Japan, Hokkaido, Day 10 Lake Kussahoro.

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Abashiri to Lake Kussahoro.

The forecast for today was correct. 6am was brilliant sunshine which turned to rain by 7 and visibility down to 200m. Is it to be sun cream or goose grease today? Everyone is ready to go and get it over with, although it is warmer than Lancashire rain - I hope. Since no one wants to mess with maps in the rain we all follow Peter, who has Ken's Garmin loaded with the route. It is a miserable start on busy roads with tramlines holding loads of water, which we threw up at ourselves with our mudguardless bikes or the traffic threw it at us from the side. None of these was nice. The rain eased off slightly as the morning wore on and it was acceptable, even when we hid under a roof overhang for our mid morning brew. Lunch time saw us at the summit of a 500m pass, Bolhoro Toge, in fog and strong wind. Thankfully the restaurant served hot food and I had soup of noodles, bean sprouts and pork - good. I switched off my Garmin whilst in the restaurant since it knocks off anyway if I leave it for long. However, when I switched it on it asked if I wanted to restore to the factory settings. I said no but still had to set it up again so it looks like I have lost all my data. The descent was quite pleasant since the weather had improved with rain stopped and some blue in the sky. We followed round Lake Kussahoro and back up the other side until we arrived at the Sanayu Beach Onsen. This is a beach, similar to the one on N Island New Zealand, where if you dig a shallow hole in the sand hot water appears. It was so hot my feet were being scalded. The weather was improving greatly so we stayed here quite a while basking on the warm water. Just a few miles up the lake we pulled in to our Hotel, the Kussaroko Hotel, which has its own indoor and outdoor Onsen, so guess what the first job was? Kimono on and a shower and in we go until pinkness turns to red and smooth skin turns to wrinkles. The hotel is right up to the waters edge and our room window is just 25 feet away and next door to some chaps jibbering in a foreign language, which we do not understand. The sun is shining on the beautiful lake, water rippling in the breeze with tree covered hills in the distance, partially covered in cloud - heaven.

Dinner tonight was something else. Japanese to be sure. All sorts of fish and sea creatures, mostly raw and boiled squid - don't look.

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