1. Intro
2. Recap of week 125 to 137
3. Getting ready to take on the Korean bike paths
4. Appreciating the orderly culture, all the public toilets and gazebo camping
5. The Mongolian opposite and all the convenience stores your heart can desire
6. Following the 4 Rivers path to Mokpo
7. My winter island detour escape to Jeju
8. Looping back to Seoul to celebrate New Years
9. Completing the Grand Slam and doing a winter break in Busan

Crazy about the idea of collecting bike stamps in a bike passport, I set out to follow all of the South Korean certified paths along rivers, lakes and hilly mountains. It was a success and I’m the proud owner of a Grand Slam medal. I looped around the country taking a detour to chilled out Jeju Island where I walked through some surreal lava tubes. I cherished camping in gazebos and enjoyed the comfort of orderly South Korea with all the clean public toilets. The country is densely populated and filled with convenience stores which have been my daily hideout where I took refuge from the freezing temperatures and filled up my stomach on instant noodles. All in all I spent almost three months in this country with the last month being a break, both physically and mentally, from biketouring.

With just a few days left on my Chinese visa I boarded the ferry from Qingdao to South Korea. Korea was going to be a visa free haven where I could stay for 90 days and take a breather which was exactly what I did.

There were several reasons for maxing out my entire visa free period of stay in Korea. One important reason was the US visa interview at the end December which I had worked so hard to get. Another good reason was to divy up the winter months between Korea and Japan so I could head straight for the US at the beginning of spring. A final very good reason was that I badly wanted to follow the bike path system of Korea.

Celebrating that I finally was in a country with a beneficial land size to visa duration ratio I decided to complete as many of the organized bike paths as possible. Connecting all the bike paths without the least amount of backtracking proved to be a bit tricky. I started out following the 4 Rivers bike path from Seoul south to the center of the country and then heading west to Gunsan. From Gunsan I followed the coast down to Mokpo. This coastal stretch was off any organized bike paths.

After Mokpo I was once again onto the 4 Rivers path heading east towards Busan. On my way I decided to do a quick detour to Jeju Island with a ferry from Samcheonpo. I spent a lot longer on the island than planned. It was such a chill place to be after spending so much time inland.

I took the ferry back to Samcheonpo since the ferry from Jeju to Busan didn’t sail during the winter months. Once I reached the outskirts of Busan I headed straight north again to finalize the last part of the 4 Rivers path which for me would end in Andong.

Getting so far I figured I might as well go for the last set of bike paths on the east coast which ultimately would lead me to a Grand Slam certificate for completing all the certified bike paths in Korea. After getting to the coast at Yeongdeok I cycled all the way up north to the DMZ and the border with North Korea passing Sokcho on my way.

At this point, I was done cycling in South Korea. It was an easy choice to take the bus from Sokcho to Busan. Also, I felt I deserved a winter break after spending so many months on the road. Winters are mild in Busan and I found myself a room in a shared apartment taking three very nice and relaxing weeks before boarding the ferry to Fukuoka in Japan.

South Korea! The land of K-POP, kimchi and Squid Game. Also, on a more serious note, well known for its sad history being a divided country with a troubled relationship to their counterpart in the north. Yes, I’ve certainly heard about this country but never really considered it as a travel destination.

South Korea was initially just going to be a stepping stone on my journey east. A visa free heaven where I could stay put for a while, rest up and plan my next moves. Then someone told me about their biketouring travels along an extensive network of bike paths. You could get a passport for your bike and collect stamps from old fashioned red phone booths. If you collect enough bike stamps and complete different collections of bike paths you get a certificate and a medal. Complete all of them and you get the much coveted Grand Slam medal. I love a challenge and I was excited about how they gamify biketouring. What a great way of promoting bike travels. Game on!

After arriving in Incheon with the ferry from China I went straight for the bike certification center. Incheon was the beginning of the main cross country bike path to Busan and this was one of the places where you could buy the bike passport.

The passport was beautifully laid out with a graphical representation of the routes and specified space for each of the stamps you could collect along the route. You also got a big fold out map marking all the different paths getting you to all the corners of the country. For the first time since beginning this journey, I didn’t plan a route. I was just going to sit back and then let the fantastic system of Korean bike paths guide my way.

There is a ferry to Japan from Busan. And I wanted to go to Japan. So at one point I just needed to end up at the ferry port. There was a cross country bike path I could follow that would end up in Busan so I figured I’d just follow that one. It would take me through Seoul to begin with.

