Crossing a high summit yesterday I stopped at a cafe. There was a strange tower with some steps going up that needed further investigation. At the bottom was a little hut advertising extreme “zipping”.

This is part of a large network of zip wires between mountains. Drops of 1600 ft and speeds of 120kph were quoted, which sounds quite fun! I stepped up to the plate for a look, the distances and steepness certainly looked like serious business! Maybe I should have a go?

In the end I didn’t. I was wet through and it was drizzling, a huge dampener for any outdoor activity. It was also cloudy and obvious that they weren’t going to get any custom that day. I did have a minor pang of ‘only live once’ type guilt, but it quickly passed.

Was that because it’s petty tame compared to hang gliding? Or adventure motorcycling? Or sidecar racing? Or street luge? Nope. It’s because it was 80 quid! Sod that!

I met up with an old friend tonight. It was a strange coincidence that big Nige was working in Daejeon, Korea this week. Not somewhere that either of us imagined we’d ever be I’m sure. Courtesy of a Facebook status I nearly didn’t make, the wonders of the internet brought us together.

When we were working in Maidenhead all those years ago, if you’d told me we’d be cruising around Korea on a bike one day I’d have fell off my chair laughing! Especially if you’d said he wouldn’t have a helmet and we’d be doing an illegal bandit run!!

Anyway, it was a great night. Good food, great company and even a couple of beers. Here’s to our next meeting in Slough. (Or maybe Moscow – who really knows??).

It rained overnight. I wild camped and used the tent as the forest is too dense for the hammock. (Lots of trees but no space between them). Not heavy but a continual patter. The tent isn’t 100% waterproof, but I stayed mostly dry.

I had a dry window between showers this morning to pack up. Then it rained all day. My new 1 piece rain suit leaks, soaking my groin in just an hour. I’d take it back if I could. By the end of the day even my feet were wet. I should be miserable but the scenery made up for it. That and the fact it’s not cold.

Steep mountains covered in lush forest, oragraphic cloud forming to obscure the peaks. I wanted to take the back roads over the Jirisan national park, Mt. Jirisan is the highest in Korea. However I could see it was all in cloud, no point really. I took the major road which eventually turned into a fantastic twisty hill climb. I really enjoyed it, even in the wet!

There really are some awesome roads in Korea. A quick look at the map and you can see they’re everywhere! I’m looking forward to spending some time getting lost after the weekend, when I’ve found the ferry terminal and have a day or two to cruise about the north east corner.

The same memorial from another angle. It always makes me wonder when I look at these. Who were the people and how did they come to be there? I’m probably older now than they ever got, it seems such a waste.

Still, there’s nothing I can do about it. Just remember that life is short, seize the carp people!

You can’t beat a good bit of Arny surplus, so on passing this I had to turn around to have a closer look. It was some kind of a memorial to American soldiers, in fact to all soldiers who lost their lives on foreign soil.

Unfortunately only one sign was written in English, so I’ve limited information. There were other memorials in the same spot. I’m sure it’s on Google somewhere, it’s near to Hadong if you want to look for yourself.

It seemed well kept, I’m glad I made the u turn. I saluted the memorial and went on my way. I don’t know why, I was never in the armed forces – but on a rainy Thursday morning or seemed the right thing to do.

No, but a swift glance at a temple and you might be excused for thinking that. The temple signs have the tails the wrong way round to be swastickers. (Or should that be, they simply have them the correct way?).

I took a detour on seeing a temple sign. It was about 8k out of my way, where the road turned into gravel, which turned into a track, which turned into a path. Very steep climbs but I got there. I thought about giving in a few times, but I pressed on.

Greeted by the monks nothing was said. Prayer hands and nods were sufficient mutual acknowledgement. They had something going on so I left them to it, which is when I dropped the bike turning it around! After all that off roading getting there, I dropped it on a flat concrete slab!!

No real damage, just my pride. I managed not to swear my head off in front of the monks either. I couldn’t pick it up though, not with all the luggage on. Help was at hand when they came running out to assist. What a sight that must have been!!

You have to hand it to the Koreans. Their road infrastructure is impressive. The entire place is very mountainous, with a great costal area made up of several small islands.

This means lots of tunnels through mountains and bridges over waterways. The scale of some of them is immense! I’d prefer it if you were allowed to ride a bike over them though! Most of them are ok, but the expressway bridges are no bikes.

I know this because I blundered onto one earlier. (It’s to late by the time you realise). The staff at the toll booth looked completely stunned, like a Marian had pulled up in a space ship! They were pretty good though, opening barriers for me to turn around.

I ended up taking the longer but much more scenic route, so no problems really!

Aren and Steven giving their full attention to mapping some good roads for me. In the background is the long suffering Tara, who has no doubt seen it all before – blokes arguing over which way to go! But please do as they ask and learn to ride, you won’t regret it Tara.

After being overloaded with road numbers and place names, the thought occurred that these guys would be tacking me the next day. I’d better pay attention and at least make some effort to head in the right general direction!

On that subject, I’m finding navigation a bit of a nightmare. I always manage to end up in the right place, generally by describing a large spiral with the destination being at the centre!

Thankfully after many U-turns I’m more comfortable with the actual riding. Like Aren said, “it’s like the Wild West”. I didn’t think about it at the time, but we’re actually in the far East – and he’s giving me directions!!

Great to meet you guys, thanks for looking after me.

I met up with the notorious Wondering Waygooks bike gang last night, I had dinner with their President and Sargent at Arms. These guys are petty hardcore, responsible for the murder of several curries and the suspected disappearance of many beers!

In fact there’s just the two of them, but what jolly nice chaps they are! Aren and Steven spent a long time giving me detailed directions to all the best roads in Korea. Aren also showed me the Korean equivalent to Google maps, with a street view which isn’t available on GM.

I caught up with them after spotting Aren and Tara’s blog, which I’ll put in the links page after I’ve’ve asked.

Ok, done. You can find them at http://www.directionswego.com

When this old world starts getting me down…. Etc.

Just before I picked up the bike I decided I’d check out the rooftop of the local department store. There’s a coffee shop, zoo (yes, really!) & a viewing deck where you can see the sea and the hills. I’m glad I did.

What a marvellous place to chill out, with authentic New York cheesecake and hot coffee. (Not iced!). It was just what I needed before tackling the dreaded customs people – who actually turned out to be very helpful!

I took this panorama looking towards the hills. Pollution makes the viewing a bit hazy, but it’s still very nice. See if you can spot the toilets. Great signage!