Seoul to Seoul (Hopefully not Couldn't Stand the Weather)

Noel Mugavin · Aug 9, 2023

Spent about half an hour at the rest stop My communication skills let me down when ordering an iced coffee. Served a steaming hot cup, which really wasn't needed in the heat.

Fantastic descent, then a bit of confusion with a sign telling me to take a turn which led absolutely nowhere. After a bit of consternation, decided to ignore the sign and keep going straight. Fortunately it worked out in the end.
A bit of a stretch on a highway, then into an extremely scenic area and the
Mungyeong Buljeong certification centre.

Bit of chat with a young bloke and his dad doing the trek. Dad born in Korea immigrated to Australia, son was most definitely Australian. Dad was taking his son on the ride to show him Korea.

Beautiful countryside

Noel Mugavin · Aug 10, 2023

Quick stop for a sandwich and some water and this little strip of shops

Back on the track

Half an hour or so to my stop for the day, hostel by the river.

About half past 3, so a nice early finish, greatly assisted of course by the lift given up the hill. Nice property, plenty of green space.

Had a bit of nap and then to the bbq place that was next door

OZDUCK · Aug 10, 2023

I am used to places like Germany catering very well for cyclists doing multi day trips but I never expected the same of South Korea.

Noel Mugavin · Aug 10, 2023

Lot of BBQ places don't really like/cater for single diners, so end result was a hell of a lot of food

Bit of a stroll afterwards

The restaurant with the kimchi barrels out front

Early night and got to sleep pretty easily, despite the 20 or so young Korean student shaving a BBQ and a bit of a drink directly in front of my window.

Noel Mugavin · Aug 13, 2023

Refreshed after a decent sleep, beautiful riding conditions and about 140km in front of me today

After about an hour, made it to the Sangjusangpung Booth, and the official end of the Saejae Path, and the the start of my journey on the Nakdong River Path. Path branches off to the official start of the Nakdong Path, which is at Andong Dam, 71km's away. Fortunately, I didn't need this stamp to achieve the Cross-Country medal.
Sangjusangpung booth is in a fairly isolated area, completes with a squat toilet.

Really enjoying the ride, river on the left, rice paddies on the right

Easy, flat riding, until having to traverse the hill on the right. 10 - 20% incline, so off the bike.

Choice to make.

5 k's or so after the incline, 1st stamp on the Nakdong River - Sangjubo

Noel Mugavin · Aug 13, 2023

Nice scenery from the dam wall

Sangjubu booth

Quick chat with the Filipino blokes at the booth, they wished me safe riding an off I went.
500m in and coming down a small hill, came the dreaded puncture. Bus shelter about 50m by the side of the road, so in I limped. Took all my bags off, dug deep to find my replacement tube, then flipped the bike over to get to work. Then the oh cough* moment. Worse than a punctured tube, the side wall of my tyre had a 2 inch rip in it.
My concerns and preparations about being able to finish the trek centred on me being able to physically complete the ride, so by my own admission I had neglected the ability to carry out repairs if something happened to the bike. Changing a tube, and repairing a broken chain, no dramas, but anything other than that and I was in a bit of trouble. New tyre was needed here, couldn't risk trying to patch and then having another issue further away from civilisation.
Fortunately, about 2km back was a little touristy place that had a couple of bike rental stalls and some food trucks. Packed my bags and back on the bike and the slow walk back to the bike places.
Toilet stop first.

Bike hire tents

Food trucks

Went to the first bike hire tent and had a stunted conversation about buying a tyre. Unfortunately, the hire bikes were tandems and wide tyred bikes so no road bike tyres anywhere.
Bloke from the last food truck in the row came over, and we had a three way conversation in my poor/non-existent Korean and their poor/non-existent English. Phones came out and I was given the hand signal to wait where I was.

Few photos while I was waiting, for what I wasn't too sure yet

After about 10 minutes of waiting, a small sized flat bed truck turned up. I was summoned over, and then I was a spectator to a 3 way Korean conversation between bike guy, food truck guy and truck guy. Eventually I was gestured to throw my bike on the back of the truck and to get in the cab of the truck.

