Journey Complete!!!

South Korea Stage 12 – Fri 13th Nov 2015 – Changwon to Busan (54 Km)

Weather: 13⁰C min – 17⁰C max, relentless, soaking rain

No route photos Changwon to Busan *** much too wet ***

Town PhotosTrip MapsGarmin
 

” It’s the first machine we master as children and the one we abandon when the seductions of the automobile take over “ ~ Colman McCarthy

Finishing the tour on Friday 13^th what else would you expect … pouring rain for the whole 54 Km journey from Changwon to Busan! Not only that, I did not get my fair quota of sleep last night because Changwon is a serious party town. All night I lay awake listening to the throbbing music and loud voices shouting in the street below, until it finally subsided about 4 am.

For breakfast I finished off the remainder of the bananas I bought at Bugok yesterday, a few dry saltine biscuits I had left, and a couple cups of coffee. I was in no hurry to set off because there is nothing worse than arriving in a town cold and wet, too early to check in to the hotel. It was also important that I didn’t ride around in circles looking for the hotel I had booked, so I spent time making sure I had pin-pointed the exact hotel location in Naver then carefully mapped this on my Garmin route. Because Naver uses only hanguel characters the best way to find a hotel is to paste the phone number into the Search field.

My route out of town took me along the very busy #1080 highway, but for the first 4 Km I was riding on a shared path with few pedestrians to worry about. Then I was faced with a massive problem in that the highway channelled into a tunnel that goes right under the mountain, with not even a shoulder to ride on and traffic so heavy you have to wait half an hour for a break in the traffic sufficient for you to dash across to the other side of the road. I decided to investigate the dirt track leading up the mountain, but after about 300 m it became impenetrable so I had to retrace my steps. What now? When I had a closer look inside the tunnel I could see at the side of the tunnel a ledge about 50 cm wide and raised about 1.5 m above the road level. After thinking about it for a few minutes I decided to give it a go (there was no other option) so I lifted my bike laden with the panniers up onto the ledge and started walking, and walking, and walking, careful to steer the bike on a straight line about 20 cm from the edge. The cars and lorries were thundering along beside me, the noise was terrifying, and the fumes were overpowering, but I was committed now so I had to just keep marching on and hope that the tunnel was not 10 Km long. Although I had not seen any signs forbidding bicycles from entering the tunnel, I was worried that it might be against the law so I turned off my tail light to be less conspicuous. No doubt you have heard the expression “light at the end of the tunnel” … how relieved I was to see it after tramping along the narrow ledge for what seemed like an hour! When I emerged out of the tunnel into the icy, wet weather, even riding on the shoulder of the extremely busy motorway in the torrential rain held no fears for me now.

Eventually I turned off the motorway onto the #14 freeway which, although nearly as busy, had a wide shoulder to ride on. Then with about 15 Km to go I struck a beautiful off-road cycle path which led most of the way into Busan. By this time my fingers and toes had lost all feeling, so it felt truly wonderful when my Garmin GPS directed me right to the door of the Home Hotel. I was so numb I would have gone into hypothermia if I had to spend any time looking for the hotel.

Imagine how I felt after a 30 minute hot shower, dressed in warm, dry clothes! Umbrella in hand, I was ready to explore the big, bustling city of Busan. With a metropolitan population of approximately 4.6 million, it is the second largest city in South Korea behind Seoul. The city is the cultural, educational and economic centre in the region, and it has the largest port city in South Korea.

My first impressions of Busan are favourable. What I love about the city is the hustle and bustle of the marketplace and people gathered around the fabulous street food stalls. I even tried a selection of battered squid, battered fish, battered kimchi, and a battered hard-boiled egg. Just delicious!

Sadly my amazing adventure has come to an end. Tomorrow my priority will be to visit all the bike shops to find a cardboard bike carton to pack my bike up for the Air Asia flight on Sunday from Busan to Sydney via Kuala Lumpur. Once I have succeeded I can relax and take some daylight photos of the interesting city of Busan. The forecast is for cloud but no rain, so here’s hoping.