June 12, 2017
Mulgeum-eup to Susalli: Gentle day ending at a nice campsite
We left Mulgeum-eup at about eight o’clock, first stopping at a CU convenience store to pick up some emergency grub. Once we had crossed over the railway line using the lift, as with the day before, we started up the Four Rivers Route, Initially there were quite a few Korean cyclists wizzing by us, mostly on mountain bikes and many with music playing from portable sound systems (no earphones – a much safer way to listen to music while cycling, I think) but the bicycle traffic got lighter the further north we got.
Many of the cyclists on the route take part in the certification system. A "passport" is available for the Four Rivers Route and you can stamp an entry at each of the certification stations along the way. If you can show a passport with all the stations stamped, you get a medal. It's not something we get too excited about.
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We stopped a lot to do a bit of bird watching. It was great to be in a semi-rural environment and to be able to watch birds again. Much of what we have seen of South Korea is very developed and apart from the hills and mountains, every bit of land seems to have had nature pushed to one side to allow “development” to take place. We managed to pick up a few lifers this morning, some of which had us scratching our heads while trying to work out what species we were looking at but the Ring-necked Pheasant was an easy ID.
Ever now and then we encountered old chairs, from sofas to office chairs, along the route.
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At about midday we came upon an auto campsite straddling the cycle path. So we decided to stop to have lunch with the intention of carrying on later in the afternoon (we had only done forty kilometers by this stage). To cut a long story short, we ended up spending the whole afternoon here. I eventually rode into the next town about five kilometers away to pick up beers and snacks. Open Street Maps suggested I would find a convenience store but instead I found a grocery store that had some bread – made a note to stop off here on our way tomorrow because bread and jam for breakfast would be great.
We ended up staying here for the night. Why not ? There were great showers, free wifi and power to charge phones and tablets etc.
Today's ride: 51 km (32 miles)
Total: 1,589 km (987 miles)
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