Just a half-day of riding on leaving Seiko’s house, as a little ahead of schedule to meet Rachel’s brother for the upcoming long weekend. Not even fifty kilometres and only four hundred metres of climbing – far more restful than our day off bikepacking yesterday!

Bye to Seiko’s home.

Bit of flora on the covers for a change.

This house must have caught my eye early on as we endured a rat-run for morning commuters.

Birds starting to reappear.

Halfway through the climb to Lake Inawashiro we got back out to the countryside, plenty of harvesting of rice – which was a nice change from the traffic on the secondary highway earlier.

Short detour to find a konbini for lunch and overnight supplies. The 7-Eleven was unusually lacking fresh produce, so we ended up with frozen meals and veges – bound to thaw in the afternoon heat. Around the lake we went, passing a few free campsites – suitable besides being still morning and too early to stop.

Still a wee way to go; very flat though, as why go over when you can go through a hill.

At camp by one o’clock made for a relaxing afternoon in the shade of the campground trees, right on the edge of the lake. After making camp, tea, and a nap it was time for a wander around the quiet village.

Appearing from the cover above.

Kiwifruit!

Bell for the fire station.

Grain store with roof elevated off walls.

Back to camp to see how our now-thawed frozen meals would work out – quite alright. Although a cat found the milk carton in the porch of Rachel’s tent overnight, pierced it and stole our milk!