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All aboard the 08:00 tandem to Yokohama! The first bit looks easy enough, a smooth level path through the forest...a deceptive start to the day. |
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Just follow the sign to...um...somewhere! This is where we join the main 'Tenen Hiking Course' which is a very popular walking and MTB route. Not many people around on a weekday morning though. |
Pick up your bike and walk. |
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At times like this I'm glad it's a (relatively) lightweight aluminium frame. But shouldn't there be a stoker helping to carry it? |
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At the top at last! Eventually we break out of the forest and can enjoy far-reaching views...over more forest. Fuji-san is supposed to be visible sometimes, but not today (and it's not in this direction anyway). |
Some people have been known to ride down this rock wall...at least part of the way. You can have a look at pictures of someone riding down and then falling down - these are from the Hirako.com August 2001 Club ride. |
But with no-one to show off to, we prefer to walk down this sort of thing. |
The chief photographer enjoying a well-earned coffee stop. Hot sweet coffee out of a vending machine, lovely! That's Kamakura in the background, beside the sea. |
After coffee, the ride gets much easier (and it's not just because of the coffee)! We start off through a stand of giant bamboo .. |
...forgetting to wait for the stoker. |
There's a cemetery at the bottom of this cliff, presumably full of cyclists who failed to make the corner. |
The route continues on a good path through various types of forest (some sort of pine here, I think). A few people are out enjoying the morning sun, but not enough to get in the way. |
It's not the sort of place that you would want to go off the edge of the path...on either side. It's a long way down! No real risk here, though...at least in daytime. |
Then all too soon we break out of the forest at the end of the
off-road
part of the ride. It takes about
1 hour 20 minutes door to door (except when we stop to take lots of
photos
like today). |
And here is 'work' - the fastest computer in the world. Or at least it will be when it gets switched on some time in 2002. The return journey in the night is fun, but not so easy to photograph, as it's far too dark our digital camera. One particular hazard is huge spider webs strung up across the path with silk as tough as fishing line - and the spiders that go with them... |
Like this one! This is some sort of orb web spider, (possibly) a female naga kogane-gumo spider, enjoying her dinner. Looked like it was eating a small sparrow but we didn't dare get too close. This is about half life size, in my imagination at least. There are some more monster insects on the nature page. |
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