Category: bikes

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

A nice dry warm hut is a hard place to leave in the morning, even if it isn’t raining any more. Nontheless, we manage to get on the road by 7.30am, and climb the dreaded hill up and away from the lake. Before our climb begins though, we see a sign giving distances to Bihoro and Bihorotoge…

A: What’s toge mean when it’s on the end of a place name?
B: Pass. As in mountain pass.
M: Oh. Ohhh. I did not wish to know that.

So we climbed to Bihorotoge, which was shrouded in cloud and containing a scary souvenir shop. I resisted the temptation to buy a Hello Kitty towel. With nothing much to hang around for, we descended the other side of the pass, then raced along the flat farmland to Bihoro.

 

Roadside louvres (for snow drift reduction)

 

At Bihoro there was the traditional 7-11 food stop, this time coupled with a visit to Mister Donut (where Alex got me a couple of mini donut-burgers, which were sickeningly cute, but very tasty). A hunt for internet took us to the Co-op, where more food was purchased as we sat online in the sun.

 

The Sea of Okhotsk

 

Finally we left Bihoro, cycling through the rolling hills and farmland towards the sea (the Sea of Okhotsk). Once we hit the coastline we cycled along a flat and boring stretch of coast, with all of the towns looking a bit beaten-up and run-down. There are no seagulls, only crows – obviously it’s fake coast. Our campground for the night in Koshimizu is a disused picnic shelter – we opt to cook there, then camp out on sleeping mats at the ‘observatory’ at the top of the hill next to us. It’s a sort of look out building, with a nice view of the coast, and the mountain range in the distance that we’re to cross tomorrow. I wake up at 3.30am to see a pink stripe in the sky to signify sunrise over the mountains, then fall back to a disturbed sleep.

 

Camping out by the ‘observatory’

 

Location: Lake Kussharo – Koshimizu, Hokkaido, Japan
Distance cycled: 87km

It rains on and off overnight, and we get up to dampness. First up is the climb up and away from Akan Lake, and the rain starts in earnest. As we pedal uphill in the rain many Japanese military vehicles go past us, and I get a few waves and thumbs up. Finally the climb is over, and we descend in a downpour with numb hands. Well mine were getting numb until I switched to mittens. We pass a sign that says it’s 10oC, then enter Toshikaga and huddle in the Seicomart, where all who enter are greeted with deranged cheeriness, and we squelch around in bike shoes that resemble swimming pools for feet.

 

Riding in the rain

 

Fooded up, we cycled onwards to Lake Kussharo, where the proprietor takes pity on us and drops the price of a cabin, so we can afford to stay warm and dry for the night (fronting onto the lake too – luxury… although it’s just a small wooden box with a gas heater, it was home to us). We quickly turn the place into a sauna with wet clothes hanging everywhere. After a dip in the open air onsen by the lake, some dry clothes, and washing my hair in the sink, I almost feel human again.

 

Our log cabin – home sweet hut

 

Location: Akan – Lake Kussharo, Hokkaido, Japan
Distance cycled: 60km