April 10, 2017

We left the Sky motel at 8:15 and followed the route to the Sangpung Bridge without getting lost or misplaced – yeah, we are on a roll!

The cherry blossoms were in full bloom and in some areas when the wind blew they looked like snow blowing across the path. Another few days and as we head further south, they will all be gone.

Lanes of Cherry Trees in full Bloom

The weather today started a little chilly, Ralf wore his long pants and I wore my leggings. Eventually the sun came out, the sky was blue and the wind was horrendous! We had a headwind, crosswind and very very occasionally a tail wind. The head winds were usually when we were climbing a hill. Oh well you can’t have everything.

We had spotted this fellow yesterday as we were heading out to the Ihwaryeong Hill.

We didn’t get the opportunity to chat to him yesterday. When we spotted him today, we had to stop for a chat. He is Russian and has walked through 24 countries over 14 years. We think he has gone back to Russia a few times during the 14 years. After Korea he is flying back to Russia. He cannot get a visa for Japan. He indicated that some countries Russians cannot get visas for or they are very expensive. He sleeps under the stars and walks between 20 to 40 kms per day.

The bike train runs from Jimnam station to Buljeong Station in Mungyeong. It is a tourist “train” that has bikes as the cars. Tourists can rent one bike with four people in it and pedal their way to the next station. It is recommended that you get a group of people together and cycle the distance.

The end station Buljeong has a very nice station building and it is also the location of another stamping station.

The route was very rural today with lots of small farms. We noticed that it was mainly the older women that were doing all the hard labour. Unfortunately, I think it is the same the world over, the older people are still working the farms and the younger people move away for better jobs and an “easier” life.

There were a few other touring cyclists out today. We were passed by one young Korean guy who had a Mohawk style haircut and the hair was braided – very strange. About two hours later he passed us again, he had stopped for something to eat and we chatted as we cycled. I asked him how long it would take him from Seoul to Busan – 4 days he answered and you – 8 to 10 days I said. “You must cycle faster” he suggested, “No we like to enjoy the ride”. We chatted for a few more kms and then he was away speeding his way past the beauty that we stop and enjoy along the way.

We also saw a young woman on an out and back ride with incredibly long hair. She stayed on the other side of the river as we crossed the river following the 4 Rivers sign.

When we got to the end of the Saejae Cycle Route we knew we had to be careful as there were two ways to go – upstream or downstream! The upstream route was an out and back of 70 kilometres. We followed the 4 Rivers sign and crossed the river. When we got to the other side of the river we knew we wanted to go south (downstream). The signs of course were in Korean and when we tried to match them with the words in the Passbook, only half the letters matched. We really didn’t want to back-track again. Ralf tried to ask at a house that was at this junction in the road, but no-one came to the door. Fortunately, we were able to flag down a car that was coming up the trail and ask which way to Busan. The driver pointed us in the right direction and then said we could go on the other side of the river as well. Which is the way young woman had gone.

We opted to stay on the side of the river that had the 4Rivers logo on the signs and headed south. Now you might ask why not follow the compass on the phone or the garmin. Well as we are following a river it often changes directions and we didn’t want to set off south and then find the river or the trail heading north.

The 4 Rivers Route is an amazing cycle route but it helps if you know the Korean alphabet. I read somewhere it is not that difficult to learn, as each Korean letter represents an equivalent English letter.

Once we were going in the right direction it was again a nice route to follow. We are now on the last river of the Four Rivers route the Nakdonggang River. We should be In Busan by the week-end if not before – unless of course we get lost again!!

On the outskirts of Sangju was a huge Bicycle Museum, unfortunately it is closed on Mondays. As we cycled away from it the young woman with the long hair arrived. I guess we had taken the shorter route, unless she had stopped for lunch.

We cycled past the Institute for Ecology and spotted this Confucian Temple. The Lecture Hall (the central building) was built in 1606 and was rebuilt here in 1992 by the Confucian Scholar Society.

The Air Force today were having fun in the sky. Jets flying over us every 10 to 15 minutes, very noisy disturbing our peaceful ride, but just maybe they are keeping the peace in South Korea.

We were supposed to stay in Sangju tonight but for some reason the route takes you away from the “City of Bicycles” into the countryside. By the time we realized we were heading away from the City we had cycled 15 kms past it. We carried on cycling along the path in hopes that we would come across a Town that had a motel.

The wind had taken my legs and I was getting tired and a little concerned that we had no idea where the next Town was. We stopped at one of the rest areas and had a peanut butter sandwich. I even suggested that if the worse came to the worse we could put on all of our clothes and sleep under one of the rest area shelters. We could cover ourselves with the sheets that we had with us and the bike cover. Ralf checked on maps.me, which hasn’t been brilliant finding our location, but he did find a motel only about 7kms away from where we were sitting having our sandwich, and close to the route.

We continued on our way, as were going along the river we spotted a flashing bicycle – with a sign that said it was a place to sleep, or so we thought. We figured that even if it was only a bike shop, we could ask how far it was to the nearest motel.

We found an amazing guesthouse – geared for cyclists. The rooms are very basic with traditional mats on the floors for the bed, with a heated floor and a good clean hot shower. There is a dining room where the owner makes dinner and an outdoor area with water and a coffee machine. There is a bike station where you can clean your bikes and two washing machines. The owner told Ralf we could do washing – I quickly got out of my cycle gear, and got Ralf naked and I threw everything we had in the washer.

At 5:00 p.m. we are sitting outside in the sun relaxing, writing the blog and planning our next few days. Dinner will be served at 6:00 p.m. not sure what is on offer but it will be traditional Korean food. I noticed that he had some Happy Water in the fridge, we should be o.k.   What is Happy Water? – So-Ju is distilled, vodka-like, rice liquor with high potency, but not the harsh Japanese Saki, this is very mild and enjoyable to drink. The label on the bottle has most of the text in Korean except Happy Water! So that is what we have been calling it, I don’t think you should drink too much of it as I am sure it would give you a heck of a hangover.

Back to the blog, after dinner of a soup with green spinachy stuff in it, rice, green beans with spicy peppers and tiny shrimp, buckwheat noodles, some kind of black bean with sesame seeds, cucumber with spicy red peppers and kimchi. A very nice dinner.

We have made our bed for the night – six sleeping mats on top of each other! The Koreans would use one each! The floor has under-floor heating and I think we will be toasty warm.