Thanks to the bike paths I could easily cycle through the capital city of South Korea. It’s a large city with a lot of traffic but the bike paths made it into a joyful ride. Soon I started to notice all the public toilets. I never had to cycle long before one would appear. These public toilets would always be clean and working. When I looked around I started noticing how clean everything was. Going into a supermarket or convenience store everything would be neatly arranged on shelves and in some cases if they were out of stock they would put a friendly sign telling you that they were really sorry for running out of this particular item. People would line up in queues and respect your private space. They would politely greet and bow and never would they raise their voices to complain or show anger (that’s at least what I experienced). Everything was just so orderly in South Korea.

Finding a camping spot would also turn out to function in a very orderly fashion. There’s this thing called a gazebo. A gazebo is a pavilion structure often octagonal in shape and built in a park, garden or spacious public area. They have open sides and provide shelter from sun and rain. As with the public toilets you’ll find these everywhere. During the day, I would cycle past over a dozen each day and they became my preferred place to pitch my tent. When it rained I was dry. During summer time they provide some crucial shade. They have benches where you can cook and eat your food. And they have a wooden floor elevated from the moist ground so you can keep your tent clean. What’s not to love here.

As I made my way down south I was thinking about how comfortable it was to biketour in this country. I followed quiet bike paths along rivers and valleys. There were clean public toilets everywhere and gazebos for camping. This was all so nice and convenient.

In the beginning I followed the cross country bike path leading directly to Busan. It followed some really nice rivers and everywhere I looked there were mountains. They are not tall mountains but rather steep hills. Those steep hills also mean that it becomes increasingly difficult to find flat areas to build houses. South Korea is one of the most densely populated countries. The exact opposite to Mongolia. Most people in South Korea live in tall apartment blocks but I also learned that you are never far away from a house. There is very little remote nature escapes in this country although there are plenty of day hikes to be done.

One good aspect of this was that it was really nice always having a city or town or village within reach. There was always a mini-market or convenience store nearby. It never took me long to find a place where I could sit down and grab a coffee. When it started to rain I could easily find shelter. When it was too cold I could quickly find a place to warm up.

And all of the convenience stores are a whole story in itself. I’m used to having a 7Eleven at my street corner back home in Copenhagen. That was something I considered as a big thing. But in South Korea you don’t only have 7Eleven. There is also Nice to CU, GS25 and eMart24. A simple search on Naver Maps (the Korean version of Google Maps) for Nice to CU would result in countless hits. The same would be for the other brands. There are all the convenience stores your heart can desire. They all have a wide range of ready made meals like kimbap, sandwich and burger. Of course there is also a BIG selection of instant noodles. There will always be a microwave and a tap with hot water for your instant noodles. Often they have a small table and a chair where you can sit and eat your hot meal. When you have traveled in remote areas you really come to appreciate this level of supply and selection.

Much of the bike paths were following a river and would not go through the bigger cities. If you wanted to visit one you had to divert from the route to swing by the more urban areas. In that way the intensity of the population density would diminish a bit.

On the flipside it bothered me a bit that I could never camp in a place with complete solitude. It was not so bad after all but when I had been used to camping on the open plains of Kazakhstan and Mongolia I really missed the 100% undisturbed nights. The location of the gazebos helped somewhat in the sense that they were located in between towns to act as a resting stop. I guess I could have also found a secluded cove or beach but since I was touring this country in the middle of winter that was not really an option.

Guess all of that really defined my impression for the first week of biketouring South Korea. By now I’d reached the center of the country and if I wanted to follow the group of bike paths called 4 Rivers I had to turn towards the western coast following the Geum river and then do a coastal part outside of the bike path system down to Mokpo. Since I had a vague ambition for the Grand Slam I was going for it.

Also I wanted to mix up some of the scenery. It would be too bad if I didn’t get to follow some of the rugged and dramatic coastal landscape in this country. Doing the Cross Country route would only give me inland scenery of mountains, forests, rivers and lakes but South Korea has such a long coastline which I wanted to experience.

After finishing the Geum river I was at the coastal city of Gunsan and cycled out to the Saemangeum Seawall which is a gorgeous seawall drive far into the ocean. It connects some beautiful islands to the mainland and I passed some majestic bridges. On my way down to Mokpo I hugged the coast as much as possible, seeing some great wetlands and tidal flats on my way. The tidal forces on the west coast are significant and a couple of times a day it exposes large mud areas. I camped in gazebos perched on hill cliffs and on small rocky outcrops in the water on beaches - all with great ocean views.

I was getting content with the natural beauty of the country despite it being so densely populated. If I were here in summer time I would have taken some time to visit some of the mountain parks. In deep winter it gets super cold inland and the parks get covered in snow so that would have to be for another time.

I was actually surprised how cold it would get in South Korea. Already I had experienced minus 15 degrees and I didn’t mind some warmth. Jeju Island is a big and busy tourist destination in the summer and also sees a fair amount of travelers during winter. It is also farther south than the mainland and the climate is more hospitable during winter. By now I was also dead set on doing the entire bike path system and circling Jeju Island was one of the paths.

