Farewell to the Ezo Rider house, a great spot a day off the bike. (Learnt much later that Ezo is an old word for Hokkaido.)

A little backtracking out of town, past the Mt Io volcanic area, before turning south on quiet roads to the town of Teshikaga and resupply (food, food and gas canister – konbini and DCM).

That’s a different way of loading logs on a truck, don’t think I’d ever see the like in NZ

Leaving town we took country roads for ten kilometres through river flat farm land before rejoining the quiet highway for a sustained, wiggly climb. A very cloudy day, but the humidity had returned to keep us sweating. But pretty gentle riding, and plenty of trees to look at.

Occasional peaks of mountains off in the distance. The closest one being Mt Oakan, the volcano which formed the caldera lake Akan.

Another abandoned building, just past the road summit – an old roadhouse, or visitor centre? Nice to stop for a bit.

Long galleria to break up the arboreal view.

Shortly after joining a busier highway, and reaching Akan, there was some walking to be done to the edge of Lake Akan. Fortunately or not, not enough time to continue to the summit of Mt Oakan. Some good West Coast style trail – gnarly roots, moss covered…

Into the touristy town of Akan for lunch and a wander past bubbling mud pools – reminders of a different part of home.

A lot of coloured covers in the streets – eye-catching.

Bit of time at an Ainu culture/handcraft street of shops aimed at all the tourists. My appreciation of such areas is not high, so only the one photo. Most of the crafts were wood or antler carvings – I probably should have taken a closer look, but little chance I was going to buy anything and then carry it for weeks.

Twenty more kilometres mostly climbing to camp beside Lake Onneto for the night. Last little bit on a gravel road off the highway, beautiful riding through close forest. Unfortunately a little late for the cafe still to be open, but a nice campground covered in by big trees. Another enjoyable, despite the gloom, day on the bikes – nice to be in the hills.

A cooler, overcast day for another easy hundred kilometres. Around the coast until turning inland (hooray, might find some hills!) short of Shibetsu.

First the usual Seicomart resupply – Hokkaido milk candies a staple, trying out bite-sized meat snacks too (bit odd, want to get through them quickly in the heat). All individually wrapped, of course – not a bad thing in my top tube bag.

Biggest snow shelters seen yet along this stretch.

As we left the coast there was a big museum complex. Extensive displays inside, then relocated fishing and school buildings from more recent history. The audioguides in English, accessed by QR code, were helpful – but again, reception in a concrete bunker of a building not so much.

This made yesterday’s bear encounter more alarming!

Building for fishing work and workers, similar to the one we saw on the northern coast.

Heavy and uncomfortable – wouldn’t want to carry that far.

Bit hot to add to my cycling kit.

Like a bit of bakelite.

The grounds were quite large, so back on the bikes to ride some pleasant boardwalks and paths – with some bonus hike-a-bike. About a kilometre away, there were numerous pits of the indigenous Ainu people that had been excavated. These formed the bottom of their pit houses about a thousand years ago. There were a few reconstructed houses to give a better idea of what they were like.

Lush mossy paths were very pleasant to ride and walk on.

Bark cladding looked ever so delicate – but clearly survives.

Back to sealed roads and inland we went, returning to dairy country, slowly climbing with only a couple of small towns between all the farms.

The common soft drinks vending machine spotted with its less common counterparts – the alcoholic drinks machine.

And seen even less in the wild, the cigarette vending machines.

Milk production clearly taken seriously here, the cows have their own onsen.

The Brilliant Holstein farm was the biggest, and newest, we’d seen yet. Here are some of the buildings and we even saw some animals outside; photos mostly for Dad 🙂 .

Finding some nice gravel, having climbed to the grand altitude of 150 metres, it promptly started drizzling. A konbini just short of our campground provided dinner supplies (no ice creams needed in the rain). We reached the campground office, checked in and loitered in the common area for some hours as it tipped down torrentially for ages! Once it was dark, the rain eased and we ventured out into a lovely camping area – great big shelters for cooking in. Late in the evening when no other campers about, a couple of tents may have gone up in there – but the grounds were so nice and the rain gone, I found a soft patch of lawn and tented there.