When we left our campsite 2 days ago, it had been a bit windy during the night, and the morning was still breezy but OK. It had been a good night in a nice spot, and we enjoyed our breakfast with a fresh cup of coffee. The day started really well, and also once we were on our bicycles it was truly enjoyable riding. There was still quite a bit of wind however, and sometimes it was blowing in our back, but also gradually more and more we had some headwind. Our coffee break was still fantastic, on a nice beach - but with a lot of wind playing around with our gas fire. When we continued our journey, the wind was becoming very heavy and mostly against our direction. At times, we just couldn't really move forward, and sometimes wind gusts were almost blowing us from our bicycles.
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Leisurely breakfast after a windy night
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So by late noon, and after only 34km, we hit a nice campsite near Naksan beach, and decided to first have a picnic lunch there and if the wind didn't improve, just pitch our tent. Our destination for that day was not even that far away, it would have been another 12km or so, but it was just not pleasant and even a bit dangerous cycling. We wanted to either go to Seoraksan National Park or stay in Sokcho; but because of the wind, and because all accommodation seemed still fully booked due to the Golden Week, it just made so much more sense to just stay where we were, and enjoy the afternoon - which is exactly what we did!
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| View from the tent; the weather was still quite nice and sunny, but it was very windy making it a bit cold to sit outside |
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| An example of a fenced beach; most of the coast is fenced, and it seems to be more and more the case as we are getting closer to North Korea. |
Yesterday we had a very short day, only to Chokso, which was 12km. The weather was much better, though still windy. We left late, after some good time on the beach for breakfast with even 2 coffees - OMG - and arrived in Sokcho around noon. After a nice simple lunch, we checked into our guesthouse and for the first time in a week, could enjoy a nice shower in a proper bathroom, in our own room!!! We had some good chill time in the sun on the beach, had a fantastic seafood BBQ, and then an amazing night in a real bed, in a real room 😁
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| Koreans enjoying beach time on a Sunday afternoon, with a speedboat doing some fun rounds... |
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| A very yummy seafood BBQ! (and a subject with a Korean style haircut) |
It's in fact more or less the end of the cycling tour in Korea. From here we'll take the bus back to Seoul and have BikeLy replace our chain + gears, because the wear is becoming too much now and it's time to change them. We had hoped to be able to do the entire trip with it, but that is clearly simply too much. From Seoul we'll then travel to Busan, where we take the ferry to Fukuoka, Japan! But before leaving to Seoul tomorrow, we had a day out to Seoraksan National Park today. It was a park we had on our wish list for our trip in Korea from the beginning, and we heard a lot of good things about it too. So we took a local bus to the park and made 2 great hikes: to the rocks (Ulsanbawi) and to the falls (Biryong). It was definitely worth the trip, a very beautiful park, and it felt so good to be immersed in nature - we had clearly missed this.
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| Seoraksan park entrance |
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| Temple door in Seoraksan |
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| Buddhist writings on the wall |
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| Magnificent rock formations of Ulsanbawi, a bit over 800m high, reached after a nice hike. (Notice also the haze; it was still clear in the morning but it seems a haze is coming up in the area now) |
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| On the way to Biryong waterfall, it's amazing how these trees manage to survive on the steep rock walls |