October 18, 2019 - Kumakougen
Leaving the accommodation before 07:00, the weather is humid. Misty and cool with the threat of rain to come. The road heads up hill for 45 minutes. A reasonably tough go, which makes me glad I didn’t try this the previous afternoon. I’m sweating again like a snowman locked in a sauna. As the valley narrows the road narrows as wel till it is effectively one lane width. The cars come whizzing past. Not frequently, but enough to make you stop and think. One semi trailer went past, luckily not going terribly fast but he only cleared me by a foot or so.
The valley is tight and there aren't as many indications of people as usual along the path. Virtually the only sign of life I see is an old chap walking along the road. He was picking up big sticks from the retaining wall side of the road, obviously fallen down from trees higher up the slope, and then he was taking them and dumping them down into the river valley side of the road. I cant work out why.
After a couple of hours I come to a rest hut, just before the Mayumi Tunnel. In the hut is a visitors book which I idly flick through while I take the weight off my feet. In it I see the remarks left by the two Australian ladies on bikes that went whizzing past me 16 days ago outside Saga. They comment that the hill was so steep for their bikes. They were lucky. The road took a series of switchbacks here. My path lead straight up the side of the hill, cutting across the road a number of times. My distance was surely less, but the grade was significantly worse. I’ve started to occasionally use the phone to track my course, when I go off the beaten path. It shows an ascent of 101 metres over a distance of just less than 800 metres. A 13% grade on average, but obviously it varied and was far worse in patches. I know from Facebook that the two were flying back to Australia about the time I was sitting in the hut. Maybe next time I’ll go by bike too.
Through the tunnel, out of the darkness. The road is wider the air feels different this side of the mountain. I’m glad I didn’t have to climb over them. In the tunnel I thought I could hear voices. Eventually I worked out it was the faint voices of workmen setting up their road blocks at the far end of the tunnel about 700 m away. Interesting how their voices could be carried on the breeze here moving through the tunnel.
Mid morning it looks like it’s threatening to rain. I can hear the occasional tap, tap of raindrops on my hat but the ground is still dry in places so I don’t get my raincoat out yet. By late morning the rain starts and I find a rest hut for shelter. It’s in the little village of Tsuyumine, the first place I have seen with more than two houses together since leaving Oda first thing in the morning. The rain isn’t heavy but it doesn’t stop.
A little later and wetter, resting in the bus stop on the corner of highways 380 and 33 the council chimes starts up. “Edelweiss” from the “Sound of Music”. How utterly surreal.
The afternoon unravels as I walk along the left hand edge of Highway 33. No footpath. In the rain. Heading for Kumakougen, which isn’t that far away, to find a place to stay. Ultimately when I booked into a hotel I lay on the bed for a while and drifted off for a gentle snooze. It was too late to visit temple 44 anyway. I plan on visiting both Taihoji (T44) and Iwayaji (T45) tomorrow and returning to Kumakogen. I had hoped to get back to this hotel, but they tell me they are fully booked. I can leave my pack at the hotel which will be nice, but I must find a another place to stay in the evening.
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