Noel Mugavin · Aug 13, 2023

Not too sure where I was going but my best option at the moment

15 minute drive and into the city of Sangju, we tried to communicate with each other but no too successful. I was truly a spectator at this stage. Once in Sangju, I understood what the play was, as the fella drove me to about 3 different bike stores, unfortunately none were open. I t was a Sunday and about 10 o'clock, so maybe too early, or maybe they had Sunday's off.
I was feeling a bit guilt about wasting this guy;s time, so managed to get google translate to convey to him to take me to the bus station.
Plan was to now get to Daegu, much bigger city, and also my destination for the day. Unfortunately, meant I would miss about 3 stamp booths and my goal was fast going out the window.
Fella dropped me off a the bus station and I thanked him profusely and off I went pushing my lame duck bike. Heard a bit of yelling and the bloke driving me around had jumped out and was running to me and letting me know I was going to wrong way.
Just blown away by the friendliness and willingness of the Korean people to go out of their way to help me.
Easy process to buy a ticket, 15 minute wait for the bus, chucked the bike underneath and I was on my way

Noel Mugavin · Aug 13, 2023

Since I started to walk my bike back to the rental bike area I had been doing the sums in my head re the time left in the day and how I would have to adjust my ride. I had a deadline, my bike was due to be returned in Busan in 2 days. I had already come to the realisation that I wasn't going to be able to complete the cross-country trek, however I was determined to continue on from Daegu.
My plan on arrival in Daegu - get to the hotel, find a bike shop, at best new tyre today, at worst, tomorrow morning, then I'd have to go hell for leather for 2 days to Busan.
Daegu is a big city, and has a large bulge to the west and close to the bike path, and this is where my hotel was. First spanner in the works, and one I didn't realise would be an issue was that the bus I was on terminated at the Daegu East station.
More thought needed here. Disembarked from the bus, grabbed my bike and went to a coffee shop to work out a plan. I was the opposite side of a large city from my hotel, had a lame duck bike that I had to push, and no idea where a bike shop was, nor if any were open. There was also the issue of 128mm of rain predicted for Busan on the Tuesday when I was scheduled to arrive.
Wasn't having much success locating a bike shop through my search on the phone, and also realised I was also quite a way away from a subway station. I had remained calm through the whole day but was getting a touch frustrated now. Went to take a sip of my iced coffee, and proceeded to spill half a glass of it all over me. Second tor 2 to take it all in, and knew it just wasn't my day.
Cleaned up best I could, grabbed the bike, pushed it back into the bus statin and brought a ticket to Busan.
The ride was over.
On the bus got on booking.com and booked myself a hotel in Seomyeon.
Bus station in Busan was on the northern edge of the city, bike return on the south-western edge. Fortunately it was a Sunday, and bikes are allowed on the subway on the weekend. Hour to my station, returned my bike, grabbed my bag from the same, backtracked about 20 minutes on the subway to Seomyeon.
Caught in a shower as I searched for the hotel, but eventually got there.
Safe to say I was pretty flat.

SuePa · Aug 13, 2023

Noel Mugavin said:
Since I started to walk my bike back to the rental bike area I had been doing the sums in my head re the time left in the day and how I would have to adjust my ride. I had a deadline, my bike was due to be returned in Busan in 2 days. I had already come to the realisation that I wasn't going to be able to complete the cross-country trek, however I was determined to continue on from Daegu.
My plan on arrival in Daegu - get to the hotel, find a bike shop, at best new tyre today, at worst, tomorrow morning, then I'd have to go hell for leather for 2 days to Busan.
Daegu is a big city, and has a large bulge to the west and close to the bike path, and this is where my hotel was. First spanner in the works, and one I didn't realise would be an issue was that the bus I was on terminated at the Daegu East station.
More thought needed here. Disembarked from the bus, grabbed my bike and went to a coffee shop to work out a plan. I was the opposite side of a large city from my hotel, had a lame duck bike that I had to push, and no idea where a bike shop was, nor if any were open. There was also the issue of 128mm of rain predicted for Busan on the Tuesday when I was scheduled to arrive.
Wasn't having much success locating a bike shop through my search on the phone, and also realised I was also quite a way away from a subway station. I had remained calm through the whole day but was getting a touch frustrated now. Went to take a sip of my iced coffee, and proceeded to spill half a glass of it all over me. Second tor 2 to take it all in, and knew it just wasn't my day.
Cleaned up best I could, grabbed the bike, pushed it back into the bus statin and brought a ticket to Busan.
The ride was over.
On the bus got on booking.com and booked myself a hotel in Seomyeon.
Bus station in Busan was on the northern edge of the city, bike return on the south-western edge. Fortunately it was a Sunday, and bikes are allowed on the subway on the weekend. Hour to my station, returned my bike, grabbed my bag from the same, backtracked about 20 minutes on the subway to Seomyeon.
Caught in a shower as I searched for the hotel, but eventually got there.
Safe to say I was pretty flat.
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A disappointing way to end your ride, but hopefully you'll be feeling happier after a good night's sleep. It's still a great achievement.

