My time in South Korea is nearing its end. Its been a bit of magical mystery tour over the past 20 days, sometimes knowing where I am going, other times, absolutely no clue! Sounds like my usual cycling holidays.
Today, I had to find my way back to the Ara Bike way, find a safe way to cross one of the many bridges (most aren't friendly to bikes) to get back to the south side of the Ara River and onto the ferry to take me back to the Airport
We arrived at the bridge which had a lift to the top, but it didn't look in very good condition. But just as I was about to push the button, the door sprang open and a cyclist emerged. OK it works, so in we went, pressed 2, crossed fingers and slowly we ascended. I was happy when the door opened and we were indeed, on the bridge. Just short ride, we were at the other side of the river and again, the lift worked and deposited us onto the south side.
I began to remember sections that I had ridden on, back on that first day on mainland South Korea. Yep, there was the place I had the flat tyre, safely passed and on until the end of the path. There was a sign saying to the Incheon Airport, so we turned left and headed into the scary maze of Incheon city.
Coming from this direction proved to be much easier than starting near the ferry end. I had hoped to ride this way in the beginning, but had gotten lost first up. I had a small break at an e Mart (corner store and cafe - not an electrical shop as I first thought!) and after a bit of a dodgey detour around some roadworks, we arrived at the ferry terminal, in time to see the ferry backing out to sea.
Ah well... It was hot and humid, with not a breath of moving air. I found a shady spot to wait. There was a lady selling slushies, so I went and bought a strawberry one. After a couple of brain freeze moments, it began to warm up and become drinkable!
An hour later, there was some action and I bought a ticket for me and Hennie (3,500kw = $4) and soon the ferry arrived, quickly unloaded a couple of cars, then we were heading down the steep ramp to get on board.
I had been befriended by a gentleman, who could speak quite good English. He was a local of Jung-gu, which is the proper name for the island that Incheon airport is on. I think he was associated with the Museum on the island, as he had brochures in English, which he gave to me. Apparently, his family have lived on the island for 8 generations and were salt farmers. I had seen a couple of salt pans on my 1st day, leaving the island. When they decided to build the airport, they demolished a small town, built high-rise apartment blocks for the locals, and dimished the size of his family's salt mines. He had worked with his father as a young man. He was a bit younger than me, but he didn't seem too bitter about, more philosphical... that's progress I guess. Anyways, it was interesting to get a glimpse of the history of the island.
While we were waiting for the ferry, he went and bought himself an iced coffee from the same lady I bought the slushie from. He came back with 2! Apparently the lady had made one for me too - free! A coffee at 2pm is not usually best for me, but a free one! anytime! I think it actually helped make it all the way to my bed for the night!
After leaving the ferry, I rode past the Museum and was going to go inside, but unfortunately, it was closed on Monday.
So onwards we rode. There was about 15kms to ride to the airport and the bike path started out quite shady. It was so humid and in the low 30's and although cyclists love a day without wind, a gentle headwind would have been welcome!
The bike path ran right along the edge of the sea, but a 1.5m wall blocked any cooling sea breezes anyways. I stopped at a couple of the mud flats, but couldn't spy any unusual waders or water birds, just egrets, herons, sea gulls - big and small and a few cormorants bobbing around in the sea.
I had to stop a couple of times, just to lay down in the shade and cool off, before heading ever onwards. The last 10km were on a dead straight, concrete pathway with absolutely no shade at all. So hot and exhausting and I was running out of water, so I was really pleased to turn onto the road towards the hotel.
I was a tad nervous about my accommodation for the next 3 nights. After booking it on-line, I recieved a text saying, due to Covid, they no longer have staff in situ. They gave me the room number, password for the keypad and said just enter by front door, go to the 7th floor in the lift, and you'll be fine! Unfortunately, there was a No-cancellation policy on this booking, otherwise I would have looked for somewhere else.
So i was mightily relieved, when I easily found the correct building. I parked Hennie outside and went inside and up to the 7th floor. Found my room, entered the key code and the door unlocked! Massive relief!
I think there are a lot of young people living in this building, maybe working at the airport and shopping area. The room was quite large, tho bathroom, quite small even tho it has a washing machine tucked into a corner! A full sized fridge, microwave, sink and 2-burner hot plate seemed to suggest this. However, there were no crockery, cutlery or saucepans, so not that useful for a quick visitor.
I had noted that there were several bikes inside the building, so I went down and collected Hennie and squeezed her into the lift and up we came. Into the room too, well, there was no one to say I could or couldn't!
First thing is to let the family know, I've arrived. The WiFi connection I was given wasn't showing up. Heaps of secured sites but none that were anything like what I needed... sigh... I went downstairs and yes, there was no-one around. I asked one lady if there was free wifi around, but she just shook her head and rushed onwards. I went into the e-mart and the young guy said there was free wifi at the coffee shop, so went there and yep, she showed me the password, so I was at least able to msg the kids.
After a long shower, I felt a whole lot better at trying to sort out the wifi problem. I haven't needed to make any phone calls on this trip until now and amazingly their ph number worked! (think it was a Freecall #). I got onto a young guy with pretty poor english and of course, my non-existent Korean! but he tried to give me another site, but our communication wasn't working. He gave me another ph number, but of course, that one didn't work. When I called him back, he must have called this other number also so on a two-way call with a girl with much better English, we were making progress. She said she would call me back... of course, that also didn't work, but then she sent an email, which I managed to see, after logging into another un-secured wifi... So after a whole lot of kafuffle, I was given another wifi addy, which actually worked and yay! secure wifi connection, so all is right in the world again... how did we survive for this long without wifi!!
It had been a long day - I had a couple slices of bread and some cherry tomatoes left, so with the help of the remaining peanut butter and nutella, that was tea for the night. a bit of TV, a travel show, but an early night was in order... Good Night!
pics of the day - uploaded in reverse order for some reason!
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