After typhoon Jebi ran its course (it wasn’t bad where we were, just stormy) we headed out of Sounkyo towards Onneyu. Whatever leftover wind from Jebi there was, or maybe it was just a normal strong wind, who knows, worked in our favour as we zoomed downhill with a tailwind, and we arrived in Onneyu in no time. There, we did some sight-seeing, set up camp in a free (!) camping, had a good long…
(As you might have noticed, I’m a little bit behind with posting. Right now we are in central Hokkaido, safely tucked away in a hotel. Typhoon Jebi is passing us tonight quite far to the west, but is still causing strong winds and overall nasty weather, but nothing like the total chaos it is causing in other parts of the country. Still, we don’t quite trust our tent enough so better to be in an…
We wake up early at the michi-no-eki, and it is dry. It’s actually pretty scenic, tucked away in the corner of our parking lot. On the side of the onsen is a huge water wheel/mill (waterrad, in Dutch, and our crappy connection won’t let me look up the correct translation right now). It feels like we’re taking forever packing the tent and all our things. I guess we still have to settle into the routine…
Rain We wake up with a steady trickle of rain on the tent. Ugh. We try to wait it out for a bit, but one look outside tells us that it probably won’t stop raining anytime soon. At least it’s a steady drizzle and not a full-on downpour, but it will stay with us the entire day as we slowly cycle the 40km or so to the city. I pre-loaded this route to my gps…
Taking a bike, let alone two, to the airport and in an airplane is always hectic. We arrived there by train, and then had to disassemble our bikes, fit them in the boxes picked up at the airport (mine barely fit, I had to cut a hole out of the topside to let my handlebar poke through) and then navigate pretty much the whole length of Schiphol with two huge boxes on a cart. Fun…
Our house is littered with things that either need to be packed in our panniers or packed into boxes for storage. Clothes that need sorting, electronics that need sorting. A harddisk full of e-books that needs sorting. And most of all, a racing mind that needs sorting and chill the fuck down, but the excitement about this trip combined with the stress of arranging everything before departure make that hard. I don’t want to complain…