Enjoyed not having to decamp in the morning and heading off for the day riding around the west part of Sado unloaded. Felt a bit flat riding into the wind up the coast, but not too bad and this was made up for by the wind being behind us on the return to camp. A lumpy day, somehow a thousand metres of climbing despite only once getting slightly a hundred metres above the Sea of Japan.

Brown board and batten houses strong on this side of the island too.

We happened upon what was once the largest gold mine in Japan, plenty of ruins of the processing plants being slowly overgrown to wander around and wonder at the scale and process engineering involved.

A flat section along various coastal sights, not all of which I could figure out.

Former loading facility?

Ominous, but hopefully not relevant today.

Biggest climb of the day, and some interesting civil engineering to admire.

Angry birds as a tool to keep people out of construction zones?

Patches of rice growing, as expected, started to see it out drying.

None of these decaying bridges collapsed under us, thankfully.

Heading for the northern tip of the island, next photo is climbing the low point in centre of photo.

Over to the tip of the eastern section of the island – where we rode the previous afternoon.

Pillar boxes like these an occasional sight.

Concrete sea defences still multiplying.

Down the plains connecting the two hilly sides of the island with that kind wind to find that most every rice farmer in the area was queuing to deliver their harvest.

Line of kei trucks amusingly dwarfed by the silos. How many truck loads does it take to fill a single silo?

Back early enough to enjoy a quiet onsen at the hotel adjoining the campground, very nice leisurely unloaded day.