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It took us a couple of hours to get through the seemingly endless
conurbation into the countryside (not so different from Wirral, then).
But that tedium was soon forgotten as we headed up the first real climb
towards Miyagase Lake. There's a big tourist centre here with water sports,
shops and picnic areas but apparently no overnight accomodation, so we
pressed on up the river.
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The first two campsites we reached did not accept tents! Fortunately
the third one did, although the proprietor seemed genuinely surprised that
we actually wanted to stay there that night. This was to be a regular theme
in the trip - we would turn up at around 5pm, obviously tired, and the
attendant would try to book us in for the following night only!
Perhaps everyone books in advance in Japan, so as not to lose face if the
site is full or shut? It wasn't just us, exactly the same thing happened
to the other touring cyclists we met later.
There were a lot of people picnicking and fishing in here when we arrived,
but they all left in the evening and there was only one other tent on the
site over night. The ground was incredibly hard, a mix of gravel and rocks
cemented with dry mud - it's the first time I've had to borrow a mallet
to get the pegs in. Needless to say, we didn't have a great night's sleep.
There was nowhere to get any food so we had to survive on what we had brought
with us. Which was probably a good thing, on reflection.
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.Next morning was bright and sunny as we continued up to the Yabitsu
Pass. You couldn't tell from the map, but this road was much narrower
and quieter than the one we had ridden up the previous day. We also found
a nice cafe for a mid-morning snack. Here is the view back down the valley
we had just ridden up
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And here is another view of colourful trees in the sun.
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Down the other side we found a town to get some lunch and replenish
our emergency supplies. There were loads of huge koi streamers flying in
the breeze, a tradition on 'Boys day'. Not that it _was_ Boys day...perhaps
they fly them all week
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Uphill again after lunch, and after an hour we reached an imposing
barrier across the road, plastered with kanji. A 'helpful' Japanese man
told us that the road was closed, and if we wanted to get to the other
end of it we could go all the way down the valley, around the bottom and
up the next valley - a detour of several hours involving a nasty trunk
road. Fortunately, a rather more helpful American told us that although
the road wasn't properly maintained for cars there was no practical or
legal reason why we shouldn't cycle on it. So we carried the bike round
the barrier, and cycled off up the road dodging the potholes and patches
of gravel. With only a few walkers for company and not a single car we
were very pleased with ourselves for choosing this route, but it was a
hard climb.
We got to the 'top' and had a rest and some food. After a good few minutes
freewheeling down the other side, the road started climbing again, steeper
than before. Eventually it topped out even higher than the previous col!
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Eventually Tanzawa-ko appeared through the haze. We found a campsite
on its shore and a large rock to hammer the pegs into the concrete ground
again. The total climbing for the day was 1400m which is the most we have
done for some time. This time we slept better anyway!
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Next morning it was raining gently. Here is the view from the tent,
looking across Tanzawa-ko. We had planned an easy day for today, a short
ride on another 'closed' road over a col to the next lake, Yamanaka-ko.
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We squeezed past the 'road closed' sign as on the previous day.
However this time the road quickly degenerated into a gravel track, much
rougher than we had expected. But it was only 15km in total, with about
800m of climbing, and we had all day - surely we could manage that even
if we had to walk most of the way?
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5km done, 10km to go...
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We were making good progress, when suddenly BANG
and the back tyre went flat. A sharp stone
had cut though the casing, but we carry a spare folding tyre just for this
eventuality. So I had a fun half hour swapping the front tyre to the rear,
putting the (narrower) folding tyre on the front wheel, and pumping them
both up with the mini pump.
A few minutes up the road, the front tyre felt
soft. It was a small pinch flat - obviously I hadn't pumped it up hard
enough. Oh well, time for another 'rest' and some more upper-body exercise.
Two minutes later and the front was soft again.
Not my fault this time, the puncture-repairer (jules) had failed
to completely cover the original blow-out hole and this inner tube (which
by now was in the front wheel) had a slow leak. By this point I was finding
the mini-pump to be rather a struggle, and its barrel was getting surprisingly
warm.
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With a kilometre to go, the track stopped. Abruptly. Actually the
'road' turned off in completely the wrong direction, and a sign pointed
in the direction of a little muddy footpath straight up the hillside into
the trees. Surely we weren't really supposed to go this way - our route
was clearly marked on our map as a proper track all the way, not a footpath.
But with only 800m to go, we had nothing to lose and didn't really have
any choice anyway. So we heaved and pushed and slithered and struggled,
and slowly inched our way up the hill. We don't have any pictures of the
steepest bits because we had our hands full of tandem at those points!
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We managed to ride a few yards occasionally but soft ground and
30mm tyres don't mix.
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Then all too soon we reached the top. Slipping down the other side
was relatively easy, and we soon reached Yamanaka-ko. The first hotel that
we tried took one look at us and pretended, rather implausibly, that they
were shut. We pressed on and soon found a campsite with lots of little
log cabins as well as tent pitches. After the previous two nights, we had
promised ourselves a bit more comfort so we rented a cabin. That
shoe-box on the right is supposed to sleep 5! It was comfortable enough,
but snug for 2.
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Next day I had another look at the tyres and saw that one was bulging
alarmingly. It had also been cut on a sharp rock. With no more spare tyres
to hand, we had to try out the sheet of tyvek I had added to the punture
repair kit. At this point the mini-pump gave up completely. I took it apart
and foud that one of the o-rings had died of a friction burn. Fortunately
it is a double-action pump so I was able to get it working again with the
remaining o-ring and with the addition of a drop of oil it is now working
much better than it has in ages...oops!
With a booted tyre and no spare, we didn't want to take too many risks
with rough roads and hard rides in remote places. So we spent a day cruising
round Kawaguchi-ko (left), and trying to buy postcards to send to relatives.
Eventually we found one shop that had one on display, but it was sold out!
On the way home we passed the 'Fuji Visitor Centre' which had plenty, but
only pictures of Fuji-san, which of course we had barely glimpsed all week...
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The following day we cycled all the way home. It was mostly downhill
but we still managed 1000m of climbing in the day...and the 2 hours of
suburbia didn't seem too bad with the thought of a hot bath at the end
of it.
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