Day 34 - Cape Nosappu to Kiritappu Camp Site - 106kms
This morning I was up very early so that I could enjoy sunrise from the most easterly point in Japan. I was surprised how quiet it was. Besides me there was just one other couple enjoying the view. A nice start to the morning.
I packed away my tent early and rode back to Nemuro. I was back in town by 7am and grabbed some food for the next leg, as I couldn't see anywhere you could get anything to eat until my destination. I decided to follow route 142, which looks to be a bit more scenic than the main highway. Route 142 took me through a number of forest plantations. After about 30kms it took me to the coast. There were plenty of rolling hills between all the bays. I lost count of how many climbs I had to do! Along the way, at a lot of these bays, they were putting their kelp out to dry in the sun. I stopped a number of times to enjoy the views of the coast and beaches. I arrived at Kirtappu by 1pm. I got a bit of lunch and relaxed for a while. I then headed up the bluff to the onsen. A really nice onsen with great views of the area. I tried a kelp ice cream. It was actually quite nice, a bit like salty caramel. When I was refreshed I headed out to the campground near the lighthouse. A beautiful location for a camping spot. Gives you fantastic views of the coast and best of all it is free. After I was all setup I had a walk out to the lighthouse. Once again the views were just amazing. To add to the views there were plenty of wildflowers in bloom. As I was up really early this morning and then had a reasonably big ride I had an early night. I think I went to bed by 7pm! |
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Day 35 - Kiritappu Camp Site to Kushiro - 90kms
I had a great long sleep this morning. When I awoke it was very foggy outside. So there was no real hurry today to see sunrise. So I relaxed a little while in my tent.
It remained foggy along the coast for the whole day. So after I looked at the wetlands I headed inland to join the main highway 44. There was certainly a bit more traffic, but generally the road was okay. By going this way meant the visibility was a lot better and also I could get to Kushiro a little quicker. With the help of a tailwind I got into town just after 3:30pm. It's a reasonable size town, but felt very quiet. Which I liked. I'm staying at a little guest house for the night. It's very homely and cosy. Once freshened up I headed out for dinner. It made a change not to have seicomart for dinner tonight! |
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Day 36 - Kushiro to Urahoro - 80kms
Had a nice dinner out last night. Interesting going to a restaurant which clearly does not get many westerners. As the menu was just in Japanese with no pictures to help me. Thankfully my translation app on my phone helps a lot. Ended up with noodles with prawn and chicken.
This morning the owner of the guest house had done me a western breakfast instead of the usual Japanese breakfast. I so prefer the Japanese one though, but it was nice she went out of her way for me. I plotted a route from the guest house which took me along a series of quiet back streets. This saved me dealing with the main roads until I was on the edge of town. When I was on the main road traffic wasn't too bad, but felt like I could had been in any suburb with all the block stores. I was pleased to see the coast again. For most of the ride today I had a good tailwind. This really helped me push along quickly on the highway 38 until I got to the turnoff for highway 1038. Wow, what a difference. This road was almost devoid of traffic, but had great views along the coast. I stopped along here to enjoy my second breakfast I brought with me. Once I had enjoyed second breakfast, I continued following highway 1038 inland. I had a number of options of where to stay tonight. All dependent on how far I wanted to ride. It was starting to get warm, and with a few hills to deal with, I decided to head for Urahoro. I took a shortcut off highway 1038. There was a bit of climbing but I was in town by 12:30pm. I stopped at the convenience store to get a little more food and then headed to the campground. The campground is on the edge of the forest and there were plenty of trees for shade. I setup camp and relaxed under the trees until later in the afternoon. When I had a walk back to town and to find the onsen. I was happy I stopped riding when I did, as it was a pretty warm afternoon and wouldn't had been much fun riding. Hopefully, as I'm camping again, I can get an earlier start to get a lot of my kilometres done in the morning. Oh and today, at Seven Eleven, at 8:30am I won a can of beer! Saved it for the end of the day. A nice end to a good day. |
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