Written by Dave

Makurazaki (Hinokami Camping Ground) to  Yaeyama Park– (72k, 970m)

The day was bookend by two of the most beautiful campsites. Our site last night seemed to have low potential at first. But the hoards of Japanese campers were generally very polite and quiet. We met another couple of touring cyclists from Korea and had a nice chat with them. But the big point getter for last night’s spot had to be the sunrise this morning.

We made a rookie move setting our tent up and ended up with a super bright pathway light on our tent. But then at 10PM, the light turned off. How nice and how Japanese. Then this morning the light came back on at 5AM, also very nice but funny. I lay in bed stewing that I’d missed the sunset by oversleeping. I got up then anyway only to discover that the sun hadn’t even come up yet – lucky. Then the sun came up and the show started. My photos will tell the rest of the story – wow.

Being up so early got us out of camp early. We left the same time as the Korean couple. We never got their names but they had some serious retirement travel cred. They only retired earlier this year yet since retiring they’ve walked the length of the PCT (other than the snow-bound bits) and then started this 6 month tour of Japan and Thailand. No grass growing under their feet.

We basically rode due north from camp, up and over the mid-island mountain range and to the small city of Minamisatsuma. I thought Minamisatsuma was bigger and trusted Komoot to get us around it without too much city riding. This worked well until we came across a road closed sign and had to re-route. On the re-route we met a couple other cyclists, one on a tour who lives in a city we may go through later – we may meet up if we can figure out how to connect.

The downside of the closed rode was it prevented getting us on the Minamisatsuma seaside cycle path sooner. We eventually got there and found an old rail corridor that took completely away from traffic for close to 20k. We were sad to see it end but it was about where we had to turn inland to ride up to our camp site. On the way up, naturally we found roadside restaurant. Today I finally got to try one of the local specialities, the grilled eel. It was better than it sounds with Nancy even giving it the thumbs up.

After lunch we had about 18k to ride. Most of it was uphill. At first it wasn’t bad. The last 7k things got more interesting. And the last 5k were very steep. I kept looking at things way up above our heads and joking saying we’d be there soon. That joke got old as sure enough we had to climb that high. Ultimately we reach the Yeayama park and camping area. The site is perched at the top of the climb right on the edge of the escarpment. We have view out to Minamisatsuma and the sea beyond. The city lights are great but you’ll have to take our word for it as my camera doesn’t do night shots all that great.

Camp tonight is nowhere near as busy as last night but that’s to be expected with the work week starting tomorrow. We met some more cyclists at camp but they were running off to the onsen and we didn’t chat much. They have a massive tent but we found out that the hired/rented it from the park – now that’s a clever idea!

Tomorrow we head toward Akune and Iwashi Building hostel. There are a few hills getting us there but Nancy just reworked Komoot into a friendlier path along the sea. We plan on taking a day off in Akune because other than what we came up with in Oregon, we don’t have much of a forward plan from there. Japan requires more planning than we’re used to. That is unless you are like the Korean couple we met and just pull up in a park or shrine when they feel like stopping. I’m not sure we’re ready for that, much less the PCT – ah to be newly retired.