Address, we would have some bling in the form of medals sent to us, to commemorate completing the Korean Cross Country Bike route. We had no idea about this, but we were able to supply a Korean address, and hopefully we will be able to receive them at a later date.

Day 10 - Incheon to Hong Kong

Tuesday 14 June 2015

We had originally planned to catch the 8pm flight home, but decided we would try to get on an earlier flight so we would get into Hong Kong earlier. I visited a school, and Wayne went on a last ride around the island of Incheon then got the bikes ready for the home journey.

We rode our bikes from the Best Western Hotel right up to the airport entrance on bikes paths (about a kilometre) and then proceeded to find the place we needed to be.

Checked in and got our boarding passes, then packed the bikes up. The Cathay Staff were a bit concerned about the way we were packing them into the bags, but we assured them that would bikes would be ok and they seemed happy with this. The top photos show them all packed up ready to be put through the system, then the proverbial hit the fan.

We carried the bikes to the over sized baggage place, whose staff looked at them and decided that they would not take them in the packaging they were in and insisted they needed to be in a box if they were to handle them.. (No one actually got off their bums to look at them closely or to inspect the heavy duty plastic they were wrapped in). We then carried the bikes back to Cathay check in, who were now trying to figure out what we were going to do. They suggested we go and have them wrapped at the wrapping service, which we decided was not going to be any better than having glad wrap wrapped around the bikes. They negotiated with the baggage handlers that we would take the bikes to somewhere else on a lower floor where the bikes would be loaded straight onto a truck or something. We then carried our bikes about another 200m to an elevator and were just about to get in when the staff member received a phone call saying that the bikes needed to be inspected by the oversize baggage handling people. So, back to them. 

Wayne took the bikes into the inspection room, they then decided the inspectors needed to come out of the room and inspect the bikes. (Middle photo) and place stickers on the bags to say they have been inspected. Meanwhile the Cathay staff member was constantly on the phone trying to sort this out. After inspection, the bikes were going to be taken to the direct entry, so we placed them on a trolley and the Cathay staff would look after it for us. All this took about an hour and so we left our bikes in the care of the Cathay staff, hoping we would see them in HK.

It was now time for us to get through to our boarding gate. Wayne went through the preliminary check no problem, then my turn - blocked - apparently there was no record in the Korean system of me entering Korea 10 days before. So - Wayne continued through and I went back to the check in counter, almost in tears after all the drama with the bikes and now me. Cathay quickly sorted me out and sent me through the priority gate for the normal airport security which was a very short line. Ended up getting to the gate before Wayne and then boarded and headed home.

And, they took a while to come through the baggage handling, but we were very relieved to see our bikes in Hong Kong. Thank you to Cathay for going beyond expectations on helping us with our bikes, to Incheon Airport baggage handling department - not impressed - think out of the box and problem solve to help people. leaving our bikes behind was not an option.

Got home all safe and very tired. A great ride across a country, Korea, we will be back!

Top Tips on riding in Korea.

Day 9 - Hanam -> Incheon 117.1kms

Monday June 13 2016

Strava Link
5 stamp day

We rolled out of the Hotel carpark at 7:10 am knowing we had a huge day of riding ahead of us. The first check point was Gwangnaru Bicycle Park (광나루한강(자전거)공원) about 7 kms from where we started and signs were telling us that Seoul was only 21.5kms away. I was hoping the ride would be shorter than expected.

The scenery was interesting across the river, I think there was a mix of mist and pollution blanketing everything in white. 

We rode under many bridges and over passes - which got us out of the sun and they were quite fun to ride through.

The second checkpoint of the day was Ttukseom Hangang Park  한강시민공원 뚝섬지구 (뚝섬한강공원)  about 5kms from the last checkpoint. We liked these close to each other checkpoints.

The third checkpoint of the day was the Yeouido Center  (여의도공원) - the big building in the background is the National Assembly Hall.

The final countdown ....

Some of the scenes we passed by on our fast track along the river ....

Wayne was surprised to see these runway markers just planted in a park.

Below : The fourth checkpoint was Ara Hangang Center, 경인 아라뱃길  which was in the middle of nowhere and was the second last stamp of the trip!  

Below : This stretch of the river system had a tourist boat going up & down, which was a bit of a novelty and not many of the rivers had much in the form of motor or aquatic sports.

The picture in the bottom right hand corner below is that of a reproduction of an ancient signalling system they used in Korea.

The actual final countdown - this was so tough as it was getting really, really hot as well as being mentally challenging ...

The final stretch ...

Done, done done! Hoorah for us! Once we finished and did the celebratory happy dance, we then proceeded to try to find the certification office - which was about 500 m away - un signposted.

Last stamps at the  Ara West sea lock.

We had celebratory drinks and a nap in the shade.

Once we recovered from this mornings ride and the celebrations, we set off for Incheon for the last night in Korea before we flew out. We went through some lovely Industrial Kulture, big roads, with loads of traffic for about 18kms until we reached the Ferry Port and Wolmido Culture street - (the area of Wolmido played a big part in the Korean war) it is essentially a permanent fairground.

Wolmido cultural street ... and kebabs on the go  ... 

We then caught the ferry across to Incheon -  loads of birds follow the ferry as people feed them

And then to ride the last 17 kilometres to our hotel  ... along the side of the island and around the airport with planes landing just near us.

And the best sight of all - the hotel!

Day 10

Day 8 - Hanging out in Hanam City

Sunday, June 12 2016

Today was a rest day, not much happened - we washed our riding clothes, went for a walk along the water course, watched some people ride bikes through a very busy intersection, then came back to hotel for a sleep and watched a few movies to take us through to dinner time. 

