Bicycle: 69 km
Train: 105 km
Average Speed: 16.8 km/h
Total Ascent: 832 m
Riding Time: 4:05 h
Weather: Sun and clouds, warm, but an early start helped, 26 C
Probably my last ride before the summer heat does grip Tokyo and the rest of Japan (probably with the exception of Hokkaido... but no plans to go there anytime soon). Today I did manage to get up early take a train before 6:30 am and start already at 8:30 am in Ome. A few weeks ago I had cycled from home to Ome... but today, that was only an option for cycling back... not for cycling out, as it is going to become too hot. Thanks to the early start I was already in the shadows of the forest when it started to become hotter. I took it easy (as always), cycled up to Ome first, had a break there for some onigiri, and then onwards to Nippara. A dead end road along a mountain valley full of green, a wild flowing river ...
Above the village is a lime stone cave which claimed to have some stalactites and stalagmites, well... it has some not very impressive stalactites but it is still a great cave and so coooooool (but just about okay).
All this without ever leaving Tokyo!
On my way up I had noticed a small restaurant with fishing pond besides the street which seemed to have a nice terrace overlooking the river, so instead of having lunch at the cave I road down and had a surprisingly good (but small) pasta dish here while watching the paying fishermen not fishing any fish.
On the way back I had considered riding all the way back to home along Tamagawa... and while it was getting cooler.. it was still pretty hot, so decided to give up on that idea, and take a train back from Haijima. But instead of going home, went to a famous bicycle shop, in principle only to get a new saddle (as my old one had broken a few weekends before when I feel while standing with the bike)... but turned out there were other things also to fix... so finally I handed in my bike for the next 4 weeks for a general overhaul. Was about time after about 25,000 km!
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