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| This place is just outside of Atami. Not sure if that's a real castle or a "love hotel" :)) |
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| Just before we arrive at Atami station |
Outdoor Space's end of year mountain biking session went out with a bang this year!! The venue was set, the numbers were going and the weather was looking great!! Cycle Sports Center in the central highlands of Izu was our destination.
John and I were on a mission to have a wickedly wild time as well :)) We went a day early. We caught the train down to Atami. Just before we arrived there John pipes up with the suggestion of beer. Well, why not? It's the holiday season now ... and we were on holiday!
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| At another 7/11 and time for another beer. The beach is just across the road. |
At Atami station we set up our bikes, bought some more beer and then set off on our journey to the mountains of Izu. The sun was shining brightly and it was quite warm considering it's now the middle of winter here in Japan.
"Hey dude there's 7/11 up the road. Shall we get another beer?"
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| Lots of dried fish along the side of the road on our way. So cool :)) |
We had only cycled 4 or 5 Ks out and we were already drunk!! All those big hills were making us thirsty and we stopped at nearly every shop we could see along our ride! Our destination, Cycle Sports Center, was by Google's map, 23.6 Ks away from Atami. We had to ride down the coast road for a while then turn inland on Route 80. Failing that, down the road a few more Ks was Route 19.
We missed both of them!!
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| Naaa, they are not dried ghosts ... the are dried squid |
Quite a distance down the track I mentioned to John that I reckon we had gone way passed where we were supposed to turn off. The guy in the 7/11 confirmed that for us when he consulted his map. We were about 15 Ks too far!!
It's now well into the afternoon and time is getting short to find somewhere to camp. We made it to Route 19 after stopping for dinner at a local Yakitori restaurant owned by an old man and his wife. The place had a great atmosphere and the food was good. The beer went down a treat!! :) Time to head off and get as far as we could towards our destination. The hill that leads up to the next road we needed was a killer!! It just kept going up!! I think we walked more than half of it! Finally just before midnight we gave up and found a spot to put up our hammocks in an orange orchard, well next to it anyway. We had maybe 6 or 7 Ks left to do in the morning. At least we wouldn't starve, the oranges and mandarins were ripe and ready to eat. There were plenty lying around so we grabbed a few.
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| In the Yakitori bar we ordered some Karage. It's basically fried chicken but small bite size pieces. The old guy showed us his only bit of chicken he had left. It was a half of chicken. "Cool" we thought, and we thought he would cut it up to make Karage. He fried the whole thing and plopped it in front of us like that!! It was dam tasty though!! Must be country style karage :)) |
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| If we weren't stopping to buy a beer then we would stop to take a leak!! John's turn this time :)) |
John set his hammock up in record time and very soon he was inside saying his good nights. He seemed knackered!! I was too, probably that's why I took so long to set mine up. It was freekin' cold now and I couldn't stop shivering!! Soon I'd be in my minus 25 RAB sleeping bag. After 5 minutes or so it's like being in a portable heater with that thing :)) A good sleep was soon to come :))
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| The toilet inside the bar was quite dodgy!! This seems quite nice in the picture but it was filled with mold and dust. I certainly don't think anyone has washed their hands in that for a while :)) |
I woke up to the sound of giggling!! What a weird dream I was having, I drearily thought as I soon slept again.
In the morning I told John about the dream. He said he heard laughing too and people down on the road. Wow!! Who the hell was out there then!? We were in the middle of nowhere, what the hell were they doing there too!? ... a mountain mystery :))
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| Didn't even have time to take his shoes off!! |
At 6am it was time to get up and head up the friggin' hill again!! Inside my sleeping bag it was so warm that I really contemplated just staying where I was and giving up the whole mountain biking idea. But the idea was soon given up when John started packing his gear, he was on a mission by the look of things. A couple of Rock Star cans later and peddles were pumpin'. On the road again!
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| Just behind our hammocks is a big orange orchard :)) |
The top of the hill at last!! That's got to be the longest hill in Japan!! Crikey it's a killer on the legs :))
... continued in the next story. Too many photos to put on the same one :))
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