April 14, 2017

We did it we arrived in Busan, 643 kms.

If you look at the route today it looks as though we took another wrong turn, but no, the route actually took us in the big U shape to cross the river. If we had stayed on the opposite side of the river we could have missed this whole area. Of course that would have meant we would have missed the only tail-wind of the day!

A flat ride but head winds almost all the way.

 

We met Iru, a Spanish cyclist, who joined us for the last 40 kms. We lost her a couple of times but fortunately she caught up with us and I think we helped her.

Iru works in the Phillipines for Habitat for Humanity, she was struggling with the wind so we told her to sit on my back wheel and Ralf pulled us both all the way to Busan. At one stop she commented on how well Ralf and I cycle together, we were like one bike. Yep, when I draft Ralf I sit about a foot away from his back wheel. Even with me drafting Ralf it was a tough ride. As we arrived on the outskirts of Busan, a lot of cyclists were teasing us saying we should be cycling the other way.

Iru said to one group, \”Incheon to Busan\”, their teasing stopped and we got thumbs up from all of them.

The infrastructure for this bike route has been amazing. 

Even when they are putting in a new road or overpass, they ensure the bike path is passable.  At this point they put in a temporary floating bridge.

We entered the outskirts of Busan 20kms away from the end of the ride.  The City is huge, it is the second largest City in South Korea and has a population of 3.417 million.

At the end of the ride we took photos of each other and then Iru and I went into the Cultural centre to get the certificate and medal.

Iru had not bought the Passbook but had stamped a notebook. She was pleased to be able buy a passbook and get all of the stamps transferred into the book. They also stamped Ralf’s book with the missing stamps and gave us the three stamps at the end of the passbook to show that we had completed the Cross-country route, the Saejae route (mountain route) and the Namhangang River.

While we were getting the passbook certified, Ralf was chatting to another cyclist outside who was from Kuwait.  Mohammad had cycled the 4 Rivers and was planning to cycle the East Coast Route.  He said that cycling in Kuwait was not nice, but Oman and Jordan were good countries to cycle.

Iru was going to catch a bus today but after the windy ride she decided to stay at the same hotel as we had booked, then head up to Seoul tomorrow.

After we got to the hotel that Rick and Julia had recommended to us, we were a little surprised at the hotel – it was a love motel!! With lovely flashing hearts!

The owner was a little confused about our relationship. Ralf and Iru had gone in to the hotel together, then when Iru and I were checking out the rooms he was confused as to whether we wanted a two bed-room or a room with an extra room. We explained to him that we weren’t together, but just cycling together, he smiled and gave us the choice of rooms.

Iru and I had decided that we were going to eat as soon as we got our bags in the room. Again I slipped into my skirt and Ralf changed into his trousers and we found a restaurant close by. I had picked a vegetable and mushroom noodle dish, but it came with fake crab, so I was a little concerned that it might have more seafood, but it didn’t. The food was good and so was the company.

We are in a suburb of Busan that is surrounded by shops and outlet malls. We are also close to the bus station and a train station. Tomorrow we will find out about the bus or train back to Seoul, and have a tour around Busan.