What has happened to the weather? A few days ago it averaged 25 degrees Celsius. We were in shorts and a top..no jacket. Today, it is super cold. The morning began just above zero and we will be riding into a heavy gusty headwind. We are wearing all the layers we have.
When we had to leave Korea earlier than planned due to a lack of availability on the ferry, we were initially disappointed. But we realized that it was a good thing after all as we would be riding in winter conditions into December. Brrr
Hotel Heitz has been our comfortable home the last two days. It is family run and they graciously gave us the playroom for a private place to store our trikes. The hotel has a bike storage room on each floor of the hotel and we were invited to take them up on the elevator. But sadly, the room can’t accomodate our trikes
We are mostly in rural areas today and it is beautiful. Signage is excellent on the cycling route and the always present painted blue line keeps us on track.
Today’s ride will be interesting as we will ride over two mountains. Google Maps is not an option in Korea for navigation. We have loaded Kakao and Naver, both of which are excellent. We mostly use KakaoMap. We like that a bike icon represents where we are and also that there is an elevation profile at the bottom of the screen (which Naver lacks). It helps to know where you are in the ascent and when the fun begins for the descent.
We loaded both Naver and Kakao as each has their strengths. Naver is good for checking cycling conditions as they send out their 360 degree cameras down bike paths. It gives you metre by metre pics. The first mountain is quite lovely. There are some steep sections as we meander our way up through a beautiful forest. The area is also very popular with locals for hiking. Trailheads are on the cycling route, so we sometimes see hikers accessing their trail.
We have completed the first mountain and are greeted with a place to relax and bathrooms. There are often posters in the toilet stalls and this one had posters advocating not smoking. Liked the “heart valve” character.
We have made it across the first mountain and are back on the Nakdong River. A woman who was in the parking area getting ready to go hiking, saw us and ran over to give us 4 mandarins. We will enjoy one while we take a break and enjoy the view.
Every rider we have met in Korea mentions that they have never experienced such incredible infrastructure anywhere else they have toured. It is phenomenal and consistent.
The second mountain is very different. We are not meandering in the forest as we sometimes did on the first moutain, Rather, we are riding on a road some of the time and the gradients are more steep. It is a workout. The traffic is fairly light and this separate lane for bikes soon disappears. Sharing the road.
A rest stop at the top with the recognizable red phone booth where we can stamp our passport. As Dr. Who fans, we always hope that he might make an appearance and step out of his Tardis.
We didn’t take a lot of photos on this mountain as we were either pushing hard to make the ascents or we were nursing our brakes, trying not to overuse them on the very steep descents. It was a shorter ride but more challenging. When it was over, we agreed that we were so happy we did it. But, oh boy, we will do this again in a few days on our return to Busan.
This is interesting. As we approached this outdoor stage, we could hear someone playing jazz on a saxophone. It turns out that in this somewhat remote spot, there is a saxophone academy and a club run by Kim, the blonde woman in the mural. It was lovely to sit and listen.
Steve Miller/GrampiesFrom the link, this could be a male. Don't know his fate, but the females die in Fall, says Wiki, with the offspring only being born in Spring. Kinda sad? Reply to this comment 3 hours ago
Our destination is about another 10 or 15 km. This truck offers pick ups and drop offs to cyclists. He stopped to see if we wanted a ride to our hotel. No thanks. The fellow in the back is Korean and lives in the US. He translated for the driver. He said he called the truck because he couldn’t handle the cold any longer.
It seemed that once a truck connected with us, others found us as well. One of the drivers insisted on helping us. We were to follow him as he wanted us to avoid big hills. We couldn’t shake him so we complied. We don’t know if he wanted payment or was just being helpful. Nonetheless, we had 3 of them circling us. It turns out that he is right though as the route to town had crazy steep climbs…more steep than the 2nd mountain.
We made it to Hotel Khan, and you guessed it, it is a love hotel. It is actually quite a lovely hotel that has been around for sometime. Breakfast is included and the quality of the room was very high. The only quirk was the huge hot tub in the middle.
We have had an incredible ride today and had many adventures. The crazy ascents at the end were unexpected. So steep that we had a high setting on the motor and a very low gear. It took everything we had to move forward. But the good thing is, they were nasty but short. Ready for a good sleep in our comfy bed.
Today's ride: 58 km (36 miles) Total: 708 km (440 miles)
