Woke up breakfast in the hotel room coffee made. Peep show watched and we were ready to go by 9 ISH.

Riding through the city wasn’t nice but wasn’t bad, and then we hit the back road very quiet lovely food views. Climbs not as bad as predicted due to the tunnels. Some lovely scenery lots of cherry blossom and bridges.

Lunch got from supermarket one (see below) was eaten at a Roadside Station Mie
道の駅 みえ this is a bit like a service station but without any fuel. Also I don’t think it had any ev charging but I did look that close. This had good views down a valley.

3 super markets stop today. First for lunch in a small village pretty good selection of stuff. Second large one was hard to find stuff only took cash! Third little one pretty good selection had a rice polishing machine outside which somebody was using.

We planned to stay at a campsite named above was also at a road station Rodeside station Ume
道の駅宇目 展望台 think the Japanese might have the word observation deck in it.

When we arrived the campsite looked pretty roped off. But we rang the reception door bell a few times nothing happened well the bell rang I side but nobody came out. Then we spent a while deciding what to do. Agreed that we should ask in the farm shop. Quite a bit was lost in translation involving another customer who later gave us some really good kimchi, very kind.

Summary was they said the campsite was closed we could stay there but we could camp on the edge of the service station car park or by an observation deck. The observation deck was very well roped off as it was basically rotten.

We decided against those two options because there was nowhere around the edge of the car park that would have been good to camp, b it would have been really hard to carry everything up to the top of the observation deck area and the weather vain was very squeaky.

We went bad to the original option which was to go with the closed campsite. We found a pitch fairly far away and well hidden. The campsite seems fully operational with all the taps turned on toilet open heated seat on.

We made or curry boil in the bag rice and colour vegetable curry with added mushroom, tofu and carrots. Was a lot better than it sounded. Washed down. With a beer supermarket 3 see above.

Watch episode of peepshow spoke to Sarah the phone which was good to catch up on news from home and have general chat in bed writing this. Seems cold doing okay.

We had to get up very early this morning 5am this was to get the ferry at 7:20 and we had to make sure we got a hot bath before. The hot bath was great as always in the public bath house on the floor 14 of the hotel. It had good views over the city. Which is very industrial.

We walked our bikes to the ferry terminal which was fairly small and paid for the ferry. Had breakfast on the ferry and relaxed and wrote this and yesterday’s blog.

Now we are in the Business Hotel KG Oita
ビジネスホテルKG大分

The day was fairly long with a few climbs. There were a couple that were pretty steep but the steep bits didn’t last too long.

We cycle most of the day with a few breaks but not a long lunch stop like yesterday. I am feeling pretty tired now but didn’t feel as sleepy as I thought I would after 5 am wake up.

There were some pretty good down hills over some bridges. The roads were good lovely and quiet until we hit the coastal city road where it got busier. Some lovely scenery the coast line was pretty built up.

We were going to wild camp in a park near the beach but it was pretty busy and we are older now and hotels are a lot easier and more comfortable.

Checked into the hotel was smooth bit of confusion about the bike parking but all good they were coned off in the car park.

After a bit of time sorting stuff out, we headed to a onsen https://shinminato.mystrikingly.com/. This was pretty different to any I had been to before. It looked a bit like you had to walk into somebody’s house. In the end it was good hot and onsen like. The photos on the website are very flattering, it was a bit tired in terms of paint work and the changing facilities. From a google review Simple moor spring, pH 8.5, metasilicic acid 178.7mg, source temperature measured at 49°C (in the tub 44.3°C), gensen kakenagashi.

After onsen had a little walk around a small harbour area before heading to Lawson a covienance store with a pretty poor selection. Dinner in front of peep show with a beer pretty good.

I realise that a lot of these posts probably don’t make sense. I normally write them when I am a big tired and sleepy and obviously there is no proof reading, just correct the mistakes you find in your head!

We woke up after a lot of rain in the night luckily the tents were still waterproof.

Started the day by moving all our stuff down to a large covered shelter as we thought it might rain. It was good to lay everything out. And have coffee and bread with peanut butter for breakfast, along with a pot noodle, well a bit fancier than that, but in essence it was a pot noodle.

There seemed to be a lot of staff walking around the campsite, and one of them came to talk to us. I think he said that it was okay for us to be there and that it opened at 9 o’clock it was hard to work out what opened at 9 as the campsite was closed, he said that two.

