Seoul to Seoul (Re-mastered)

[Noel Mugavin]

Sure it's a sign saying to use the bins to stop littering. Bins hadn't been emptied for a while, were all over-flowing.

Descent wasn't much fun; path wasn't great, very narrow and quite twisty and turny.
Spat out at the bottom at a cattle farm




Few km's down the road, and the most isolated and desolate of all the certification booths - Hapcheonchangyeongbo






Saturday afternoon, everything closed

 

[Noel Mugavin]

Off I went with about 30km's to go, and 1 hillthat shouldn;t be so tough, to my overnight stop of Namji. This was the only night that I had not pre-booked a hotel, my calculations had me arriving at about 4 o'clock, giving me plenty of time to find somewhere to stay.
More river scenery



Had a bit of an uphill along a main road, and from a you tube video i had seen, believed that this was the last uphill. Very relieved, and about 20km's to go.
This was the most isolated section of the ride, with only this little village between the last certification centre and Namji.
Didn't stop me nearly losing an eye as the only person I saw hopped over the rails from the river to the cycling path as I was passing through, swinging his rod and line around. Had to give a big warning shout to him to save my eye

How's the serenity


In all this isolation, and on a short little uphill, what a place for a saxophone club






A long straight stretch, in the distance saw a bridge, thought, you beauty, over the river here and an easy ride into Namji. As I got closer, nope, bridge under construction. Namji might be further than I thought.


Little past the bridge, the path turned a little inland

F###. The last uphill wasn't the up hill. 108km's in for the day and this thing nearly killed me.

 

[Noel Mugavin]

This thing just kept going, no way I was riding up it. Even pushing the bike I had to stop numerous times. Way harder than the more widely advertised ascent up Joryeong.


Finally to the summit. Was a stamp booth, but not part of the Cross-Country trek. Nice view though.

 

[Noel Mugavin]

Slow descent don the hill, bridge over the river and a tree-liner cruise into Namji


Nope, another f#####g hill. Turns out the first hill of the day wasn't counted as one of the 3 hills; the climb by the main road not one either.
I'd just about had enough by now, nearly 2 hours behind where I thought I'd be, low on water, nowhere to stay, and just about out of energy
Nice view though

 

[Noel Mugavin]

One more, as it turned out, small uphill, only about 50m long. When I saw that one it nearly broke me.
Through more farmland then back to the riverfront and into Namji. Flower festival going on, lots of canola, lots of people and I weaved my way through them to a 711 to grab some water and also check maps to find a motel.
Was about 6 o'clock and with the amount of people at the festival I was seriously eyeing sheltered places I might be able to sleep if there were no rooms available.
First hotel I went to, asked if a room was available - answer 'yes'.
100 000 won, around $120, way overpriced, but took it on the spot
Ex-love hotel, very dated







Showered, then wandered for an hour or so. Think I grabbed a chicken breast and a couple of eggs for dinner.
Did want to head down to the river for the festival, but was absolutely wiped, so for something different an early night

 

[Noel Mugavin]

Big day

 

[drron]

Well done. I winced at e very hill you had to climb. And I can't actually ride a bicycle!.
But I do really like your TR and obviously you are doing this at a great time of year with the cherry blossoms and Canola that the Koreans really do appear to love.

 

[Noel Mugavin]

Last day, woke up feeling pretty good, about 85km to the end of the route.
Fairly chilly and a bit of fog around as I headed through the town and down to the river. Bit of a backtrack to get to the bike path entrance along the road that runs above. Was dodging cars and a multitude of people last night as I rode into town.

Fog was covering the canola fields, however rest assured there were some early risers having photo shoots in the flowers

Bit more of the road

Down onto the path and a closer look at the canola


Add in some tulips








It was a bit stop start as I was off the bike quite often taking more snaps