Travelling Without Emissions - Wilfried Steinbach: Day 121

Day 121, 50 km

Next morning I went to Namsamg Park, a high mountain exactly in the middle of the town. The first thing I met was Korean public toilets which I really liked.
In a luxurious building I found sitting-toilets and everything was clean and modern.

Classic music was playing and there even was toilet paper!

On a map I saw that there were two libraries in the park and hoped I could find a free WIFI. But the libraries were closed so I decided to go ride up the steep hill to the TV tower.

There I enjoyed a breathtaking view over the city.

At the viewpoint which was called The Hill of Love thousands small locks were left by couples which had promised each other eternal love.

There was also a point which was the geographical center point of Seoul.Location

At noon I decided to start my travel towards south. But soon I stoped at a telecom shop and asked if I could get the password to their WIFI to be able to update my blog. They were very kind and I was sitting there and writing several hours. The good thing was that their internet was really fast so I could upload many pictures. When I left the shop it was almost dark but I rode some more hours in the dark. It was not so easy to find the right way out of the city. There were almost no bikers. Probably that was the reason why car drivers were not used by them. And there were almost no bicycle roads.

Of course I did not ride on the express-highways, but sometimes the road I was riding on turned to a motor-highway which was forbidden for bicycles too. So I had to find alternatives all the time. When I could not find an alternative I rode on these motor-highways and then car drivers soon shouted with their horns. Finally I found road number 1 which was going towards south.

In the evening it was difficult to find a sleeping place. I remembered that a biker I met on the ferry had told me to ask in churches if I could sleep there. So when I found a church I went there. Since there was nobody I can ask for a permission, I decided to set up my tent in a little yard behind it.

Day 122, 140 km

I continued towards south on road number 1. Sometimes it was very broad and straight, sometimes it went through villages with many traffic lights, and sometimes it went around villages. Actually it was difficult to say when there is a village or not because everything in the northern part of South Korea is very urbanized. There were good signs along the road but I had to be alert all the time not to loose the right way. There were so many roads that there were many opportunities to take the wrong one. Sometimes road number 1 was not the shortest, I could make a shortcut by taking another one.

I saw a few bikers that day, but they were all going on small roads or on the sidewalk. The sidewalk in Korea usually is 20-30 cm high which makes it a little difficult to come up with a heavy bike. It also is so high that my right rear pannier sometimes scratched it when I came too close…

Day 123, 100 km

I did not sleep so well that night and woke up early. After some kilometers I had breakfast and took a power nap in the rising sun. Then I continued to a Korean restaurant which I found close to the road and had a good lunch. There were no chairs. I was told to take off my shoes and climb up one step upon a podium. There were very low tables which you sat in front of. The waiter came with many different dishes, each in its own bowl. It was tasty and not so expensive (9000 KRW=10USD, inkl a beer).

In the afternoon I found a WIFI to make some calls to the Korean Tourist office to get some info about the ferry lines to the islands. As the cheapest ferry leaves Mokpo early in the morning and it is about 150 km the place I was on, I decided to go just 10 more km that day and find a sleeping place in front of a National Park with beautiful mountains. I did not want to miss the beauty of the park so I wanted to continue in the daylight next day.

It is already dark when I found an abandoned house. There I first changed one more spoke on my rear wheel (again behind the rear casette) and then I set up my tent inside the house.

Day 124, 140 km

Next morning I woke up in a beautiful landscape. First I took a road into a valley of the National Park and asked some guards if it is the road to Mokpo. They said yes but after some kilometers it ended in a walking path to a temple. I went back to the guards and asked again if there is another road over the mountains. They said that there was no road. They told me that I had to go back to the city and around the national park. But I had seen another road almost above their heads (because the mountain was so steep). But they discussed with each other and then they are very certain that there is no other.

So I rode back two kilometers and then I saw a bus driver outside his bus near a cross road. So I ask him. ‘Of course he said it was possible to go through the mountains’ he said so I tried.

Along the steep mountain road I found trees with wild sharon (also known as ‘the Mango of Korea’) and chestnuts which I saved in my panniers.

The sharon were still a little hard but I think they will ripen soon.

I really liked the different views in this National Park!

Up on the mountains (ca 500 m above sea level) there was a flat an people were growing a lot of rice.

Then I rode down on the southern side which was so steep that I had to use my brakes a lot. I came to a village where people harvested sharon and sold it along the street. Their fruits of course were much bigger.

Also the chestnuts they sold were about three times bigger than mine, but I am not sure if they are better.

This afternoon I passed a strange house.

They did not look like houses use to look!

In the evening I arrived in Mokpo.

I chose to sleep in a hotel and in the evening I made a walk to an temple on a hill in the town.

Day 125, 25 km

The boat was leaving first at 9, so I could wash my laundry in the hotel. The reason why I wanted to take the ferry to Jeju was that I had read that the islands south of Korea were very beautiful. And the really were!

