Temple 11 to Temple 12: 16.3km
The temple starting and finishing locations are approximate as the villages where we actually stay may not show on Google maps. Just like Lake Ontario doesn’t show anymore, soon to be followed by Trump Strait (formerly Hormuz) and the Republic of Trump (formerly Venezuela).
Today was a beautiful walk, although gruelling. If it wasn’t for the mochilla express, we may be sleeping in one of the Henro shelters in the forest. It was all forest, all day, but the first stint was 720m of ascent followed by 350m descent. Easy to confuse with assent and decent, which would be far from the truth! Then it was another 350m up and 479m down before we arrived at Ryokan Sudachi-an. Despite the forecast (90% rain all day) we felt the first drops in the final 100m. Yay!
For the first half of the day the trail was well maintained – intriguingly the steps (of which there were a multitude) were made with concrete (presumably) designed to look like lengths of tree. One of the rest huts was constructed with the same fake logs. Japan seems to specialize in concrete and plastic! Upon arrival the bus travelled for an hour on an elevated concrete expressway, and now everywhere I look all I see is concrete. The valley we walked across is prime agricultural flood plain, but housing is gradually burying it. Curiously, there was no obvious development on the hillsides – but I’m sure there is a good reason.
After arrival at tonight’s ryokan we were delivered to the nearby onsen, where the various pools helped soothe the aching bones. For me I had to deploy a length of athletic tape to hide my tattoo, as they are very strict on the no tattoo policy. I felt like all the Japanese geezers were staring at me, but not sure if that was because I am a foreigner or that I had a strange arm band on!
Another curiosity: as I write this the village speaker system is blaring, not with a tsunami warning or typhoon watch, but with a public service announcement advising residents to be careful when barbecuing (our hostess helpfully provided the translation. Our Japanese is still at the please/thank-you level!)
2saunter 