DeokJeok-do

My latest weekend trip was to DeokJeok Island. It's a little further west (the pin in the bottom left corner), but it's still a manageable one hour away on the fast ferry. The slower car ferry, which we returned on, takes almost three hours. Unfortunately, Google Earth doesn't have a very clear picture of the island, so I'm just posting the larger overview.

The island itself it pretty small. We biked around it on Saturday, and it was about 15 km. But it is the hilliest place I've been to yet. The ride from the ferry terminal to the beach involved several climbs, including one up to 80 meters. The trip around the rest of the island had several larger hills as well, with a top elevation of just over 150 meters (approx. 500 feet). But the beach itself was quite nice. Almost 2 km long, with lots of flat sand to camp on.


In addition to my normal biking / traveling partner, we were joined by a large contingency of other westerners, who were making their semi-annual pilgrimage to the island. It was nice to have some company, and we had a veritable tent city going on. This is just one section of the camping area. We're finally starting to learn how to camp properly in Korea. This time I brought a portable stove. Next time, we'll have to remember to bring the hot dogs and condiments as these little islands don't have a lot of food to choose from.

A little bonus on the ferry ride was passing under the new bridge being constructed from Song-do to the airport island. We went right between the pylons that are going to hold up the section of the road that allows sea traffic into Incheon Harbor. It was a little hazy on the way back, so it's hard to see just how far the pylons stretch in both directions.