Incheon Walk 3, Day 2: last segment of Ara

When I arrive at Fatass (the big pop-art sculpture below), I know I have about five kilometers left on the Ara Canal part of the walk, or about 8.5 km to the very end of the walk.

Here's another view of Fatass, obviously meant as a tribute to cyclists:

Me, right before finishing my rest-up and leaving Fatass behind:

I may have taken a picture of this shwim-teo during an earlier walk, but as I said before, I couldn't help myself:

A view of one of the final Ara-spanning bridges, with a slice of shwim-teo for good measure:

I know I've taken a pic of these structures before. These are signal fires:

Roughly: 1 smoker means "all is well." 2 smokers mean "enemy sighted." 3 smokers mean "enemy approaching border." 4 smokers mean "enemy has crossed (invaded) the border." 5 smokers mean "our forces and the enemy's have begun fighting."

Below: a cause to meditate on the impermanence of existence. Live well, and make life worth living for yourself and for others because you never get these moments back. When I saw this little carcass, I thought about the living mantis I had seen earlier. This one doesn't look as though someone stepped on it; I get the feeling it simply died. I saw plenty of dried-up earthworms later in the day, too, and it occurred to me that, with a modest boost in consciousness, these wretched little creatures would be able to perform the simple act of crossing the bike path without getting lost. Sometimes, you can't even get from A to B.

More orthogonality:

And yet another shwim-teo!

This final pic, below, shows more of the straight-and-narrow, but it's significant because that bridge in the distance marks the spot where we leave the Ara Canal and track into town. Whereas before, we had left the Han and gone into Gimpo, we have now arrived at Incheon proper, although I should note that this part of Incheon has an empty, ghost-town feel to it, much as Gimpo does. It's a left turn away from the water, and the turn takes place right under that bridge. After that, we have a little more than 3 km to go to reach the very end.