Ice Breakers

Ride of the year (in its own special way)

Yesterday was the scene of many happenings Gyeongsangnamdo ‘wards. It was bollocking cold (+3°) and raining when Rick rang me at 6:42am discussing whether the inaugural Ice Breaker’s Run should go ahead. It was decided that it will, and at 8:20am we were gathered in from of the new Jangyu apartment in the spitting rain in a more modest +9° awaiting one of the most diverse motorcycle rides in history. With two Swiss pussies reneging on account of the cold and rain (sorry guys, but why the fuck do you think it is called the Ice Breaker’s Run) and Dear Leader Sean away on a Turkey Eating And Tequila Swilling emergency (hereafter referred to as TEATS) it was up to The Alabama Iceman, Bonzo the Aussie, Mustachioed Pat and Jose the Canadian/Mexican (Pronounced Hose-eh) to undertake the Run on their own scoots, respectively a 1400cc Intruder, 750cc Magna, 125cc Magma and a Hyosung Scooter. A more diverse bunch of bikers in such crap weather in such a weird land has, I am sure, never a forehand been assembled.


It was a marvelous trip to a very small island Gadeok-do (가덕도) in which the following events took place:

Magna never got out of third gear.
Intruder never got into third gear.
Car (Carrying Parky and Stacey) was endowed with brand new racing stripes whilst being driven on a walled and cliff-ed goat track.
Clouds and rain left after 11:00am followed by amazing sunshine.
Small Island was given a (warmly welcomed) lesson on Weiguks On Motorcycles.
The destruction of 1 extremely large and extremely delicious chicken along with a few beers.
My wife was refused entry onto the ferry on the grounds of being too sexy.
A FANTASTIC day was had by all.


It really was a magnificent day. But when you break it down into points it sounds a bit crap. And if you are in the extremely large section of the population that weren’t on the ride and simultaneously belong to the only slightly smaller part of the population that have never been on a WOMBAT ride you will never understand how much fun it was. We had a great day.


We topped it off with a massive house warming. Not a massive house warming by Australian standards (hardly an average dinner party by Aussie thought process) but 20-odd people in a Corean house at the same time was new, at least for us, (we had had 16 people in our house warming in Gangneung) a record. We drank wine, ate smoked duck and generally rolled through the magnificent night after a magnificent day.

(I am aware that no-one likes to read a super-positive blog, but the day was great, so to those that are wishing for something more negativeslashreadworthy; Sorry to disappoint you)