A national park per day keeps the doctor away! We have been going from one national park to the other here in Hokkaido. Daisetsuzan, Shiretoko, Akan and then Kushiro Shitsugen national park. The last one is a vast wetland, a paradise for various birds among which cranes (which we didn't see in the park...). Our ride from Kusharo lake towards Kushiro (it won't get more confusing than this, promise) was supposed to be easy. It was a nice ride, although nothing spectacular. Unfortunately, we had quite a headwind most of the way. So while the route was OK, the wind made it much less pleasant. Once we got to the wetlands with its lakes, it became very beautiful and the wind was a bit less disturbing. The cherry on the cake was the campsite however! Situated at the shore of lake Takkobu, it was absolutely beautiful, and there were hardly any other campers. The facilities were great, there was a good central reception building with a cozy and warm sitting corner, and perfect hot showers!
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The grasses in the wetlands
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| Our campsite at the lakeshore |
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| Cloudy sunset over the wetlands |
We enjoyed a nice evening, spent some time indoors nicely cozy and warm, then had another good night in our tent. We went to sleep with gray and cold weather, and woke up to a blue sunny sky and pleasant morning warmth. As we were in no hurry at all, we had a very long and nice breakfast, enjoyed the sunshine - we hadn't seen much sun the last week or so - and rather than immediately leaving after breakfast, we first made a 1-hour walk towards a viewpoint over the Kushiro Shitsugen wetlands. A beautiful walk through marshy forest enjoying the morning sunlight, taking some time to soak in the beauty and size of the wetlands, then returning to our campsite to start cycling for the day. By then it was almost midday. We found a nice road still enjoying the beauty of the wetlands and avoiding the centre of Kushiro city, quite a big city.
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| Incredibly green forest |
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| View over the Kushiro Shitsugen wetlands |
Once we got past Kushiro and cycled through the outskirts, we accidentally found a fantastic cycling trail that went exactly in our direction, and in fact even towards the campsite we had in mind for the night. The typical irony of the Japanese cycling routes happened again: while our campsite was explicitly signposted several times along the road, there was no sign once we reached the place where we had to leave the cycling lane to ride towards the campsite. We've seen this a lot, very inconsistent signs... No problem, we found our way, found the campsite and were happy we did! While it was by far the most expensive campsite we've had in Hokkaido so far, it was an incredible place, the Yamahana campground. Very big spaces, incredible facilities, great hot showers (again, yoohoo!), and all that in the signature beautiful Hokkaido nature.
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| The unexpected fantastic cycling lane just outside of Kushiro |
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| Hi! |
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| The campsite; as green as it gets... |
We woke up to another sunny morning and had a great start of the day again. From the campsite we made our way to the coast, which we would follow for most of the day. Once we came close to the coast, the first thing we saw was a gigantic solar farm - really gigantic, possibly the biggest one we've seen (even bigger than the ones in China) but unfortunately it was just impossible to make a photo of it. The other thing we saw, was mist. It was very misty this close to the sea, and it remained misty all the way as long as we stayed close to the coast - most of the day that is. It was very beautiful however, although we don't know whether the mist made it more beautiful, or maybe it was not that beautiful but just hidden by the mist, or maybe we made it beautiful in our imagination filling in the gaps. In any case, it was nice and as soon as we started to go a bit more inland, for the last 15km or so, the sun came through. It was the typical beautiful Hokkaido cycling: hilly, nice road with little traffic (and a few tunnels), very very green scenery, hardly any villages or towns.
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| I think it's beautiful? |
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| Back into the sun! |
After 76km we arrived in Urahoro and decided to stay at the campsite there and enjoy the afternoon sunshine a little. The shower today was a cold water hose, that had been a while, but still better than nothing! This time next week will be our last evening of the entire tour... Time flies...
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| At the campsite we met this uncle, cycling on his own; he's 70! He's from Sapporo and cycled from Chitose to here, more than 300km, in 3 days - and is camping in a tiny tent... Wow!!! |