Matt and I head our separate ways, south and north, after eating some breakfast together and swapping details. Soon after I meet a young couple from the US also going the opposite direction and we shared tips on the road ahead for each of us that day. they tell me about the cycling they did in Japan before Korea and talk excitedly about rabbit island. Their bikes are vintage racers and it reassures me that the kind of bike you have doesn’t matter too much, at least in the flat well surfaced parts of the world like these.
My route hugged the river closely in the first half of the day. A deer crossed my track as I followed a path through some tall grass. I’ve been cycling with music in my ears most of the trip and I’ve kind of forgotten how quiet it is when I stop. Though my bike is making a fair amount of noise – the panniers occasionally knocking on the frame, and the rim grazing the brake pads which need adjusting. All this must have given me away to the deer from some distance and scrambling for my camera like I did was probably a waste of time.
I pass some sports fields and an abandoned house. It looks like it was someone’s home, at some point, but now the ceilings are fallen through and the furniture has been ripped apart. Blood red paint had been splashed on the walls as well as handprints and a few words in Korean can’t read. I walk around a little inside and take some photos but leave before too long as it starts to remind me of the abandoned church in season one of True Detective.
I reach the city of Gumi at 1pm and take a long lunch break. It’s the largest city I’ve seen since I left Seoul. I buy a coffee from a second floor cafe and some instant noodles from the 7-11 below. I eat them outside next to a small bike workshop and start chatting to Lee, a young Korean guy who is curious and excited about my trip. He asks to take a selfie with me and kindly gives me his number so I have an ’emergency contact’ Korea.
I get a nagging pain in my knee which began in the middle of the morning and seems to have got worse by resting it at lunch. I fish out some ibuprofen from the very bottom of my left pannier. The pills are bright orange, industrial strength stuff (600mg) that I bought in Guatemala. As it kicks in it begins to help. I also raise my saddle so my knee bends only as much as necessary.
It’s still painful at the end of the day but other than stretching more I’m not sure what I can do right now. It’s probably just the strain of 50 miles a day repeated, something my body isn’t used to even if my mind had adjusted, and hopefully it will sort itself out given time.
I’ve been collecting passport stamps still though as the miles and days have passed i’ve become less focused on them, and i’m certain I’ve missed a fee of them anyway. Still, the checkpoints provide some kind of motivation and offer crop up at moments when you feel like you need it.
I reach 50 miles again and think about somewhere to camp. I’m on the outskirts of Daegu, the country’s third largest city and I can hear the traffic building up as I approach. I should have stopped about 5 miles before whilst it was perfectly quiet but was keen to keep going. But now if I carry on any further I’ll be hard pushed to find anywhere quiet at all . Luckily I come across two pagodas, a slightly different style to the one I camped on last night, but in the best spot I’ll find this close to the city. I pitch my tent on one and quickly cook my food.
It’s not exactly subtle but they seem almost too perfect for this purpose, and no one really seems to mind too much as long as you leave the place like you found it.
Just as I’ve finished eating and cleaning up two guys stop on the pagoda next to me. Their English is basic but they inspect my bike and tent as I talk. I describe how I cook my food and how I camp and they give me a big thumbs up. The weather’s getting worse and I’m glad to have the shelter of the pagoda above and below me as it starts to rain. Its not too cold but overcast and fairly uninspiring. I get into my tent and i’m asleep before its dark. I’m beginning to realise how lucky I was with the weather the past week, and hope th
at I wake up to a brighter view tomorrow.
Playlist
Bob Dylan – Idiot Wind, Diiv – Dopamine, Sun Kil Moon – Lost Verses
Map (via Strava)
