Crab-o-rama: 강구[Ganggu]-산포리[Sanpo-ri]

May 10, 2022

What an incredible feeling to be on the east coast, riding next to the ocean, passing through little fishing villages, past posh vacation houses and beautiful sandy beaches. Noticing the lone sea pine perched on a craggy outpost, the carefully nurtured stands of trees at rest stops, the forests covering the nearby hills. Being surrounded by the hum of honeybees as they make the rounds of the white acacia blossoms. Neither words nor pictures can do it justice. It's a beautiful, life-affirming experience. Even if the rest of the tour is dull (which I seriously doubt), it will have been worth it just to have this day to cherish.

And then there are the crabs. I was hoping that when we left 강구 behind, the crabs would stay there. Nope, they followed us for most of the day. In addition to the crab restaurants, there were crab statues, crab benches, crab mascots, and crab bridges. Even the roadside squid-drying lines were festooned with crab motifs. What gives?

Anyway, were on our way at 8am. The weather was perfect.

The first stamp booth, and the official southern terminus of the trail, appeared at the 10km mark.

The first village we saw in the distance was the prettiest of the day, but the others were nice too.

We had some hills, but with one exception, they were maneagable and even added some welcome challenge and variety to the ride.

We thought these were supposed to be sea slugs, but alas, they too are crabs

After what seemed like a long trek between stamp booths, we reached the second one:

I added a total of 4 stamps to the passport today. I'm going to cut back on the stamp booth pictures. They tend to dominate the visual narrative when I include them all. In reality, we only spend a couple of minutes at each one.

We debated whether to have a "real" lunch, and after deciding to go for it, we happened across this hole in the wall in 병곡. They were only serving 정식, which is basically a bunch of side dishes served with rice. This meal included 미역국 (seaweed soup) and mackerel. The side dishes were amazing. Normally this kind of spread is a bit pricey, but here it was very affordable.

We proceeded slowly after lunch, although we had to tackle a small hill early on. Eventually we stopped for an iced coffee from a convenience store. This is our new routine. It seems to be working out well.

Readers of my previous journals know that I have a soft spot for mosaics. There were a few of them covering roadside retaining walls.

Jetties in Korea, Japan, and I'm not sure where else, are comprised of these cool concrete pieces. They remind me of the childhood game of jacks.

I took one look at the last hill of the day, and immediately dismounted. This flower took pity on me.

It's kind of weird to see Romanized tourism displays like this out in the middle of nowhere. How many foreigners actually come here?

We actually reserached campgrounds instead of just relying on luck to find a nice spot. There was a free campground and a state-run auto campground. We came to the free one and decided it would work for us. It has running water and restrooms, but no shower. Oh, and it also has cats!

Close to the road, but very little traffic. We mostly just hear the waves crashing.

The beach in front of us, taken just before sundown.

Good night! Tune in tomorrow for another day of adventure!

Today's ride: 87 km (54 miles)
Total: 764 km (474 miles)

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