Ghetto Beach Part One...

It is early Sunday morning as I type - we are in Donghae where we will be boarding the ferry to Russia later today.  We scoped out the ferry dock yesterday afternoon and found a decent hotel close by.  Our final deadline of the trip is about to be met! We need to be at the dock with our bikes at 9:30 am to complete paperwork, pay the fare and load the bikes.  The total cost looks to be about $700 each for economy class passenger ticket and bike.The ferry from Sokcho was going to be a bit cheaper but had gone out of business at the end of last month.

Two days ago we enjoyed some of the best riding of the trip.  Twisty mountain roads going through tunnels, over bridges and past rivers and dams.  The weather was humid and sunny mixed with foggy and rain as we made our way east towards the coast.  We chose the northernmost road, close to the DMZ, which made for some interesting sights.  We encountered military bases and personnel throughout - the roads had a defense tactic every few miles of huge cement blocks stacked to the sides that could be detonated to come crashing down to block the road.  Made sense as it looked from the GPS maps that we came only a few kilometers from the DMZ in many spots.  There are no actual roads into North Korea in this part of the country.  There were lots of cool stopping spots with scenic views and points of interest from the Korean War.  I enjoyed this day a lot.

We arrived at the Sea of Japan late in the afternoon with the plan to find a beach to camp on or near. A few miles south of the DMZ and north of Sokcho we saw a sign for camping and made a left towards the sea.  I'm was pretty sure the camping sign was directing to a u-turn on the divided highway and was actually back a few km back, but we saw a beach with buildings and cabanas on the beach so headed over to check it out.  It was a very strange place with half constructed buildings, general public beach facilities and a boardwalk lined with food tents and beer stands with half or less open.  It looked like we were here on a slow weekday (Friday) and they did their volume business on the weekends.

We found what looked like abandon but intact tented cabanas on the far end of the beach near one of the construction projects.  There was a boneyard of cabana materials and pieces scattered up the beach behind a razor wired fence that stretched north as far as we could see.  We had no idea at the time - and still don't - what that was all about.  I was a little weary of setting up so close to the sea - especially when I discovered my borrowed hammock would not work for sleeping (just an open hammock).  I would be pitching a tent and Ken and Mark would be swinging their hammocks between the cabana poles under the tented roofs.

Since this was "Dutchman" situation (a Dutchman is a camping location on public or private land that is not established and probably prohibited or illegal - I'll give background as to where this term came from at a later time), we would wait until dark to set up camp and decided to walk up the boardwalk to find some dinner and beers.

We walked the length and found a few still open spots - all serving mostly seafood items.  We were right on the sea after all.  We had hoped for something different as we had been eating only fish for several days.  We settled on a spot and then went through the painful process of trying to order off a menu board we couldn't read.  We finally decided to just pick 3 of the 12 or so choices and split everything.  The first item was basically fish jerky heated up on the grille.  It came with a tasty spicy soy type sauce.  Ok, what's next?  Next came some brown jellied cubes tossed with vegetables and a spicy sauce.  We all tried the cubes that were definitely not tofu and but didn't really taste like animal fat.  In fact they had no taste at all except from the sauce.  We could only stomach a few each as the consistency was just too weird.  The last dish was what looked like calamari mixed with vegetables and red sauce.  We all smiled and dug in as this would certainly be something familiar!  I ate the first bite and it seemed a bit firm.  Ok, maybe a bit under-cooked.  I had a second bite and it was definitely very firm and actually crunchy inside.  We were all chewing and looking a each other when Ken picked one of the "calamari" up with the chopsticks for closer inspection.  It was a foot - we were eating chicken feet.  That was the end of that.  I know chick feet are consumed in many cultures, but none of us could handle that crunch of bones while chewing.  We ordered a few more beers, but we're done with eating at that point.

It was now getting dark, so time to set up camp.

To be continued...

Nice view from a rest stop.

Another stop at the top.

Me cruising near the DMZ.

We don't know what this is but it was by a lookout turnoff at the top of a pass.

We went through dozens of tunnels on this mountain road.  They were nice and cool inside.

Another dam being built.

Tank exhibit from the Korean War.

Finally made it to the beach!