Bicycle: 74 km
Train:160 km
Total Ascent: 306 m
Average Speed: 19.2 km/h
Riding Time: 3:52 h
Weather: cloudy and cold, 4 C
After the sunny day yesterday, today it was grey, cloudy and cold. Considerably colder than any other day this week... but still above 0. Yesterday I left the bike at Hikone station, so I picked it up there again and then set out for the Oku Biwako area. I had only been once last year in GW in a Biwaichi-ride, when it was relatively warm and a very long ride, so I hadn't really had time to enjoy that area too much.
In Hikone I tried (and failed) to take a picture with the castle, one of the few surviving original castles...
... while in Nagahama, where there is a reconstructed castle on the lake shore, I concentrated my photographic exploits on the trees in the park, that had already been prepped for the winter: branches secured to a stick so that heavy snow doesn't break them and the stem tightly bound with straw mats. This isn't against cold, but against insects. Aparently there are some insects that start clinbing trees in the autumn and then will infect the tree. But with this system, they are getting entangled in the strawmat and cannot continue their ascent and in srping when the mat is taken off, they are being burned together with the mat. Or at least that is the explanation I remember from a park where I saw that system.
Before truely entering the Oku Biwako area, I had conbini lunch in the parking lot of a conbini. Luckily at that point the sun was shining just a little bit so it was actually not too cold to sit on the floor. There weren't really a lot of other options, most places in the small villages back there were closed. Even the road side station was closed. Then over a small lump of a hill, which officially was closed to traffic for the winter... but totally ridable. However there were some rests of snow on the side of the road.
I did attempt a ride out onto one of the hills perking into the lake. When I hit on the first road block... I wasn't detered, passed below the bar and through the tunnel...
But the road on the other side was even more closed... Luckily only the road going up. The road going down, while tecnically also closed to traffic, wasn't closed off... so I made it back to the village from where this part of the adventure had started.
There was a little bit of a view though... but all very grey today, the weather but also the flora. (or lack there of). However aparently the fauna was very active. On some parts of the lake there were crowds (well, small... but still crowds) of bird watchers with enormous cameras waiting for birds... that never semeed to arrive. Similar to the fishermen standing in the water for hours and hours apparently without catching ever anything.
I now new that this street was closed, but I still did ride a little bit on that street from the other side just to see it... but after a while decided to turn and head to the station, which was a good decision, as about 5 min before getting to Makino station it started to rain (as was forecasted), and getting wet in this cold isn't a good idea. I got to the station about 15 minutes before train departure which was enough to pack up the bike and get a hot drink from the vending machine and still needing to wait for the train for a few minutes.
I think I need to come back again to enjoy this area with some better, warmer (but not too warm) weather and some more lush vegetation, And to explore more those coastal street.
74 km and not that much climbing, but I am pretty tired. Maybe the cold? Or accumulated fatigue? But I think the cold is more likely to blame. Off to a good night rest and then 2 days in Osaka office.
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