Cycling Day 37: To the Kumano Kado
Minabe Guesthouse
So my guesthouse was a plum farm producing salted plums. The free sample was very nice!
They seem to have Vietnamese and Indonesian workers who live on-site, as well as Japanese employees.
It was comfy, if a bit campsite-like in terms of toilets and showers, but it was cheap f an indoor bed!
Small Temple
Cape Tenjin
A small, coastal, National Park with a nature trail going up a 36m high mount.
Looks popular for fishing and school trips!
2 Supermarkets?
Starting to head up-river now, but I didn't want to risk the shops in the hills not having breakfast cereal or powdered milk, so popped into an A-Coop (a favourite on Okinawa/Amami islands), but couldn't find what I was after (plus the bread was quite pricey) and had to explore a second supermarket!
Pretty warm and dry weather today, so far...but grey... The hills look a bit moody shrouded in cloud!
Lunch spot - a bench by the river
8 May 2026 - 14:38
Takijiri Oji - Kumano Kodo
I popped in to the information centre near here to make sure the walks I'm considering will work - unusual for me!
Oji are small shrines dedicated to child gods, and there are many along the Kumano Kodo.
I've 2 potential walks planned - one from here back to the campsite and the other a longer one from the Hongu area back to the campsite. There are busses I can catch to make them linear walks.
Scarecrows (or scare-humans!)
Hillside Hamlets
8 May 2026 - 15:59
8 May 2026 - 16:39
Rest stop after lots of climbing and a 1.4km tunnel
8 May 2026 - 17:24
8 May 2026 - 17:31
Iris Campsite
A woodland and riverside campsite with it's own onsen (hot spring). Very picturesque, but I'm finding the season of flying, biting insects has started the last few days, and I'm on the menu!