Day Four – Jinha Beach to just outside of Ulsan


Today’s Distance / 今日の走行距離:51.70km
Time on bike / 走行時間:3h 26m
Average speed / 平均速度:15km/h
Total distance to date / 現在までの積算距離:126.9km
Money used / 予算使用:12,000KRW (NZ$20, US$12)

I woke up rearing to go this morning, so did about 20km before breakfast. Those 20km would take me through the most polluted area of Korea that I have seen so far. Acres upon acres of factories and heavy industry blew out masses of steam and other, nastier substances into the atmosphere. Smells included pesticides, solvents, and the smell you get when grinding steel.

After getting just far enough away from the greenhouse zone, I stopped for breakfast (Korean style rice balls). It was here that I had a snooze for about 30mins before continuing on.

Today I realised just how hopeless the Tourist’s Map of Korea that I have is (no offence to Hyun-ju who bought the map for me). The scale is just too big, and doesn’t give me a good idea of secondary roads. I was on near-expressway like roads all day today, and it wasn’t much like fun. I guess the upside is that the uphills are all much more gradual.

Getting out of Ulsan City was a nightmare. All the roads were very busy and did not have pedestrian crossings. I had to be rather assertive in my manuvering through traffic, The bonus with this bike is that it draws attention and drivers are more inclined to slow down and trail me just to have a gawk.

My campsite today couldn’t be better. Great view, river nearby (washed me and my clothes in it), and a convenient pagoda with raised floor on which to pitch my tent. It even has a roof, so even though it is raining my tent doesn’t get wet.

Washing me and my clothes / 服と自分を洗う

Today also included a two hour netcafe stint to upload photos and blog entries. Three days worth to be exact.

Weather is fantastic. Upper 20s to low 30s, but not at all humid.


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One thought on “Day Four – Jinha Beach to just outside of Ulsan

  • Daniel

    Nice to see that it's gotten better for you (compared to the first few days). But take care where you place your tent.

    From the "Corax – Adventures and expeditions" site (great site of a Swedish touring cyclist btw) at http://www3.utsidan.se/corax-e/ I know that it can be quite dangerous to place your tent in a riverbed. But I see everything went fine this time :-)

    I'm just back from 900km-6day trip through southern and middle Germany together with my dad (me carrying the whole luggage on my SMGT (with Speedbag and lowrider Ortlieb bags – unfortunately one of the bags not made for the lowrider broke when I turned into a steep curve at a high VELOcity, it now has a small hole :-( ))).

    So keep on and enjoy the riding, I'll enjoy my birthday today (and the tons of cake :-)

    Daniel