A late start with several cups of tea deliberating over having a full rest day due to heavy forecast rain or chancing it because outside it was improving. Eventually we left the rider house riding rural roads around the base of Mt Yotei.

A big parking lot at Kyogoku lead to popular paths around steamy hot springs fed by water under Yotei. Rather atmospheric.

Surprised to see some Mongolian wool products at one of the stalls.

Continuing south, more rich farming land – immaculate dairy farms, cropping (carrots ready to harvest were tempting).

Into Rusutsu for lunch, and a slight detour so Rachel could see the resort town she visited thirteen years before for a ski holiday. The large amusement park, part of it inside a hotel, the most notable feature to my eyes in summer.

A town for my brother-in-law, it seems.

Outside cows!

Somewhere along the way, a michi no eki (large roadside services complex without fuel, often selling a lot of local produce and wares – we frequently visited these) helped us stock up on dinner bits.

Every so often in Japan the road marked on our maps would turn out to be a track – this was usually a welcome change.

This was one of the good ones, a steep easy descent to Lake Toya.

A flat quiet road around the lake towards our campground.

The campground was a beauty – right on the lake, big deciduous trees and a little bit going on.

We’d managed to stay reasonably dry all day, so didn’t tempt fate and got the tents up pronto. The various ingredients we’d collected throughout our riding made another great dinner.

Not much hanging around drinking tea into the night as the rain soon arrived. It bucketed down for much of the night, small streams running down to the lake everywhere and I found that the seam sealing of my tent wasn’t quite up to scratch in a couple of places – but my sleeping gear and me stayed dry.