Thursday 30th March 2017
With 5 days in the saddle, 270 miles covered and well over 1 mile of vertical climbed I decided a rest day was called for. Perhaps not the best thing to do on a glorious cycling weather day with more rain & cold forecast for the next few days 🙁
I started by sampling the hot pool spa in the basement of my Suanbo Sangnok Hotel. Getting in the 40-degree water reminded me of my hot tub that I left behind in the big move at home 🙁 I also sampled the 44-degree pool, salt sauna & some incredibly hot steamy sauna, but really sauna’s aren’t for me. Amazing to see all the Korean guys and their hairless bodies, strange when you think Korea is a cold country.
After some honey toast, I decided to bike around the village and fix the Open Street Map as for some reason the village was devoid of internal roads. 11 miles later I had cycled every road with my Etrex GPS and had the road data points. Back in the hotel I used Potlatch2 OSM editor to convert the traces into roads on the map 🙂 All it needs now are the hotels adding 🙂
In the afternoon I met up with Laura & Scott as they entered the village they had met up with Tim & Laura who are also biking to Busan on bikes they had rented in Seoul.
In the evening we all had a fine time in the restaurant I went to last night. They having the pheasant stew, a regional speciality 🙂
An excellent rest day – tomorrow it’s the two whopping big hills before hitting the next river down to Busan. Hopefully, I can find a cash machine in Mungyeong tomorrow that accepts UK cards. The Korean financial system like their mobile operators seems very backwards dealing with foreigners whether this is deliberate or just can’t be bothered who knows, but its very frustrating.
