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.
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| 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.
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