The archipelago and Jeju Island are listed in the UNESCO Natural World Heritage Site (2012 there were 188 natural sites).

And it really was amazing to go between theese islands made of volcano eruptions several million of years ago. Some of them had a top on the highest point which must be the magma which once was inside the pipe.

At 2 pm the boat arrived Jeju/Cheju Island and I went to the Tourist information to get a map and some advices. Then I asked two bikers who were waiting for the ferry home to Korea, which roads was the best to go up to the mountains. Like all Korean bikers they were dressed in fashionable outfits and had professional monutainbikes. They did not speak English but understood my question and told me that the roads were far too steep to go up to the mountain Hallansen, an old volcano and Koreas highest peak. They told me I should go around the island as they did. I went back to my bike but they come to me and took me to the lady in the tourist information They told her to translate for me that it really was impossible to climb up the steep roads!

So I left the terminal and thought I had to change my plans. I rode through the town Jeju, bought some food, looked at all the seafood on the market and thought I surely would find a nice road. Without looking on the map suddenly I found myself on the road leading to the volcano. I thought I could try to take the road anyway and in case it was too steep I could push my bike. It was too late to climb on the volcano that day but I could go au to a resting station and sleep in my tent there. Next day I could walk on the path which was 9,6 km to the top and should take 8-9 hours according to the lady in the touristinfo.

On the road up I met a korean biker who invited me for dinner.

He told me that he was biking two months through Europe last summer He was really nice and I really enjoyed to hear his adventures and experiences.

Then I continued up to the resting place. There I slept in my tent.

Day 126, 25 km

Next day I got up before sunrise and found out that I still was not the first on the path up to the mountain.

Many people were going up through the subtropic evergreen forest.
I was quite fast so I decided to go up on a parasite cone which had a beautiful crater lake.

Behind the lake the path continued to a platform with a good view towards south.

Then I went back to the maintrail and continued up to the highest point. After a while I met Minsan, a Korean girl who could speak very good English because she had been in Vancouver.

We had a good talk all the way up and even on the top of the volcano.

But she had come there to think about here future so I left her alone and went beck to my bicycle which I had locked at the resting place 10 km away.

There I decided to go to the southern coast

to buy some food and to see some waterfalls.

They were also very beautiful (I only could take pictures of the first one because it was dark when I came to the second one. At a beach I took a bath in the warm ocean and then I met three young bikers who were sitting on the tables (that’s the way you do it in Korea) to make some food on their gas stove.

They invited me to eat with them because they had a plenty of food and beer. We were sitting in shorts and t-shirt late at night (oct 5^th!) and it was still warm. When I asked if they also were sleeping in tents they said it should become very cold in the night so they had somewhere inside to sleep. I left them and soon I found a calm beach where I could set up my tent. As the night before (which was really cold up in the mountain), I put on my warm underwear/ But after one hour I was so sweaty that I decided to sleep without any clothes and without sleeping bag. In October!

Day 127, 100 km

Next morning I found a wonderful estauarium among the black lava rocks where I had my own bathtub where I could bath naked. Then I washed some clothes in the same bathtub.

I continued to the eastside of the Island. There I wanted to climb up an a very famous volcano peak on a peninsula.

Thousands of tourist were climbing up to this site and the view was good even from there.

But compared to the big volcano it was nothing…

There was a fast ferry leaving just one kilometer from that place

and I came just in time to take it.

It was going with a maximum speed of 60 km/h, so already after about two hours we were 110 km north, back in Korea. A small road was going further north to the mainroad. There were many hundreds of roads going through Korea, the funny thing was that I first had taken road number one towards sout and now I was taking road number two towards Busan in the east side. When I reached the mainroad I had a beautiful sunset on the high hills.

I continued one more hour and then I found a sleeping place along the road.

Day 128, 100 km (and a lift of 130 km)

Next day I started already at 5:30. It was very cold in the mountains but soon the sun came and everything was soo beautiful!

I asked myself which country had been the best so far and decided it must be Korea.

This day I had a wind from ahead and I had trouble to find shortcuts on the road 2 (which was going into towns I tried to avoid. Finally I decided to test what would happen if I took a shortcut in the express-highway. Actually there were no signs which showed that it was not allowed for bikers and nobody stopped me at the toll gate. But only some hundred meters after the toll gate an old minivan stopped and the driver told me that it was not allowed to ride the bike on the highway! He did not speak English so much but he was very serious and concerned and shown me that I could expect handcuffs and prison if I did so! He said he could help me and drive me to the next exit (where I had planned to take road number one again). But soon I found out that he was going to Busan and that he could drive me all the way there.

I thought that I would come to Japan one day earlier because the boat was leaving in the evenings. So I followed him. He asked if I was hungry and I said I always was when I was biking. So he made some phonecalls to his friends and said we should meet them at a restaurant in Busan. We drove up un a steep mountain were many korean hikers ate at different restaurants. His friends were three brothers who enjoyed to hear about my trip and who tested how much I was able to eat.