Such a pretty and historic city.

Where Kyoto was founded

Making friends…

Much more European than Tokyo… cafe society at its finest.  Great vibes here.

New friends

drink and some song

Just a few of my favs. Spent most my time here walking the gardens and sampling the fine food and whisky.

Cherry blossom season… so pretty

Fish market

Best ramen I have ever had

The Kumano Kodo is a 1000+ year-old pilgrimage route through the Kii mountains in the Wakayama peninsula.  I did the Nakahechi route from Takijiri to Nachi, via Hongu. There are other route options, but this is the most popular of the bunch. Pretty amazing trail. You are under canopy for much of it, but there are some spectacular views and you can’t beat the history. Along this trail there are dozens of ancient shrines, archaeological remains, you pass though old villages and there is a hot spring!! Finished my journey down the road from Nachi in Kii-Katsuura and took advantage of one of the Ryokan style Onsens. Epic few days.

Trail Notes: Most people don’t through hike this. Rather, they book accommodations in the villages along the route and shuttle their luggage forward every day, which seems ridiculous to me. There was nothing in the literature that said you couldn’t make camp in the forest, and I found a couple bloggers who had done it that way, so I went for it. From what I can tell, it is allowed but not encouraged. Anyway, this hike is almost entirely climbing up and down mountain passes and the trail is cut into ridges, which means there aren’t too many flat spots to make a camp. Be patient and give yourself plenty of time for an area to open up… be discrete, dont sleep on a sacred site, leave no trace, yada yada. Here is what I found, if it helps:

Day 0: Due to a train snafu, on my part, I arrived at Takijiri near sunset, so I hiked in about a kilometer to right around trail marker 2 and found a site suitable for a tent.

If you have more time, there is a mountain hut (not sure if its cool to use) near marker 9 and also a rest area with a clearing at marker 13.

Day 1:  Hiked in about 22K to marker 42 and made camp.

Day 2:  Hiked about 25K and stayed at the Kawayu pay campsite ($7). There is a natural hot spring in the river nearby and I highly recommend it. Also, there is about 5K of road walking to connect the Nakahechi section and the Kogumotori-goe section. This puts you about 2 km from the next day’s trailhead.

Day 3: Hiked about 18km this day and made camp right behind the rest shelter and water source between markers 26 and 25 of the Ogumotori-goe section of trail. Its about 2km in from the start of this section. About 10 meters before the shelter look for a footpath on the right… follow it to a small clearing up the hill behind the shelter.

Day 4: Hiked the 15km out to Nachi, caught a bus down the hill to Kii-Katsuura and stayed at Onsen.

Takijiri shrine at trailhead

I called him Frank. If he looks mean its only because I stopped petting him.

Giant Japanese Blue Earthworm… Freaking thing is HUGE

Japanese Badger eating one of those monster worms

Badger buddy

View into Hongu

Gonna be a ton of frogs

rained all of day 3

View from the last peak before Nachi

Nachi waterfall (largest in Japan)

Nachi Taisha

Chillin at the Onsen

Just a few pics… I am bad about taking pics in the cities.

Australian Open Finals

Bondai

Before seeing Away at the Opera House

Circular Quay at night

Mojo… my fav bar

Son of a B*&^%!

My airbnb host showing me how to properly eat a Tim-Tam, which is serious business down here.

Forecast called for light showers day one, followed by sunny 50s and 60s.  Instead I got a 3-hour snow, ice and freezing rain storm… and I got sick. Due to lack of return shuttle options, I had to race through this one a bit. Feeling sick, I didn’t take as many pics as I should have.  Beautiful country, but cold. It was 40ish degrees in the sunshine… in the 20s at night.

Beautiful start to the track

“light showers”

Holy fucking hell! So much sleet the camera can’t focus.

White out conditions!

Loved the play of the clouds and the treetops… like upside down shadows

Warmed up to mid-50s as I was waiting for my ferry out! Broke out the shorts!

This is Australia’s most famous track, which is why I was surprised I didn’t see another through-hiker until the last night. Amazing views, ridiculously well maintained trail and so much wildlife… saw wallaby, kangaroo, ring-tailed possum, koala, parrots, cockatoos and a dozen other really cool birds.

So it begins..

“Superb Blue Wren” – male

Luxury trekking…

140yr old anchor… The Fiji

Ring Tailed Possum (with young on back) crawling into nest

Parrots

Cockatoo

Wallaby

Later, dude…

Twelve Apostles

Little bastard was faster than my camera