A cooler, overcast day for another easy hundred kilometres. Around the coast until turning inland (hooray, might find some hills!) short of Shibetsu.

First the usual Seicomart resupply – Hokkaido milk candies a staple, trying out bite-sized meat snacks too (bit odd, want to get through them quickly in the heat). All individually wrapped, of course – not a bad thing in my top tube bag.

Biggest snow shelters seen yet along this stretch.

As we left the coast there was a big museum complex. Extensive displays inside, then relocated fishing and school buildings from more recent history. The audioguides in English, accessed by QR code, were helpful – but again, reception in a concrete bunker of a building not so much.

This made yesterday’s bear encounter more alarming!

Building for fishing work and workers, similar to the one we saw on the northern coast.

Heavy and uncomfortable – wouldn’t want to carry that far.

Bit hot to add to my cycling kit.

Like a bit of bakelite.

The grounds were quite large, so back on the bikes to ride some pleasant boardwalks and paths – with some bonus hike-a-bike. About a kilometre away, there were numerous pits of the indigenous Ainu people that had been excavated. These formed the bottom of their pit houses about a thousand years ago. There were a few reconstructed houses to give a better idea of what they were like.

Lush mossy paths were very pleasant to ride and walk on.

Bark cladding looked ever so delicate – but clearly survives.

Back to sealed roads and inland we went, returning to dairy country, slowly climbing with only a couple of small towns between all the farms.

The common soft drinks vending machine spotted with its less common counterparts – the alcoholic drinks machine.

And seen even less in the wild, the cigarette vending machines.

Milk production clearly taken seriously here, the cows have their own onsen.

The Brilliant Holstein farm was the biggest, and newest, we’d seen yet. Here are some of the buildings and we even saw some animals outside; photos mostly for Dad 🙂 .

Finding some nice gravel, having climbed to the grand altitude of 150 metres, it promptly started drizzling. A konbini just short of our campground provided dinner supplies (no ice creams needed in the rain). We reached the campground office, checked in and loitered in the common area for some hours as it tipped down torrentially for ages! Once it was dark, the rain eased and we ventured out into a lovely camping area – great big shelters for cooking in. Late in the evening when no other campers about, a couple of tents may have gone up in there – but the grounds were so nice and the rain gone, I found a soft patch of lawn and tented there.

On departure poked around old rolling stock, one of the carriages looked like it was set up as a long sleeping platform. Little did we know this would recur through the day – another flat one near the coast, but a bit cooler and more interesting.

Route planning in full swing; like in Mongolia – as I wasn’t the one on a short timeframe, I stayed out of it and stuck to navigating once the file was sent to me.

After reaching a big estuarine lake, Lake Saroma, we spent thirty kilometres riding around most of one side of it! Lots of buoys out in extensive patches, shrimp being the catch the lake is known for.

Still unable to get over how picturesque and clean the dairy farms are – certainly not contaminated with cows!

More rail history standing by the side of the road, this lot in a nice park – also with a carriage set up for sleeping. Would have liked to stay in one of these, but it never quite worked out. Still, something different to look at compared to the previous days – never did find out the history of the long-closed line, disappointingly.

Suspect our loaded bikes are faster than these small wheels.

A few locomotive pics for those interested:

A little cut through some farmland away from the lake, first large greenhouse complex of note; which is curious as the winters aren’t exactly mild up here.

Back beside the lake, but seemingly going the wrong way – exploring a little headland park and campground.

Into Tokoro town for another Seicomart lunch. Also worked out that the big box store was probably a hardware store, so I popped over to try and replace a gas cylinder for our stoves.

Amused to see an indoor curling rink; more amused to find that one of my Naseby mates has curled there.

Colourful borders back besides the streets.

I may have overstocked on camping supplies at the hardware store.   😮

Still scallops around here.

Approaching Lake Notoro, it was pleasing to find some of the old rail route had been converted to a cycling road (as they’re called here). Although a bit neglected, twenty-seven kilometres of dedicated path, often shady, was most welcome.

Biggest snake yet, it waited until we were right next to it before showing signs of life. Alarming.

Certainly was old train day. No accommodation in this one but.

Leaving Lake Notoro, soon riding beside Lake Abashiri, we began to see huge concrete hotels, all abandoned. Mind boggling the size and expense of some structures left to decay.

Abashiri is known for its museums, the one chosen for the afternoon partway up the only hill of the day – later to take us to a campground. Was about to say I’ve not been to a prison museum before, but I can think of at least one – Abashiri’s not quite as famous. A large complex with many old prison buildings, many relocated from around Hokkaido, this was the most interesting and informative learning of Hokkaido so far for me.

The prisons were from the late nineteenth century when most of Hokkaido was being colonised by the Japanese (some Japanese settlement in the southwest close to Honshu before this and the Ainu people well before that). The prisoners were mostly political prisoners and were set to work creating agricultural land, building roads and other infrastructure. I was surprised to find that Japanese settlement was so late (goes a long way to explain the mild disappointment I had in Hokkaido, that it didn’t feel as Japanese – for want of a better expression – as I expected Japan to feel) and it was motivated by a desire to keep the tsarist Russian “menace” (we saw that term a lot in the English translations) at bay.

Guard booth.

These didn’t look comfortable, particularly the pillow.

Restored lime kiln.

An interpretation of “central” heating.

Further up the hill to find the huge campground overlooking the city. Bemusingly, no tent sites available despite the acres of grass. Eventually got through the rigmarole of checking-in to a small chalet.

I don’t think we broke many of the rubbish rules, but it’s hard to know.

Home for the night – lovely to have limitless shower, bit of a kitchen and plenty of clothes drying space upstairs.