RIFLE RANGE BOY

Time is cruel! © DKLA At the pinnacle of their career, the Beatles must have had an existential crisis. McCartney and Lennon must have wondered how they would be at 64. Their vision of a 64-year old man, from the lenses of a person in the 1960s, must have been quite depressing. With bad teeth, bad eyesight and bald, it must be a picture of melancholy.  Luckily, growing old in the 21st century is bearable. The 60s is the new 40s. One can still lead a productive life in the senior citizen / geriatric age group provided the bus does not come to pick you up prematurely. After completing 633 km of cycling from Seoul to Pusan in 5 days, we had a couple days to unwind in Pusan. Immersed in the euphoria of completing our gargantuan task, we thought that our feat must be something that we, the seven of us, would be talking for a long time including reminiscing about it in our twilight years. We would probably be savouring each photo that we took along the way, trying to remember each ...

S2B: Seoul to Busan It is not a race.  Ep #1 Meet the P-stars.  Ep #2 Fighting the demons!  Ep #3 Bare necessities that we need!  Ep #4 7 Samurais set to go! ©Bob The day is here!  Ep #5 The time is now!  Ep #6 Time is a river of passing events. Ep #7 Episode 8: Day 5 S2B (10.10.19) Resolved to end the tour today, we made an early start, at the first sign of daylight. At least, that is what we thought. By the time we saddled up and tightened up a few loose ends, it was 0630 by the time we left our bike motel.  It was a chilly morning, slightly windy and foggy at 7C. Everything was going on fine for the first half of the day.  Korea decided to save the best for the last. She took us through multiple hills, some as steep as 13%. We managed most of the hills except for a few which proved too long too strenuous. The world of Maya. The cloud-like fluffy structure in the bottom half of the picture is the early morni...

S2B: Seoul to Busan It is not a race.   Ep #1 Meet the P-stars.   Ep #2 Fighting the demons!   Ep #3 Bare necessities that we need!  E p #4 The day is here!   Ep #5 The time is now!   Ep #6 Time and tide. Ep #7 Episode 8: Day 4 S2B (9.10.2019) After knocking ourselves out in slumberland at Zone Hotel in Gumi, North Gyeongsang, in what we call a ‘love motel’, we hit the saddle again. The love motel was the closest that came by when we hit Gumi all weary yesterday evening. Yet a sumptuous simple Korean dinner came in front of us when we entered a restaurant, told the chef to surprise us in rudimentary caveman sign language and grunts.  0830, back to the grinding mill.  Weather was generally beautiful today with the sun was out by 7am. The temperature was cool at 7ºC and slightly windy. We were fine, and we had a feeling that something good was on our way. Hence, we set to do 120km for the day.  The sun pe...

S2B: Seoul to Busan It is not a race.  Ep #1 Meet the P-stars.  Ep #2 Fighting the demons!  Ep #3 Bare necessities that we need!  Ep #4 The day is here!  Ep #5 The time is now!  Ep #6 Episode 7: Day 3 S2B (8.10.2019) Back on the road again... ©RS The much deserved good night’s sleep proved lifesaving. After the hotel’s complimentary breakfast, we were back on the roads again. We were pleasantly surprised that we were doing centurion rides on a daily basis without even a flinch. It does not mean that we are Centaurians or some kind of superbeings, but it shows the level the human spirit can go when the will is there. Our civilisation would not be here if not for the sheer grit of our ancestors. In Cloud Nine. ©FG It was a chilly morning at 12ºC. Draped with extra clothing, our first destination was the Ihwaryeong Rest Area which involved a good five kilometres of an upward climb. It was funny interplay being clammy in the...

S2B: Seoul to Busan It is not a race.  Ep #1 Meet the P-stars.  Ep #2 Fighting the demons!  Ep #3 Bare necessities that we need!  Ep #4 The day is here!  Ep #5 The time is now! Ep #6 Episode 7: Day 2 S2B (7.10.2019) Going Korean? ©FG With a good night rest after the ever-smiling hostess’ simple Korean dinner that she dished out in a jiffy when we arrived at her doorstep all sweaty and hungry, we started grinding for the day.   Here in the northern part of South Korea, our observation was that Korean food comprises the main dish which could be pork or beef accompanied with little carbohydrate in the form of a small bowl of rice or noodle with their standard accompaniments - kimchi, cabbage pickled with spice, radish in vinegar and leafy vegetable which tastes like water hyacinth ( kangkung) sauteed with spiced chilled and pickled little chilly. In Busan, being a coastal city, seafood is favoured. We had another a...