May 23, 2022
The big island, part 2
This was a day to sleep in, then leisurely explore part of the island. If nothing else, I wanted to visit the southeast corner where the ferry terminal to 월미도[Wolmido] resides. There's also a nearby park that looked intriguing.
The area is small, but rather active, even late on a Monday morning. The ferry fare is 3,500₩ one way (we think), but get this: with a bike, it's double that. Crazy, huh? We weren't too keen on visiting 인천[Incheon] anyway, as we had already explored it on foot years ago.
It was hazy. We could barely see the buildings across the water. We stopped at a shelter on the waterfront to prepare lunch. We tried one last time to use up all the fuel in our canister, and again failed to do so. We left it on the ground in hopes that someone would find it and make use of it.
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I often comment that riding our unladen bikes is a special treat. I didn't feel this way today. Perhaps it was because I brought one of the small panniers with me, or perhaps it was the headwinds that greeted us as we headed west towards the airport. Whatever the reason, it didn't matter, because we were outside, pedaling and enjoying the scenery and a cool breeze.
The southeast coast is a linear park, nicely landscaped and devoid of traffic. And guess what? It has a campground! It never occurred to us that one might exist here. The fees are reasonable, too. So if you're crazy like us, and want to ride in or out of the airport and straight into or out of a campground, this is your place. It's called 영종씨사이드캠핑장 (Yeongjong Seaside Campground), and their on-site phone number is 032-719-7779.
West of the park, the path retains its width, loses the paint, and adds jersey barriers. We turned around just after reaching this point. I believe it continues like that all the way to the airport and beyond.
Next it was time to do some last-minute shopping. We rode to 운서[Unseo] to visit LotteMart, a decent-size discount department store. Then we rested at a convenience store just outside the AREX train station. A hilarious scene unfolded in which 3 candidates' advertising trucks all blared their campaign jingles at the same time. One of the politicians was present. He kept jumping on and off the truck, bringing up various members of his little booster club, but not actually announcing anything. The boosters danced along not just to their candidate's jingles, but to the others' as well. Sunyoung explained to me that all three candidates were from the same political party and were all competing for different positions. So they were on good terms with one another, even though there appeared to be somewhat of a turf war at that prime corner in front of the train station.
Thoroughly entertained, we rode back to the hotel and rested a bit. Since we have a kitchenette, we opted not to eat out, instead visiting the nearby supermarket for some instant 죽 (porridge), 김치 만두 (kimchi dumplings), and fresh vegetables. We finished off with another nice Korean craft beer and the last of our 김 (laver) chips.
We're mostly packed and ready to head to the airport early. The train is our preferred option. Bikes aren't officially allowed on weekdays, but we've aready done it once before. I doubt anyone is going to hassle us as long as it's not too crowded. The alternative is a 20km bike ride to terminal one, then a weird transfer to a shuttle train to reach terminal two. Maybe we'll try that next trip.
Tomorrow's going to be a long and busy day!
Today's ride: 33 km (20 miles)
Total: 1,316 km (817 miles)
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