Ireland. Day1 Here I am lying on my bunk on the way to Dublin after arriving by train from Clitheroe to Holyhead. The sun is shining and the sea is calm. What more can you desire on your first day of an exciting journey to visit the Irish Bogs? The bike is safely stowed on Deck 3, all clean and raring to go into the wild blue yonder of wild winds and horizontal rain. Abrahams Hostel is the rest stop tonight before another afternoon train journey across to the west coast at Galway. I should have time in between to sample the Guinness and listen to some Irish Folk Music with perhaps a whiz around Dublin in the morning to see the sights. I have my earplugs read for the late night drunken hostellers I have ... read more

Izunagaoka to Shimoda And you thought Cornwall was lumpy. You haven't been down the west coast of the Izu Peninsula then. We were a bit daunted this morning by the prospect of 110km and 2,400m of climbing but we might have got stronger during the tour because we all did it and could still stand up at 5pm when we finished. One good thing is that the climbs were relatively short, usually about 2 km and were obviously followed by a nice descent which allowed a bit of a rest. The gradients were not over kind and whilst averaging 7% went up to 10 or 12. The scenery was possibly the best yet of the whole tour with small fishing villages, holiday resorts, craggy bays, rocky outcrops offshore and small caves in the rocks. Small villages ... read more

Fujimi to Kawaguchiko 116km. 1200m climbing. Oh! What a difference a day makes, just 24 hours. Who would have dreamt that today would be wall to wall sunshine spending the first 50k going downhill with a tail wind, and to top it all having a magnificent view of Mt Fuji. The descent was through typical Japanese agricultural land with little tractors cultivating the little fields manned by men in straw hats. The towns had the usual beautifully manicured gardens and topiary and there were more grapes and fruit trees in monstrous greenhouses. After a bread and tuna salad lunch we started our compulsory climbing alongside a river which had two small hydro electric power stations at the roadside. At about 80km we had another brew stop, just before my legs gave out and my posterior lost ... read more

Takayama to Norikoura What a day? It is surprising how a day can change so dramatically. We set off from town with a bit of cloud, which soon turned into a clear sky and getting warmer as we travelled up the quiet road with a hillside on our left with houses having well manicured gardens and lovely shaped trees. On our right were small tractors preparing the ground ready for rice planting. All too soon we were on the main road and climbing into the hills. Our first stop was at a small Tofu factory for our morning break. We had coffee, nuts, oranges and of course some delicious warm fried Tofu. Onward and upwards we pedalled for what seemed forever past snow ploughs and snow blowers, which was an ominous sight. I was nearly dead ... read more

Suzu to Wakuraonsen. A good sleep on the floor last night, thank goodness, so woke up ready for off and not making the mistake of yesterday morning and chasing people 20 years, or more, my junior. Breakfast was the usual fish, egg boiled (or nearly so) in the Onsen and various pickled Unknown vegetables with a bowl of rice. Where is the porridge? Off we went and after a morning brew we stopped at a bakery for some extra lunch supplies since our guides were providing bread and fillings. Not fish I am glad to say. I bought 4 items in the bakery, which looked delicious like custard tart etc. My rear bag had a lot of gear in so it was a bit of a squash, so when we saw the backup van later I ... read more