Day 6: Toba to Yunomine Onsen

We woke very weary this morning to the sound of music outside our window. The primary school kids that are sharing our hotel were out in the carpark doing their morning calisthenics. We should have gone out and joined them! After 2 hard days riding the aches and pains are starting. Sunburn was still glowing on our faces, and general dehydration is a bit of an issue. The sky today is as clear and blue as the last two days, and promises to be another hot one. I still can't believe how lucky we have been with the weather!

The route today promises some amazing scenery in Mie and Wakayama. The plan is to ride from Toba to Ise over the Ise Skyline - a road that twists and turns its way over the mountain pass separating the two coastal towns. From Ise, we'll work our way down the east coast of Mie and then cut inland  to our destination - Yunomine Onsen.

Today's route from Toba to Yunomine Onsen.

So after a beautiful Japanese buffet breakfast, we finally left the Senpokaku Hotel in Toba at around 9:30am. A little later than we would have liked, but not too bad. We stopped immediately at the CircleK at the bottom of the hill to get some sunscreen. After much fussing and searching by the diligent staff, some SPF50+ was produced and duly purchased. The sun can now officially go to hell. Who would have thought we'd need sunscreen when we are each carrying our own weight in thermal and wet weather gear!

Soon we were at the foot of the Ise Skyline and raring to go! With no electronic toll on this road we had to stop to pay cash, but with the transaction completed the nice man in the booth waved us on. Off we dutifully tore and in no time we were at the summit.

The view at the top of the skyline overlooking Toba.

As you can see from the video, the riding itself was nothing short of breathtaking. Although the speed limit was 40km/h (an unfortunate problem with many secondary roads here in Japan) we managed to ride a touch faster than this and get in some wonderful cornering around the many sweeping bends and tight switchbacks. It was with very wide smiles on our faces that we finally pulled into Ise for fuel.

My pit crew hard at work.

After asking the station attendants for directions, we found the Kisei Highway heading to Awase and burned rubber at the absolutely breakneck speed of ... 80km/h down the highway.  Man the speed limits here are the pits. Despite the speed restrictions (that to be honest we don't always follow), and the tunnels - many, many, many tunnels - the ride along the Kisei was just beautiful; with high wooded hillsides, deep valleys, and wide gorges filled with gravel and turquoise rivers.

Riding along the Kisei Highway.

Just before the end of the Kisei, we stopped for lunch at a truck stop at the side of the highway to stave off tiredness and refuel for the next leg. We had definitely earned our coffee and ramen - although I had some issues with the ordering system, and inability to answer even the most simple questions.

Truck-stop ramen and coffee. Lunch of champions.

Fueled-up on caffeine and noodles, we pulled back onto the freeway and were soon on route 42 headed for Kumano on the coast. Again the route down to the coast was beautiful and we had little traffic to hold us up.

At one point, route 42 split into route 42 and route 42. Confused, we stopped our bikes close to a flag waving stop-go man at the side of the road. Faced with 3 gaijin in motorcycle helmets, something that certainly wasn't on his agenda for this or any day, the guy was visibly very nervous! While he was genuinely helpful and tried his best to give us the information we needed, he was shaking a little and had to go to his thermos for a sip of tea half way through the conversation. In the end he told us what we needed to know and was so happy with the outcome that he shook hands and sent us on our way with a smile.

In no time we arrived at Kumano and jut happened to park our bikes right next to the famous, world-heritage-listed, Shishi Iwa - just one of the uber famous rocks on the Kumano coast.

Shshi Iwa and BMWs and some hairless idiot.

Having helped some kind Japanese ladies with their photo taking requirements, they offered to take our photo too. While Lucas laid on the grass pretending to review the map, Richard and I posed for a quick snap.

World heritage 

The route in hand yet again, we jumped back on the bikes and headed for route 311, finally heading inland from Kumano towards Hongu. And what a beautiful ride we had! Route 311, along with the Ise Skyline, is now etched in our memories as one of the best riding roads to date. A great mixture of sweeping bends, zero traffic and beautiful scenery combined to make our day.

Running down route 311. What an amazing ride!

After route 311, we changed to route 169, 168 and back to 311 enroute to Yunomine Onsen. All these roads provided a great riding experience strung end to end over the course of the afternoon.

The bridge over Dorokyo Gorge, joining route 169 with 168.

Finally we made the last turn towards Yunomine Onsen, and wound our way up the small secluded valley. We arrived to be greeted with a village square surrounded by Minshuku. The GPS coordinates we had could have refered to any one of them! We had to ask which one was Minshuku Kuraya - our bed for the night. Turns out it was the most beautiful one, right on the edge of the river with a smiling hostess and it's very own onsen.

Gaijin on noisy machines invade the idyllic village square.

Munshuku Kuraya, our home away from home.

Bikes parked in the small available space.

Kyuraya's private onsen hut on the river's edge.

With a little time to spare for once, we wandered around the town, rehydrating and snapping photos as we went. Unfortunately, half an hour after we arrived a bus load of european tourists disgorged onto the street and filed into an establishment across the river. We selfishly rued their arrival as spoiling the purity of the place. Hypocritical? Maybe. But hey, it's my story.

The beautiful village of Yunomine Onsen.

With a quick bath before dinner, we donned our yukata and felt immediately more comfortable. Minshuku Kuraya is a beautiful place to stay. In no time our dinner was served and we sat down to yet another traditional Japanese meal. Amazing.

Dinner is served.

Loving every mouthful.

Well, dinner is over and the blog is done. Time now to go soak in the onsen and then drink 5 litres of water. Or maybe Pokari Sweat. Either way it will be wet all round.