Found some Korean dinner, had a Basken & Robbins ice cream, watched some local teens play basketball and went to bed!

Day 9

Day 7 - Mokgyeri -> Hanam 118kms

Saturday Jun 10 2016

Strava link

7 stamp day

We were up and out of the hotel by 7:45 am to try to avoid the heat. Rode through the little town of Mokgyeri on our way out. Bottom left picture is of Kimchi jars - which are everywhere! Bottom right photo is Wayne's stylish way of replacing the plug he lost somewhere along the track.

The first checkpoint Binaesum Center was very disappointing after the after the lovely grand ones at big very well designed weirs - I don't even think I took a photo of the poor excuse for a bridge they put this checkpoint next to. It was more like a low lying flood control concrete bar. The bridge led in to a US army training place, this whole area is apparently famous because it was used in a block buster historic movie or TV show about something in Korean History ... (bottom right picture)

We found a place to rest and have a snack after about 40kms and were impressed with the sorting of rubbish for recycling in such a remote place. The river and surrounds was very pretty around these parts, with much wildlife and cultural artifacts in the form of Jangseung or village guardians. They look like totem poles placed in random places, however, they are usually placed on the outside of villages to protect them.

We continued riding through different farms, industrial culture and were impressed with the sports facilities set up by the governments for the people to use free of charge. There were mini golf courses, croquet, climbing walls, bike parks, camping grounds all free to use.

We popped out onto a main road and there were many police and road blocks going on. We soon figured out that the Tour de Korea was following us again and we had a short break from riding to watch the group go by. I was amazed at how many vehicles and people are involved in such an event. 

Here is some video footage of what we saw.




We then went the wrong way for a few kilometres before realising it and then had a long hill to ride up to get back to this point of the video being taken.

We were heading for the next check point (Gangcheonbo) which was on the other side of a weir, and unlike many places which had a specially built ramps and bridges for easy access for cyclists, this one just had a really steep hill (21% slope) with wooden planks attached in such a way that the hill could not be ridden up or down without injury - we were not impressed.  It was the only time Wayne had to get off to push the bike in the whole trip. The ride across the weir was quite pleasant as it was just for bikes, they had some Beatles music playing in loud speakers to get us over the bad feelings we had. The views from the weir were quite spectacular.

We stopped for a break with food and liquids for about 30minutes, and then we were off again heading for Yeojubo. 

This was quite a pleasant ride along the river close to a town with especially built bike ramps to cater for cyclists. The one problem was that the signage was not very good in that the signs for the certification centre were few & far between. The other places had signs from about 3kms out, this one only from 1km out.  We thought we had missed it and Wayne headed back the way we had come to find it, of course as soon I turned the next corner the 1km sign was there. I waited for about 30mins for him to return and we got stamped and proceeded. Yeojubo stamp station

Lunch stop at 77kms. We sheltered from the sun in the local air conditioned CU, ate our way through burgers, jelly fruit & ice cream. After lunch the plan was to get our stamp at the Ipobo Wier then find some shade to sleep in for a few hours until the heat of the day passed.

We found some shade and slept and sat until 4:30pm when a northerly came through and reduced the temperature significantly, however, it was a head wind for the direction we were travelling which made the afternoon ride a bit tougher. we also had a few locals join us to relish the shade, one man spoke great english and we had a conversation about our trip so far. He was on an electric bike and headed our way. 

We had another checkpoint - this was the Yangpyeong Art Museum - the booth was around the back of the gallery in the car park and it was after closing time for the gallery, so we didn't go in and continued along the bike track.

Then the highlight of the day came upon us as we entered the outer precincts of Seoul. Tunnels!!  These were so good, they were about 10 degrees cooler than the outside and some lasted for about 400m. We messed around in the tunnels taking photos and spending as much time in the cool as we could.

The next mishap was we stopped to check where we were and where we needed to go and realised the wifi egg had run out of battery. A quick technology moment where we had to rig it up to the spare external battery in a not very satisfactory manner. We took the opportune moment to put our lights on the bikes. 

Onward we rode - we were now over the 100km mark and I was tired. We got to another checkpoint which was at the bottom of an old train bridge now cycling bridge in a very pretty location. This checkpoint was called - Balgeun Gwangiang (밝은광장 ). It was a bonus stamp for another river we may get to ride another day.

And then it got dark ... and we continued to ride along an old train line to the next checkpoint, which was not too far away This was Neungnae Station which as its name implies was an old railway station and it looked like a lovely spot, it was a Saturday night so there were many people around. 



It was our last stamp for the day - Hoorah! up to 107 kms for the day. Now to find somewhere to stay. The trail we were on was a bit remote, and we passed many restaurants, but not many places that were hotels.  We stopped to have a look at one of the apps to see where they had pin pointed hotels, and while we were stopped a korean gentleman stopped and asked if he could help us. With limited Korean & English between us, we managed to communicate that we were looking for somewhere to stay. He said - "follow me" ... and for the next 20 minutes he took on a wild ride through parts of Hanam at break neck speed which I found to be quite difficult to keep up with him after 107kms of riding and a very full day. Wayne was thinking that he was thankful it wasn't him riding at the pace we were going ... He delivered us to a hotel in town. Our crazy fast cyclist was our lifesaver for this very long day.

We checked into our last love hotel for the trip (The Thema Hotel), and it was ok. Once the lodgings were secured & we were cleaned up we went out seeking food at 9:45pm and found it at a local Korean Burger place - I wanted to steer clear of anything spicy so I ordered the European Cheese Burger. It was the spiciest thing I had eaten in Korea all week! There was nothing European about it, it was all chilli.

A very long but happy day. The body is much stronger than at the beginning of the trip.

Day 8