2 Sep - I woke up super early at 5.30 after a restless night and headed out for a short run before the day's big cycling effort.
I headed back to my room to get ready to check out after breakfast and met Iona and Col. We had another yummy Dormy Inn breakfast.
Our gear was piled into our van and we headed out of town towards the South. The day was 80 km long, with a ten kilometre climb at the halfway mark.
The first 45 km was through rolling farmland. No traffic again to speak of. We passed a sign cautioning against the smog. We stopped not long after that for morning tea.
From here it was about ten km to the climb. As we approached the hills, the sun broke through the clouds and it turned into a scorcher.
The climb was fairly easy. No need for low gear. But it was relentless in its length. The gradient was pretty consistent. But fortunately the view from the top was visible (it's often cloudy) and we had a great lunch at the roadside restaurant. I had squid on rice. Mmmm. And gyoza.
I'm eating a lot on this holiday!
After lunch, it was close to ten kilometres of superb downhill. No wind. No traffic. Smooth roads. And I only had to pedal when I wanted to go even faster. Which I did. Loved it! My road bike was made for that road.
We stopped at a great Ainu museum at about 73 km and they turned on a video for us. Twenty minutes in a seat that wasn't my bike seat was heavenly and the man taking on the video should sell his voice to recordings for insomniacs. I nearly fell asleep in my chair listening to him speak.
The exhibits were good too. Loads of archaeological artefacts on display. After checking it all out, we wandered to the river where a natural onsen stood. But from a distance I saw a naked man so I didn't get any closer. Dai and Tats went to chat while I took photos much further away.
Then it was back on the bikes and off to the hot water sand beach. I have no need to visit hot water beach in the Coromandel anymore. I've done the same thing in Japan on the shores of lake Kussharo.
We only stayed half an hour, then we rode to our night's accommodation. When we checked in we found out the guides had no room. Oops. They went further to find a room. We'll meet them after breakfast tomorrow.
Iona and Col and I went into the onsen and relaxed in the water. We managed twenty minutes before we were far too hot. Chilled out before dinner.
Dinner was weird. The menu was in Japanese English. One thing was completely unidentifiable. We made Iona try it and she swore bad words at us when she really wanted to spit it out.
We got through dinner and I googled the menu item and discovered it really was a thing - https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ascidiacea is what we ate. It wasn't really very nice.
Anyway, we tried desperately to find something to watch on television but gave up. The Xian entombed warriors reenactment almost kept us entertained.
But I was super sleepy and stumbled off to bed. Zzzzzz.
Tomorrow has another climb. A zig zag one. Bring it on!
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