Kyushu. Japan. Yakushima

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Day 10 Yakushima
Today was another day of surprises with a bonus of a beach Onsen’ at a third of our way around the island. Since the Onsen pools were quite small, with males and females separated by a flimsy fence we retained our modesty in our shorts and bikinis. The hottest part was the pebbles leading to the Onsen. Martin set off with a will out of town first thing and a breakaway of four soon dropped the group and with a tail wind, despite some steep little hills, we averaged 15mph until the Boulangerie at 11am. The roads after this point were very traffic free and we encountered several deer and some macaques doing their ablutions in the shade. As usual for the coastline of Japan the road was rather lumpy and we soon had 1100m on our Garmins before the lunch stop at the 8km long Nagata Inaka Hama beach where thousands of turtles arrive each May and June to lay their eggs. The young appear in July and August to swim back out to sea. It is a pity we are a month too soon. Martin did a sprint back to the hotel and was showered and changed when I arrived back at 5pm, which could have been sooner if I had not overshot the road junction in town and done an extra 2 miles. It was then time me to strip the bikes ready for transport back on the van roof and trailer. I removed my saddle and pedals and said a sad farewell to my trusty Trek 1.2 road bike. Another great meal of suchi and a million trimmings served by two very pleasant Philipino ladies who were wanting lessons in basic French, thought Martin very attractive and called him M’Artagnan the musketeer. We had a slogan competition and then wrote the letters on paper for a group photograph. The slogan by Christine was chosen, ’I love Japan, I'll be back’. Everyone loved the tour and were surprised at the lovely country and the professionalism of our local guides, Ken and Dai. Great stuff.

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Photos

Turtle beach
Nagata Inaka Hama