May 8 - a hundred plus km through the hills to reach the Sea of Japan and overnight at Yeongdeok.
A cold start this morning - 3 degrees just before going for breakfast.
Across the river a few km from the hotel, misty at first until the sun began to warm things up, and we were into double digit temperatures soon after.
Then the climbing began
The Garmin computer advertised gradients above 15% Ursula made it part way up this one, then walked. With his bad knees, Rae finds walking pretty painful and slow so his solution was to to do his own switch-backs across the road as in this screen-shot of the GPS track. Amazing the sensitivity we can get from GPS - the road is two lanes wide with no significant shoulder. Although he could stay on the bike, that didn't mean he climbed any faster than Ursula could walk.
Along the way was a Turtle Temple - we had to take a couple of photos to send back to the Turtles riding group we are members of back home.
Those steep hills... there were ten of them on the route. We got past six of them when we took a lift on one of the support vans.
Yeongdeok is a fishing town and crab is big on menus here, also on the bridge into the part of town where our hotel was.
No surprise that it was a seafood dinner tonight - Rae here with Frieder with whom we have previously done TDA rides in Madagascar and the Himalayas.
May 9 - 90 km ride, first down the coast, then inland to Gyeongju for the second rest day
This coast was the site of American landings when they entered the Korean conflict in 1950. The North had already passed further south than this location. The idea of the landing here, in conjunction with the landings at Incheon on the other side of the Korean peninsula, was to cut the supply lines from the North.
A bit further south, we saw this blimp rise into the air and five parachutists step out of the basket and deploy chutes. Down would come the blimp and in minutes be back up again doing the same thing, Seems like a pretty efficient way of getting jump training - doesn't need an airfield or airplane.
Many towns were clusters of apartment buildings without the suburban sprawl we are more used to in North America. There seems to be an efficient network of public transit too, including inter-city busses and rail.
The beach at one large town with an exhibit of sand sculptures. Tall building behind us, a busy harbour just a few hundred metres ahead of us (to the right relative to the photo below) and a pristine beach, clean and safe for swimming.
Ursula and Eve - friend from back on our Vancouver-to-Inuvik bike ride ten years ago as well as a couple of other TDA rides.
The beach was back where the apartment buildings can be seen.
These statues and others along the bike path right beside the working boats, everything pristine.
and outside town along a river in an area that appears prone to high water, a smooth concrete path well segregated from motor traffic.
Great Blue Heron not too fussed with us cycling by.
Then we had some on-road cycling without bike lanes or even much shoulder. Traffic was patient and waited till it was clear before passing. In due course, we were back on a segregated bike path up on the river bank in Gyeongju and into the Hanok Village Hotel...
...with its traditional sleeping style... on the floor... a touch on the firm side although we slept quite well. Heated floor as well as air conditioning for comfort although reading Korean added some challenge.
Distance on ridden so far - 500 km - not bad in one week considering that that's twice our total mileage in the last six months.
Don't mind the blog being a bit behind where we are. Sitting on the floor wasn't all that conducive to writing and photo editing in Gyeongju. The rest will come.
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