Finally we got slowly moving, the day started with a very steep descent, through a bamboo forest.

Cycling was through a mixture of fairly busy roads and some lovely rural routes. The route planning that Cliff did paid off well, and cycling following the route on GPS made it a lot easier than having to check a map regularly.

We stopped off at Kintaikyo Bridge
錦帯橋 which was very impressive one of the top three bridges in Japan. It looked lovely with all the cherry blossom 🌸 🌸🌸🌸

We stopped for lunch outside a supermarket. We went a bit crazy and got quite a bit of food.

The weather was good, apart from a head wind. We stopped at a post office to buy a few stamps, for the previous referred to postcards.

We made good progress to Tokuyama, where Cliff dad met us again at the Route Inn Tokuyama Ekimae Hotel
ホテルルートイン徳山駅前

We spend a bit of time in the hotel room laying out our wet things including tents. Then we put the air con on hot to dry everything. This seemed to work. We had a shower before heading out for a lovely meal with Cliff’s Dad and his uncle and family. We had a lot of food which was very tasty in a small pub type restaurant

Nishimura
にしむら

We got to bed a bit later than we would have wanted to but not that late. Have to get up very early for the ⛴️ ferry tomorrow.

After a bad night’s sleep we had breakfast in the hotel room enjoying the free vending machine coffee.

Forgot to say that I had a bath and shower in the hotel last night. I was annoyed that I didn’t see the free bath salts at reception until this morning!

We went back to Cliff’s Dad’s apartment to collect all our stuff and start our ride to the train station. It was raining and not very nice. We didn’t have that long to take the bikes apart and put them in our bags but somehow we managed it. Luckily Cliff’s dad was travelling with us which made carrying our stuff a lot easier.

We got on the train and thanks again to Cliff’s dad and Cliff had the correct seats for oversized luggage. This is an area behind the seats which has just enough room for our bikes.

We are on the super express 65.

The journey was around 5 hours but it seemed to go by fairly quickly with chatting, looking out the window and a quick nap. We got the bikes off the train fine but had to carry them quite a long way which is pretty difficult when it is basically in a bin bag and you have four other bags to carry.

Putting the bikes back together went okay, my mud guard had a bit of damaged which we sorted then the riding started.

We left Hiroshima and headed south along the coast. It was a good ride and the navigation went well. The ending up in a closed campsite. Wakichohachigaminesogo Koen Camping Ground
蜂ヶ峯総合公園 キャンプ場

The climb to the top of the hill was so steep I had to get off and push.

The campsite was closed but we stayed there anyway. The driving range nearby made lots of golf noise.

A wild boar came snuffling through. Did cause any problems so far. It started to rain lots in the night.

Today was a convenience store 🏪 breakfast, building bikes which wasn’t too bad. Then lunch at 

どうとんぼり神座 麻布十番店 https://kamukura.co.jp/shop/6393/

After lunch we went on a small bike ride to get some cooking gas from Snow Peak. Bikes seemed to be riding well.

After this we got a few provisions from the supermarket.

Feeling sleepy we had dinner in the hotel room and then went to bed.

The flights all went smoothly and we arrived at the airport to Cliff’s dad waiting to very kindly collect us in a hire car.

The front of my bike box had ripped open but luckily nothing was damaged.

We dropped things off at Cliff’s Dad’s and headed to the hotel https://www.olympic-inn.co.jp/azabu/smart/

It took a little while but we got to sleep okay and then I slept okay for the night.

We made it to China

All going well just waiting for the flight to Tokyo now.

On the tube now to Heathrow. Getting to the station wasn’t too bad. Hopefully everything is within the weight limits. Only time will tell.

Currently on my second train down to London. I guess this is leg 3 of ?? I cycled to the station in the early evening and am making my way to Cliff’s flat to pack up the bikes in the early morning. It felt very strange to leaving the house without Sarah and H dog.

So far so good. Forgot how heavy the bike is and how hard it is to lift it up the small amount onto the train. 

So now it is only a week or so until Cliff and I leave for Japan. We have spent a lot more time planning this trip than we did 14 years ago.

I am not sure if my body or all the gear I used 14 years ago will still be okay. Only one way to find out. Here are a few pictures from test rides.