From Daegu to Seoul

The journey starts at Seoul Station, where I caught a KTX that took me almost two hours south, distance I'll have to fight back on my own.

The journey started around 1:45pm.

Right around now, Jacco called me up to see if I was in my office. Nope.

After driving at least half an hour on highways with 80kmh speed limits, I followed the navigation system onto a small two-lane road twisting through a mountain pass into a small village. My gas was running low, and at first I thought it was because the scooter had poor fuel efficiency. Ultimately, it turned out to just be a much smaller gas tank than my previous one.

Anyway, the next gas station I reached turned out to be abandoned.

That's the bike.

This is the kind of road I was on for most of the journey. Speed limit is 80, I go 90, cars go faster. There were generally places to pull over safely all along the way. I had to do this frequently to check the navigation.

I saw a lot of interesting mountains.

I can't imagine why they were building this big pile. Click for full size.

My path meandered under the straight elevated expressway.

The most beautiful part of the whole journey was this area in Mungyeong, which seems to be called Jinnam. Let's go find out what that traditional building is.

Oh, a rest stop.

Higher up the hill I could see a wall.

Click for full size.

Click for full size.

I noticed some extreme deforestation on this hillside. Could possibly be a fire, but I'm not sure. It reminds me of the hills around Kaesong where deforestation is an urgent problem.

A small village situated below a rocky face.

Looking back the way I came.

Another look at that same village.

From this viewpoint, up on a cliff, there was a sign pointing over the cliff indicating a convenience store over there.

Another notable instance of deforestation. This one looks newer than the previous one I saw, which was at least covered over by a thin layer of green.

Inside a pre-sewer.

I think this was Mungyeong city.

My stop to see the concrete tunnel segments and view was a parking lot with a corn seller. She watched me ruefully.

Further along, the navigation app showed I'd be passing some kind of war memorial.

Gam Woo Jae Memorial Hall.

When I went to use the washroom, the stall had this hideous anti-smoking image.

Another case of deforestation.

Seen from another angle showing buildings below.

I stopped at this gas station, which was easy to spot thanks to that sign.

Among the ostriches.

I hadn't been seeing many abandoned buildings on my trip, so this one especially stood out.

To get there I passed a grave.

And the interior was completely barren.

The view was nice.

I strongly suspect this abandoned apartment construction site is the same one in this video.

This is perhaps the most amazing vehicle I've ever seen.

Continuing with the theme of erosion, it looks like they tried to mitigate it by creating that channel left of the house.

Darkness is falling and I'm in Seongnam.

Shortly after I took this, all the highway lights turned on.