Day 7: Yunomine Onsen to Nabari

We woke very early again this morning (6:30am) in preparation for an early start. Our planned route is nearly 5 hours long and history tells us that in practise it will be almost double that. In fact our route ended up being what is shown below. Our travel time was 2 hours more than google's estimate.

The final route taken today

Anyway, breakfast in the minshikyu was amazing as always, and we dallied a little longer than we would have liked before finally getting moving.

Breakfast in Minshiku Kuraya 

Finally the panniers were packed, the bikes turned around in the small lane beside the minshikyu, and we were ready to go. We jumped on, revved the engines and bid farewell to the strong sulphur smell of Yunomine Onsen.

Early morning packing beside the steaming sulphurous village stream. 

Right from the start things didn't go to plan. The GPS took us on a nice little ride north along route 168, following a beautiful gorge but taking us away from our intended destination - the Ryujin Skyline. When we finally realised something was wrong, we decided to take the time hit and turn around.

Back down route 168 a ways, we stopped to get petrol and asked the station attendant for directions to the skyline. He suggested route 735 (as opposed to route 245 which was our only other choice) to get us there. This was a road that we didn't even know existed - one of the tiny tertiary roads that appear in white when you get google maps to zoom right in.

Directions from a very happy, and very helpful petrol station attendant.

Turns out, Mr Petrol Station gave us the good oil indeed. Route 735 turned out to be a fantastic ride through the very heart of rural Wakayama. The road twisted and turned, down to one lane for most of it's length and winding its way up the side of a steep valley, over the ridge and down the other side.

Riding route 375. 

For portions of the route there was no guard rail and the side of the road just plummeted down hundreds of metres to the winding stream far below. A perfect road for motorbikes, and an adventure all on its own! It added 1.5 hours to the day, but it was a really, really amazing ride. Completely different to anything we had ridden on previous days.

Route 375: This is the real rural Wakayama.

As route 375 levelled out and neared Ryujin, we stopped to ask more directions from a friendly bunch of tree-shapers working on someones front garden. Yet again we were given as much help as we needed. The dude that spoke to us even offered to show us the way in person! We've had such an amazing reception, and such a lot of genuinely friendly help from everyone we have met so far on this trip.

More directions from the friendly neighbourhood tree shaper. 

Turns out, Mr Petrol Station's directions put us right at the start of the Skyliner. Do not pass go, do not collect $200. Before it really got going though, we stopped in Ryujin for some curry-rice to refuel our weary bodies. It's cheap, it's stodgy and its powerful stuff.

A quickstop for curry-rice is just what we needed. 

Fed and watered, it time to tackle the Skyliner (route 311 north). This turned out to be an another amazing motorcycle road with wide sweeping curves heading up and up to the top of Koyosan (at altitude of 1000m). On the way up we saw our first glimpses of really true autumn colours - one of the things we were hoping to see during a trip at this time of year.

A taste of autumn colours. If only we were here a little later!

The trees were starting to show their colours, with all different shades of yellow red and green all on display at once. They're not close to their best yet, but they certainly put smiles on our faces today. I can only imagine what they will look like in the coming weeks, Hopefully as we head further north in the coming days the leaves will be even better.

At the top of the Ryujin Skyliner.

At the top of the Skyline we parked and took a few photos. We were approached by a very friendly Japanese man, strung with cameras, and who wanted to take our photo. Of course we posed for him with our bikes and are now expecting an amazing portrait from him via email or facebook.

After leaving the Skyliner, we delved back into the country roads of Wakayama, continuing on route 311. We again twisted and turned down into a deep valley and out the other side before finally reaching civilisation - a vast urban sprawl that we finally descended into on our way to our final destination - Nabari an the Shorenji Lake Hotel.

Unfortunately, we descended at 4:00pm, just in time for peak hour. It was like a descent into hell. The last 60 kms of our journey took two and a half hours of stop-start traffic, and we hated every minute of it.

We arrived, finally, totally exhausted to our hotel the Shorenji Lake Hotel. Thankfully the wonderful dinner laid on by the hotel, and the gracious, helpful lady serving us helped to restore our spirits. There's just the onsen to try out now and I'm sure it will exceed expectations.

An aweful photo, but a superb dinner at Shorenji Lake Hotel.

Postscript: We just tried the onsen and it was indeed awesome. It took literally 15 seconds after our arrival for the 4 old Japanese guys sitting in the outdoor bath to leave and find water elsewhere. I would be the first to admit that the sight of 3 naked white dudes is pretty scary, but come on!