Leaving Takachiho in the morning (yesterday) was a little bit confusing (and a bit steep too), but once we were on our way it was very nice. We followed a small road along a river in a deep, steep valley, slightly downhill, through dense forest - we even saw a monkey! - so it was perfect riding. Until... the road just ended. It was closed, and had clearly been since long, and there was no way we could get through. So we had to backtrack a few km, and then climb up to the main road (218), out of the steep valley... There were several places where we could leave the 218 to go down to the road below at the river again, but we didn't dare to; suppose we had to climb back up again! After a while, the 218 went down anyway, we then changed to a smaller road (388) which was a wonderful small, rural, remote road, following another river and we enjoyed this very scenic ride for 20km.
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Outside the Ukigumo B&B in Takachiho, where the very kind people had prepared a room for us despite being full!
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| Fantastic cycling on a small road, until... that road ended unexpectedly |
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| An example of some magnificent views we had |
At the end of that road, we arrived at the Pacific Ocean! Wow, what a beautiful ride this had been! And now, the Pacific Ocean, yoohoo! It took a while before we actually saw the ocean, and we continued to follow it for the rest of the day. We ended up doing 91km and finished a bit before Tsuno. We had found a campground nearby on the map, and decided to stay at an official campsite for a change. Plus, that means shower, electricity, toilet, ... We found the site, a beautiful site, and it was closed! But, as we were there anyway, and it was beautiful, we just camped anyway: grassy terrain, forest, green, river, very quiet. So in the end, it was wild camping on a campsite. As it was closed, we did not have our anticipated shower, but there was a great spot to wash in the river, which was cold but nice. There was also no electricity to charge our phones, and hardly any phone network, and we loved it.
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| View from a shrine along the 388 |
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| Cycling along this 388, a cyclist's dream |
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| Completed by this kind of views |
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| First view of the Pacific |
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| Getting ready for a cold river bath |
We want to get to Nagasaki by Sunday, it means we'll have a couple of long days to go. And so we decided to give it a shot today, and go as far as we reasonably could. We did 122km! A new record, the previous longest day was 120km. It was a slightly less beautiful day today. The first 30km were still really nice, along the ocean still. We saw some nice beaches, and several surf spots. There are also signs everywhere indicating the exact elevation above sea level, in case of a tsunami; very understandable in this part of the world...
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| A beautiful morning, ready for "petit dejeuner sur l'herbe" |
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| Today we saw a lot of solar panels. Not the enormous solar farms as we saw in China, but a lot of smaller parks, all together probably a serious capacity. There was an old elevated road, for many kms, full of solar panels as well. We've also noticed there are a lot of hybrid cars and EVs here, much more than anywhere else we know. Carbon footprint at work in Japan! |
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| Tea plantation, Japanese style. These little fans where everywhere, no idea what they are. |
Once we went back inland, the roads were a bit less interesting and busier. As we wanted to cover a lot of distance, that was not too bad, of course it's always nicer if it's beautiful. It was a bit up and down, both in terms of riding pleasure and terrain. Many roads here in Kyushu have some form of bicycle lane, sometimes these are very good, often these are bumpy and not well maintained, so when the road is calm it's easier to ride on the road. The last 20km for today, between Kobayashi and Eboni, were really beautiful and nice cycling however, with impressive Mount Kirishima as backdrop - another volcano. In Eboni we found a nice town park, with some sports facilities, a perfect place to pitch our tent. We have toilets, water, and beautiful views, plus a frog concert close to our tent. Perfect!
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| Mount Kirishima |
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| Nice spot for a tent... |