Inveterate dabbler in business, travel, gadgets & life

Biking Jeomchondong to Nakdongni via Sangju on LifeDay 25,450

Saturday April 1st 2017
50 years anniversary of leaving home and coming to live in Cambridge for 3 years 🙂

It was a stay or should I go start to the day 🙁 the rain started to clear so I thought I should go. I’m finding it hard to know how long to stay in Korea as I’ve no idea how long it will take to bike upto Tokyo once I arrive in Japan from Busan.

The added incentive today was to visit the Sangju Bicycle Museum an idea floated by Scott & Laura so at 10.30 I said my farewells to Vic & Tim in one of the lovely patisseries that seem to excel in Jeomchondong and set off on the cycleway.\

View from top of 30% hill

The first 24km was a beautiful custom made cycleway at one of the certification stamp places I chatted to a Korean guy with an enormous iPad strapped to his handlebars been used for navigation etc. A bit of overkill I thought 🙂

Just after 24km the route goes onto an inclined boardwalk then does an 180-deg turn with a set of steps on the corner, which I think if you can lug your bike OK probably;y best to use! as the boardwalk then turns into a concrete road with a 30-degree incline for some distance 🙁 a little bit tough to push a laden bike up.

Sangju Bicycle Museum
Sangju Bicycle Museum

At the top, I still couldn’t find any mention of the museum on any of my maps in English so thinking it had Sangju in its name that’s where I headed off to – BAD DECISION In Sangju still no luck. In the end, I asked a student who took me to the library where I discovered the museum was a few hundred yards further on from where I left the 4 Rivers Trail 🙁 🙁

Once at the museum I quickly updated Open Street Map to show the museum position in English 🙂 so anyone using maps.me etc etc will easily find it.

Wooden bike frame

The museum itself is very spacious and grand with outdoor & indoor biking activities for kids. The exhibits are OK but almost 100% Korean as is all the explanatory text. Whilst there I bumped into Scott  & Laura who had found it more conventionally. We agreed to meet up in Nakdongni the path once again became quite hilly and I finally made it in the pouring rain in just over a hour.

The Motel known by its number 3F is OK, my cheapest place yet! and even has a full length towel, the first in Korea 🙂 Eating out was a big disappointment for me as this is a big beef growing area. I eventually had two eggs a bit of rice and some beer.

Strava says I did 47 miles of which well over 16 was messing about going to Sangju 🙁

The pictures are here

Biking in the hills between Sunabo to Jeomchon on lifeday 25.449

The climbs

Geoff Jones on his bike
Setting of

I woke up to the sound of pouring rain 🙂 However, by the time  I had eaten my honey toast for breakfast and chatted to the others the rain had cleared up, although the forecast was still pretty dire for the day.

This is the 4 Rivers Trail big hill day 🙂 where you cross the watershed between the mighty Han and Naktong river systems. The hills were nowhere as bad as folks made out, virtually all the riding is on the old wide main road which is now totally deserted as all the traffic uses the new tunnels & dual carriageway. The gradient is around 5 to 6% with only a few small spots at 10% so really it’s just a grind 🙂 on clearer days the views must be fantastic although quite why every viewing platform is surrounded by tall trees is a bit of a mystery. The cafe on the top is OK too.

Todays empty wide cycleway

The main difficulty for me was the cold, especially on the long descent. I ended up diving into the first coffee shop at the bottom and standing in front of the AC drinking a hot chocolate 🙂

Just after Buljeongdong there is a diversion in place so I had to leave the Naktong River and do another 200 feet of climbing! before finally hitting Mungyeong / Jeomchon. After some effort I finally found the KB bank, opposite Paris Baguette, that had a Global Service cashpoint so I could restock up on 10,000WON notes 🙂

Be careful not to turn right!

I found the Motel Olleh near the station offering a good price so I messaged the others thats where I would be. A short while later Tim & Viv showed up, followed several hours later by Scott & Laura.

The rain held of until the evening so the riding was in the dry. Strava says I did 36 miles and 2,855 feet of climbing. The photos of the day are here 

The town is quite pleasant with lots of eateries just a pity about the weather! I’ve now added the diversion and other stuff to OSM.

 

A lazy day in Suanbo Hot Springs on lifeday 25,448

Thursday 30th March 2017

With 5 days in the saddle, 270 miles covered and well over 1 mile of vertical climbed I decided a rest day was called for. Perhaps not the best thing to do on a glorious cycling weather day with more rain & cold  forecast for the next few days 🙁

I started by sampling the hot pool spa in the basement of my Suanbo Sangnok Hotel. Getting in the 40-degree water reminded me of my hot tub that I left behind in the big move at home 🙁 I also sampled the 44-degree pool, salt sauna & some incredibly hot steamy sauna, but really sauna’s aren’t for me. Amazing to see all the Korean guys and their hairless bodies, strange when you think Korea is a cold country.

OSM before
OSM with my edits

After some honey toast, I decided to bike around the village and fix the Open Street Map as for some reason the village was devoid of internal roads. 11 miles later I had cycled every road with my Etrex GPS and had the road data points. Back in the hotel I used Potlatch2 OSM editor to convert the traces into roads on the map 🙂 All it needs now are the hotels adding 🙂

Viv, Geoff, Tim, Scott, Laura

In the afternoon I met up with Laura & Scott as they entered the village they had met up with Tim & Laura who are also biking to Busan on bikes they had rented in Seoul.

In the evening we all had a fine time in the restaurant I went to last night. They having the pheasant stew, a regional speciality 🙂

An excellent rest day – tomorrow it’s the two whopping big hills before hitting the next river down to Busan. Hopefully, I can find a cash machine in Mungyeong tomorrow that accepts UK cards. The Korean financial system like their mobile operators seems very backwards dealing with foreigners whether this is deliberate or just can’t be bothered who knows, but its very frustrating.

 

Biking Yeoju-Si to Suambo on Lifeday 25,447

Geoff Jones reflection

Wednesday 29 March 2017

Another great day of biking this time with added sun!

20% ramp down by the weir

I pedalled into town to get breakfast at Paris Baguette which was pretty busy. As I was munching away an American couple, Laura & Scott from Ohio, sat at the adjacent table nearly two hours later after a very interesting chat, they are a couple where its much simpler to ask where haven’t you been? I left 🙂 They are also biking to Busan but ride somewhat shorter days than me, but we exchanged numbers to keep in touch.

It was an excellent day for biking the temperature had risen and the sun was out. I was soon in my short sleeved shirt 🙂 To begin with it was following the rivers on an incredibly smooth path, the only problem was the short 20% circular descent from the barrier 🙁

Why don’t we use these on bridges in the UK? eg Elizabeth way in Cambridge

I tried taking some selfies for a header with the Canon but it proved difficult as all the fences all have slightly pointed tops on the posts 🙁 The miles of fences interestingly are made of some hard plastic.

The afternoon peace was broken frequently with all the F16’s flying around Jungwon AFB although I was amused with all the fishermen in their comfy chairs around the neighbouring ponds

Armchair fishing

After Chungju, where I probably should have stopped, the path deteriorated to a bumpy track as I guess lost folks would go through the town. I kept going enticed by the hot springs on the map. The hills soon started and I getting concerned in the fading light. Eventually after nearly 100km I arrived in Suanbo which is much bigger than maps.me shows – I need to stay and update the Open Street Map I think.

After some haggling, I splurged a little on the Suanbo Sangnok Hotel which has a thermal spa in the basement 🙂

Strava says I did 61.2 miles and 1920 feet of climbing most of which is in the last 10 miles!

All the pictures are here