Cycle to Work

30 seconds of my 2 minute cycle through campus to work of a fresh autumnal mornin' wha?!?! (www.bike-back-home.blogspot.com -- Cycling from Korea to Ireland for mental health awareness - setting off March 2016) Headstrong - The National Centre for Youth Mental Health

An Incredibly Generous Donation

Waking up this morning to a notification from http://www.mycharity.ie/event/bikebackhome saying that we'd received a donation of €500 over night was incredible.  The momentum is really starting to pick up now and with only 18 weeks until we pedal off from Hongseong, the reality of what we are undertaking is really starting to hit home.  It's all very very exciting! 

Cleaning up the hot-wheels in the sunshine outside our apartment

Just a wee video of us cleaning up zeeee hot-wheels in the sunshine outside our apartment (28 minutes to 17 seconds sped up 10,000%)

The Geumganag River Trail

Like a ton of extra well cooked roast duck confit, an extra-long weekend hit us here in the humorously unhinged hamlet of Hongseong. A combination of our University's music festival on Thursday and Friday, and Buddha’s Birthday that Monday gave us a nice stretch of a few days for an adventure. So, despite feeling a little tired and emotional on Thursday morning after festival mania, we geared up our bikes and away we went for 4 days of river and coast cycling and camping.

At the bus station in Hongseong

We got a bus from Hongseong to Daejeon. From there, the cycle track starting along the Gapcheon river, and changing to the the Geumgang river cycle path, took us continuously for 170km to the coast at Gunsan. From just East of Gunsan we had about 145km of beautiful country road and coastal cycle lanes that took us all the way back to Hongseong via Daecheon beach, where we camped for a night. Here are a few photos of our journey...

MTB trails in Hongseong

Some fun on the trails by our apartment in Hongseong, Chungnam.

First Spin of the Spring with Friends and New Saddles

Spring was in swing. The local paddy field frogs had their evening chorus harmonised, the birds were tweeting, our new saddles had just arrived and the balmy weather was giving us a serious itch for some biking!

So, on the first weekend of May a group of six of us saddled up and hit the road for a banter filled spin straight out to the coast for a nights camping and sunset watching.  Our intrepid crew was: Laura Grobler, Zach Vanderplate, Will McDonald, Reagan Redd, Stef and me.

The posse en route to the coast

Three Weeks in Hokkaido, Japan

After a few, short multi-day trips on our bikes in May and June last year, we were ready for more!  We decided we'd head to Japan and once we looked into it properly, the northern island of Hokkaido seemed to make the most sense.  It's the most rural part of Japan so it's well suited for cycle tourists with spectacular scenery, quiet roads, and tonnes of camp sites (most of which were free).

Disassembling the bikes and them packing them into boxes for the plane was a fairly steep learning curve, for me (Stef) at least.  It took the better part of the afternoon to get the job done.  Then, the next problem, how on earth are we supposed to carry these boxes, and all our panniers, to the airport?  Luckily the bus passes right outside our apartment and goes to the terminal where you can change onto an airport bus.  I remember thinking that there was no way it was all going to be that seamless on the other end but there wasn't much I could do about it so I pushed those thoughts to the back of my mind and listened to Nick when he said 'we'll figure it out' - Nick's default response to me when I over-plan and worrying unduly about things!

Disassembling the Bikes in our Apartment