Ozaki Beach to Muroto, 23.2 km
The forecast was for showers, but they ended before we departed, and we therefore had to endure a tough day in humidity and bright sunshine walking at the side of highway 55. It was the sort of day to put the faint-hearted off doing a walking pilgrimage! We tried to make things interesting by walking along the seawall (ocean battlements might be a better description), although the view over the parapet of vast amounts of garbage and lost/abandoned commercial fishing gear was very disheartening. The pounding surf was nice though. It would be an interesting walk on a stormy day!
The coast has numerous small harbours, most with dilapidated or abandoned buildings, but plenty of fishing boats hiding behind the ocean fortifications. Judging by the state of many homes, economic activity is in decline and one can perhaps speculate that the fishing industry is in decline. Maybe due to over fishing – if the number of huge nets we could see as we walked, and the lights of fishing boats were numerous last night. The town of Muroto has a whale as its emblem – perhaps ironic given that it’s probably a very long time since a whale was spotted in these waters. We also passed several elaborate hotels close to the cape, so in the not too distant past this was a getaway for the well heeled.
After the tedium of the road, we had a stiff climb up to Temple 24 on Cape Muroto. The temple complex shares the cape with a lighthouse, telecommunications towers and sundry statues. It’s a busy place. Fortunately it also had a drink machine which we happily fed money into!
After the Cape it was still about 7 km to our destination, the town of Muroto. It’s also the location of Temple 25, not surprisingly dedicated to fishermen.
2saunter 