Days 64 – 67 Seoul, Seoraksan, Incheon

October 27th – 30th. Seoul, Seoraksan and Incheon. 72km

A couple of days off the bikes over in Seoraksan National Park. We based ourselves in Sokcho city, about a 3 hour bus ride from Seoul. We camped on the beach for two nights and travelled into the park to do a couple of hikes. It was raining heavily when we left Seoul, but the weather was great for our time there, if a little windy and getting chilly overnight. A few photos:

We got back into Seoul on Thursday afternoon and spent a few hours looking around the city before going back to Kung’s house for a delicious home cooked dinner.

Friday morning was bright, but very cold. We had to wrap up for our ride out towards Incheon to complete the 4 Rivers passport and get to the ferry port. It was a simple ride following the cycle path but we had quite a headwind which sapped the energy and the warmth. It was about 55km to get to the final stop on the path, Ara Sea Lock, so we stamped our passports and ordered our medals.

From Ara, we had to head south down to Dong Incheon port. We weren’t fully sure where the port was, and it turned out to be slightly further than we’d expected when we just wanted to get into a motel to get stuff sorted ready for leaving tomorrow. After finding the ferry company’s office and stopping in to make sure of our reservation tomorrow, we eventually found a nice enough hotel and could relax for a while. We then headed down the subway for a few stops to meet with Brad Kirby, who is the main man when it comes to cycling in Korea. He’s a Canadian who’s lived here for 10 years and cycled every kilometre of the cycle paths here many times. He’s been invaluable with advice and info and is kindly sending our 4 Rivers medals back to the UK for us. If you’re planning a cycling trip here (which you totally should) I recommend you get in touch with him – Korea by Bike.  He also gave us a nice pack of halloween candy to snack on over the next few days cycling. What a gent. Cheers Brad.

Then it was out for a final Korean barbeque dinner and back to the hotel for an early night ready for the boat tomorrow. China. This will be the start of the real adventure. As our mate, cyclist and adventurer Jeremy Scott said – we may as well be taking a boat to another planet. We’re really looking forward to China, and can’t wait to get on with it.