Bicycle: 107 km
Total ascent: 1423 m
Average speed: 17.9 km/h
Riding time: 5:57 h
Weather: Cloudy but no rain, ~12 C
I had taken PTO today to do some more riding around Sakurai. On my first ride here in the region I came upon signs of recommended cycling routes on the road. So looked it up, and found a few more around here which I combined into today's ride, plus a few changes made through komoot. Mainly to avoid "big" streets... turned out, I shouldn't have worried about "big" streets. Even the national roads here in this region have little traffic. There is simply not that many places to go to. Very rural, very mountainous and very depopulated.
Sakurai is right at the bottom of many hills. I took the one up to Tanzan shrine (but didn't go all the way up to the shrine - yet), instead turned left into a short tunnel and then a long uphill section through a small village forgotten by the world. They do have a small tunnel to get to them and a huge tunnel to leave them, both pretty new... and very empty. Lucky for us cyclists.
From there it was a long but pleasant downhill, along the inevitable dam (there are just so many in Japan, is that normal?).
This route was part of the suggested routes from Nara province... but when planning yesterday in komoot I choose even smaller streets, which would really not have been necessary... but wasn't bad either. Riding onwards to my destination of the day, a shrine that came up on Google maps. For me I would say it was a normal shrine as I have seen many...
... but clearly I was missing the significance of this shrine as there were people visiting it in deep prayer at each section of the shrine, including this waterfall located beyond a small bridge. The shrine stands at the confluence of 2 rivers plus the waterfall... so I can see that this is an important geographical location.
But I was getting hungry (ate a nut bar, but that wasn't enough) so looked for something to eat... but this region is so remote, that there was no open restaurant anywhere closeby to be found. Luckily however it was a downstream ride along a river until I found about 15 km later in Miyataki a small ryokan that had lunch. Only for me... no other guests.
Further downstream I came through Yoshino. I had been a few years ago by train from Osaka at the hight of hanami season and only think of Yoshino as a hanami spot... so was surprised to find that it is a very industrial village. Actually not industrial, but a village with a LOT (and I mean A LOT) of saw mills. Every building seemed to be a saw mill, with wood everywhere. Not suprising probably seeing that there are so many forests around. And little else.
For hanami this year it is way too early. A few weeks ago people were thinking that maybe this week hanami would start (at least down in Osaka/Kyoto/Tokyo), but it got cold again, so hanami is a bit later. In Yoshino probably still 3 weeks to full bloom.
I continued onwards along the river to Gujo, a place I had ridden through a few years ago on my brompton on the way from Yamatoyagi to Wakayama. From there originally I had planned to take another of the recommended Nara routes on the foothills of the mountain range Mount Kongo, but a few rain drops started to fall, so I decided to play it safe and stay close to the train line... which luckily gets through a very tranquil valley. The rain never really started, so when I had a small stop at a conbini and looking around I saw the tall mountain of Tanzan jinja in the distance. At that point back to Sakurai (or at least to the onsen I wanted to wash off the fatigue) it was probably another 15 - 20 flatish kilometers... but I built up courage, checked the rain radar and decided to instead ride up again to Tanzan shrine, down the other side and only then to the onsen. I am really starting to like climbing up mountains, even though it is hard work and definitely I need several breaks when riding up.
From there it was a fast decend to the valley, and into the onsen. A super sento between Yamato-Yagi and Sakurai that I have visited before. Also today it was full with families with small children enjoying their time.
Tomorrow is a local holiday, but weather forecast is rain for the entire day... so I think I'll just do nothing (well, some administrative tasks... and planning the ride for Friday). Weather on the weekend looks pretty bad as well, so I think I will return a day early on Saturday, and hopefully have better weather in Tokyo on Sunday to ride there.
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