A very grey morning, often misty and rain gear on and off fairly often. But still so much to see has we headed down valley all day to Wakayama.
Pleased to see our campground in the daylight – our shelter kept us dry, even if few of our wet clothes dried out.
Found the most important Japanese shrine to a water god shortly after departing.
Beautiful clear rivers, as so often.
One of the most-modified kei trucks I spotted on our trip.
Through another town not hiding the decay.
We then hit a lot of wood processing towns and mills – some small, some not-so.
Impressive number of slabs.
Often very quiet riding on the other side of the river from the main road.
We supposed these lengths were supposed to be drying, but probably not much in this humidity. Better than in the forest though.
Baited bear trap – thankfully didn’t see any bears, having given our bear spray away some days before.
Wee carport for a wee car.
Just quick enough to snap one of the deer bounding across the road – hadn’t seen any for a while, but Rachel had heard some in the night.
Considering all the mills we saw, this was the only log yard we noticed – didn’t look big enough to keep all the mills supplied.
So neat!
Probably took this video for my nephew:
Radioactive?
A factory open to the street was busy making disposable chopsticks using a variety of machines. Fascinating to watch the process, and we were given a pair each. I’ve kept mine, somewhere, as a good reminder of the scores of similar ones we were given at konbinis and eateries.
Cycle route, and later trail, most of the way into Wakayama – the most organised one yet.
Even the garbage trucks are pleasant – finally captured one of the many chimed ones driving past.
Surprised to see this, having visited a fair few of the outdoor gear stores – hadn’t heard there was a guest house, maybe more than one.
The old town of Gojo was nice, despite not having banished the utility cables as towns on the Nakasendo have; a difference here being that the upper stories were plastered, rather than wooden.
Kept seeing Mitsubishi Jeeps today, hadn’t seen any until this day, didn’t see any more. Odd.
We had a look around a doctor’s house, preserved as it was in the 1960s – before finding local refreshments down the street.
Unsure what was going on here.
Whatever it was, was mildly alarming.
Having booked a ferry from Wakayam over to Shikoku (our next island, very much anticipated!), we had to make faster time on the cycle trail than our usual pace. Not having to deal with traffic certainly helped.
Typical driving range.
Couple of months early, but one assumes we could have stayed here if we wanted the experience.
But all the Santas were a little offputting.
Most concerted effort to tame rampant spring growth that we saw – impressive remote controlled squat lawn mowers.
They certainly tidied things up.
Big hairpins on the trail; alas our pace wasn’t such to make them too exciting.
From the other side of the river, Wakayama looked a nice city and I’d have liked to spend some time there – but we had a ferry to catch.
I spied a blast furnace or two, and got distracted.
That bridge was surprisingly steep on a loaded bike.
But it gave good views of a chemical plant!
A different style ferry to the usual monohull.
Bikes first on again.
Inadvertently we upgraded our tickets to the lounge at the bow. Thankfully we had it to ourselves, as after a couple of damp days our socks were ripe.
Goodbye to Honshu, for now, a thoroughly enjoyable four weeks where I appreciated older Japanese history and buildings. Arriving in Tokushima after dark, we had an easy five kilometres to ride to a hotel – a good chance to dry some things out.