Category: european bike epic

We leave the campground with a tailwind behind us. It has been blowing steadily all night, so all our things are dry, and even our bike shoes don’t saturate our socks as soon as we put them on.

 

Cape Erimo

 

The coast road out to Cape Erimo gives us a windy tailwind, which gets windier and windier – by the time we reach the Cape it’s hard to stand. After a struggle we escape with our bikes and some photos, and cycle away down the other side of the Cape, into a crosswind. We lean into it to stay upright, and as it gusts we waver around all over the place, struggling to stay upright. Cars sensibly give us a wide berth, and after a few kilometres of this, the wind starts to ease off.

 

Cycling past tsunami warning signs all the way along the coast

 

We spend the rest of the day cycling through small fishing towns along the coast. Lots of gravel beds for kelp drying, and men stand in the surf with long poles with hooks on the end for grabbing kelp. Fishmermen with big square backpacks sit by the roadside waiting for the fisherman bus.

 

Natto! Supremely tasty fermented soy beans, with soy sauce and wasabi mustard stuff

 

It rains on and off all day, but never sets in, so we stay dry. I see a fox trotting across the road, and he stands to stare at me as I struggle up the hill towards him. It’s around this time that my fingers start hurting again. The prickly heat on the back of my fingers, acquired about two weeks ago, never really healed – now it’s forming enormous mega-blisters and swelling up so much that my fingers won’t bend.

Our camp that night has bear caution tape, and a huge group of drunken Japanese guys who are playing ball games and yelling. One comes to talk to me – I learn the Japanese word for drunk.

Distance cycled: 100km
Trip total: 1264km
Location: Cape Erimo – Shizunai Onsen

We wake up to the familiar plinking of rain on the tent. Oh dear. Well, today is a semi-rest day. Perhaps by the time we’ve finished sleeping in, it will go away? Eventually we tire of laying in the tents and retire to the picnic shelter, where things are gradually packed up.

A: What’s that alarm?
B: Oh great, a tsunami warning.

We aren’t swept away by a tsunami, and start cycling down the coast early in the afternoon. The Hiroo 7-11 provides us with warm nutritions, and we follow the angry sea through tunnels and past sea walls. The ocean seems to be trying to get us, and it rains on and off all afternoon – the views are beautiful though, so it doesn’t seem to matter so much.

 

The coast road

 

 

The coast road

 

As we draw towards Erimo though, suddenly there’s a patch of blue sky ahead. And the sun shines on us! And we have a strong tail wind! And then the campground is open and has hot showers AND a laundry! And there’s a wonderful sunset over the ocean and the hills rising up on the other side. The wind roars through the trees as we curl up clean and dry for a good nights sleep.

 

The weather begins to clear

 

Distance cycled: 43km
Trip total: 1164km
Location: Hiroo – Cape Erimo

The rain starts at around 4.30am. Pitter pat on the tent. Maybe it will stop soon? It doesn’t stop. We get up in the rain and cycle away in the rain. While trying to balance my bike I manage to snap the cable running to my bike computer, which we repair in the rain. After 27km we reach a Seicomart on the outskirts of Kushiro, and buy some food. We spend the next 16 or so kilometres cycling through Kushiro. In the rain. After avoiding the tempations of Fish Land, we cycle out along the coast.

The sea is angry and grey, and all the rivers rush muddily towards it. I am wet and cold and curse the pretty flowers I had been admiring previously. I will be quite content with a drought resistant garden with no pretty flowers.

We are cycling through puddles and up streams of water running down the road, it’s impossible to see where you’re cycling. I get a flat tyre. We pull into a petrol station and repair it.

After vowing to stop at the next convenience store we see, we discover that not only can we get hot bento boxes, but they have a hot fridge there! We squelch around the store and drink coffee and hot chocolate, trying to get warm before venturing out into the rain again.

On reaching the campground in Urahoro, it is closed, so we set up in the cooking shelter. I happily wander off to the washrooms to change into my nice warm, dry clothes, and discover my Deuter panniers are not up to a full day of cycling in the rain through puddles and having water sprayed at them by trucks. Their little raincoats can not stop that much water from getting in. So everything in the bottom 3/4s of the clothes pannier is wet. The bottom clothes are sopping wet. Sigh. I wear my down jacket (dry) and tracksuit pants (dry), and hang a few of the other things up, in the vague hope tumble drying fairies will visit overnight.

 

Bunnies!

 

There are bunnies.

Distance cycled: 119km
Trip total: 1026km
Location: Lake Shirarutoro – Urahoro

Our campground acquired a fog overnight. Unperturbed, we set off into it just before 7am (yes, we’re still not letting these 3.30am sunrises get to us too much). We follow the coast for a while, then break away through farmland, discovering after 45km that we (well, Alex and I) don’t have much in the way of food, and we’re not hitting a town until the 80km mark. I start gnawing on my arm as we buckle down and cover these farmland kilometres. The hills are rolling, and the dairy cows keep looking at us.

 

Cycling through farmland

 

We finally hit the promised land just after midday – there is a 7-11 in town, and it has icecream. Also other foods, but the icecream is initially of most importance. Although it’s only 18oC, my body thermostat is convinced that this is quite warm, and is protesting. Until I stop and let the cold wind blow on me, at which point it complains it’s too cold. Never happy.

 

Warning! Dairy cows

 

After lunch we do a lot more cycling through dairy farms, and over rolling hills. The final 40km doesn’t take too long, and before you know it we’re arriving at our next closed campground. This one has hoards of cats, and a deer which comes to watch us cook.

Distance cycled: 118km
Trip total: 907km
Location: Near Rausu – Lake Shirarutoro)

Up early, we wander down to the train washrooms to freshen up, then set off along the coast just before 7am. The coastline gets much more interesting as we get further along, and there are actually seagulls (signifying genuine ocean). After 59km we start the climb up to Shiretokotoge. This will cross us to the other side of the mountain chain, from one coastline to another, reaching an altitude of 780 metres inbetween – a nice pleasant climb then.

 

Biking up to the pass

 

We stop after a few kilometres at the large info centre/picnic area/tourist trap and have some lunch with the deers (much tamer than the ones you usually see around, they largely ignored us). Heading uphill again in the heat, a man yells a warning to us about a bear – apparently Japan has brown bears, although they don’t usually eat people. We do not see the bear, and eleven more kilometres of grinding along in great granny gear brings us to the pass. Where there is no icecream. I am sorely disappointed. We take some photos, then layer up for the descent before being completely swarmed by the busloads of tourists (all Japanese, as is the norm for what we see in Hokkaido) who keep pouring in and out of the parking lot.

Downhill is fun, with some occasional law breaking regarding the 30-40km/hr speed limit. We fly into Rausu, a coastal town which is cold and full of fishermen. After loitering to no purpose for a while, we cycle the final 12km to our (closed of course) campground for the night.

 

Rausu harbour

 

Cook, wash, launder, the usual. It’s nice and grassy there at least, with ocean and mountain views. Although there are a lot of ravens that seem to be fighting constantly over who will get our stuff. We manage to avoid letting any of them have it.

 

Coastal views out of Rausu

 

Location: Koshimizu – Near Rausu, Hokkaido, Japan
Distance cycled: 104km