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