In winter time there is no ferry from Busan to Jeju Island. I took the ferry from Samcheonpo to Jeju. The island was a lot more relaxed than I had imagined. There were a lot of roads on the coast with good views of the ocean. I camped on many beaches and seaside gazebos. Jeju Island is also home to South Korea’s tallest mountain which is Hallasan (1,947 m). It was covered with snow when I was there which made a stunning backdrop to the coastal scenery.

There are a ton of museums on Jeju and someone told me it was because locals would get a tax break if they had a museum. I don’t know if that’s a true story but there are many strange museums on the island which certainly are worth a visit. You get big temples as well to visit but the main price of them all was the lava tubes. Jeju Island is a volcanic island and way back in time when lava was flowing from the Hallasan mountain it formed tubes underground. And on Jeju Island you get to walk inside one of these tubes. The tube itself becomes spectacular when you think about that hot lava once poured through this snake-like cave. You see how it melted the rock around it and in the end formed a level surface to walk on when it cooled down. When it’s your first lava tube it is an incredible experience.

Jeju Island had so much to offer. I stayed here far longer than planned. Over a week just chilling on beaches and watching sunsets and sunrises. But all good things come to an end. December was well on its way and I had an appointment with the US Embassy end of the month so it was time to move north and complete the loop around the mainland.

Back to Samcheonpo with the ferry and a quick swingby in Busan. I went inland again following the Nakdong river up the center of the country where I had turned west to Gunsan. I’d seen all the scenery before so it was not so thrilling to cycle up again. The idea of cycling away from your destination in Busan was a bit weird but I had the east coast route to finish up.

I cycled north and passed Andong before I was at the east coast. A beastly cold from the north had arrived and I was sleeping in minus 20 degrees. In the morning my bicycle was all frozen and I couldn’t use gears or brakes. I was determined to make progress. I pushed the bicycle up the hills and dragged it down again. I only cycled the flat parts which there were not many of. I perhaps could have enjoyed the scenery a bit more but I was dressed up like a mummy and my face covered to such a degree that it blocked much of my views. Over those two days I only did 80 km which taking all into consideration was pretty good.

They say the east coast is the most beautiful but I didn’t really see that. Yes, it was a bit more dramatic in terms of the height of the cliffs but I was first amazed when I approached Sokcho. Finally the temperatures had risen enough for my bike to function properly again. From some very hilly days with a lot of elevation meters I now got to cycle on more flat roads next to beaches and coming closer to Sokcho I saw the mountains of the Seoraksan National Park - the Korean answer to the Swiss Alps. From here I was really close to the North Korean border and the DMZ.

I left my panniers in Sokcho and did the last 50 km towards the DMZ. Some of the coast was cladded in barbed wire and swimming was not allowed in many places. Signs told people to call a hotline if they spotted any suspicious sights in the water like a submarine. It was evident that I was getting closer to North Korea. I cycled as far north as I could and 10 km from the DMZ I was told to turn around. You could only go further up to the DMZ in a vehicle and you had to register yourself with a passport that I didn’t bring along.

That was the end of the line for me. I had successfully completed all of the certified bike paths in South Korea. It was time to grab a winter break. I was physically and mentally exhausted after being on the road for so many months. I really had not taken any longer breaks since I was back home applying for the Chinese visa. Since then I have crossed China and Mongolia, a huge part of the Asian continent.

New Years was just around the corner. My family came to celebrate New Year’s eve with me. It was really nice being reunited with loved ones. I promised them that this would be the last Christmas and New Years away from home. I will be back next summer. The interview at the US Embassy was a success and I got the US visa.

I took the bus back to Busan and found a nice place to stay on Yeongdo island. I rented a room in an apartment and now I sit and plan my next steps. I’ll go to Japan and do the last winter months there. With my flashy new US visa I want to try on a coast-to-coast tour following Route 66 as much as possible. It will be epic. Due to the lay of the land much of the Rockies in the western and central part of the US is not passable before late spring. So I’ll take it slow and take time to explore Japan properly and come mid-April I’ll be in Los Angeles.

• journal south-korea biketouring

biketouring mongolia

2023-10-12 | blog

Biketouring journal covering Mongolia and the roads from Khovd Aimag to Zamiin-Udd via Ulaanbaatar. I traveled on my bicycle over the rolling steppes witnessing the traditional life of the nomadic herders living in their white felt tents (ger) a...

biketouring route kazakhstan

2023-08-16 | itinerary

Biketouring route description for Kazakhstan covering the roads from Kuryk to Beyneu via Beket-Ata with a crossing of the Ustyurt plateau and from Almaty to Zharkent cycling over the Assy Plateau. The article includes GPX files and an interactiv...