Must...Fly! · Aug 13, 2023

These things happen. Sometimes it is best to admit defeat, than to keep going and dig yourself in to an even deeper hole.

But this thread has given me some serious inspiration to do some proper bike touring of my own. My mind is awash with the possibilities, though my trip to Europe in a couple weeks is probably too soon to look at doing something as epic as multi-day odysseys. But Korea has always been on my to-visit list and I had no idea an experience like this was possible. 2024 might be a time to attempt something similar!

Noel Mugavin · Aug 14, 2023

Having been back for about 5 weeks, I have been more than pissed off about not being able to finish the ride, and also that I made some wrong decisions when the tyre went. But anyone can be a hindsight harry i guess.
What I have decided is that I am going back next April to have another crack, this time hiring the bike for 2 weeks and giving myself some wriggle time if things go wrong. Also give me the chance to tick off a couple of other paths in my goal of completing the Grand Slam.
Bike Passport is registered in a data base, so you don't have to do any of the rides in 1 go, however I am going to do the cross country from the start again. Hopefully lightning will strike twice and I;'ll be able to snag a lift up the large incline.
I wont pre-book accommodation, it is pretty easy to find accommodation as you go, and a bit of emergency bike repair training will be on the agenda.

drron · Aug 14, 2023

Thanks for this magnificent TR. Will have to go back to Korea and see more of the beautiful countryside you rode through. I would have no troubles on the inclines as I would be driving a car.
Must say a couple of times the thought crossed my mind the He should have gone to Specssavers,

Black Duck · Aug 14, 2023

I hope you do get back and finish that wonderful trip.

Accommodation really is easy to find last minute -often love hotels but most are pretty good and well priced - As a female, I have stayed in a good few around the country and been fine. Hotels are always common around the bus or train stations.

Can I recommend you get the Papago app for translation. It's better than google and easy to use. Also both Kakao and Naver maps for navigation. Naver will hold English better but kakao has some better features. Kakaotalk is also good -like Skype but better. I use that while in Korea to contact locals but also call/message or send photos back home. I use it here too to contact friends in Australia or elsewhere who are on it.

Generally Koreans are very keen to help. Especially outside of Seoul, people will come up to you if you stand on a corner a bit too long and insist on helping you get where you need to be -if it's too far away and they are in a hurry they will pass you on to a random stranger up the road who will then take on the mission of helping. When you become friends with Koreans, you automatically become friends of their friends. We are frequently "passed on" to such friends when we are travelling and like it or not you become their charge and are looked after for the time you are in that area.

Noel Mugavin · Aug 14, 2023

A couple of days extra in Busan that hadn't been planned on and a quick look out the window showed a dull and rainy sky. Perfect day to do some washing and wallow in self pity.
On digging into my bike saddle bag I realised I had inadvertently forgotten to return the bike lock that had been supplied with the bike. Trip back to the bike shop to drop it off, but could kill two birds with 1 stone as the last certification centre was about a 2km walk away, and I could get my Chungju Dam stamp as well as get my stickers for the paths I completed.
Loved the area I was staying in, I'm a huge fan of the Asian vertical signage.

Off to the subway station, but first order of business was to pick up a convenience store umbrella.
20 minutes on the subway, lock successfully dropped off, then off to get my bike passport stamped.
Wind had really picked up, rain had increased and I had to cross the Nakdong River.

Goodbye umbrella

The 15 minutes it took to cross this bridge were just about the scariest of my life. Huge gusts of wind, take my choice of getting blown into the path of the trucks on the left, or into the rampaging current of the river on the right. Kept telling myself to keep going, only had to do it once and a nice reward at the end.
Finally made it t the safety of solid ground and the last checkpoint, albeit on 2 feet rather than the preferred 2 wheels.

The last red booth. I didn't stamp my passport here, will save that for when I complete the trek.

Strode to the doors of the certification centre, keen to get my stickers and stamp in my passport.
Fot those of you following closely, you'll know that this day was a Monday. For those following even closer, you would remember form earlier in the report that quite a lot of businesses, government departments etc are closed on Mondays.
Yep, it was closed.