Iida to Home @425km

Had a great night’s rest and woke up ready to ride. But the inn was silent. Climbed out of my cubbyhole trying not to wake anybody but old wooden buildings like to chat with even the most cautious of feet. So with creaks and squeaks but never a thud, I dressed, loaded up and crept downstairs. Snoring continued from at least one cubbyhole…

The peace and quiet and soft morning light splashing over the mountains and flooding the vast western windows of the inn before seeping its way through the open wooden labyrinth was a magic way to start the day.

Morning mate!

MotoGP pit the night before, twisty hunter staging area the following morning. ☺

And out the door we went.

The Michael way to minimise downtime!

Making our way south east, the conditions were just right and we were having a ball on the wide open bypasses and squeezing through the tighter canyon passes.

Came upon a deserted XR and after a short trek into the thick mossy forest..

… spied Michael soaking up minus eons down by the waterfalls below. Nice!

Then we climbed…

Crossing over into Misakubo, the wildlife are quite different…

Seems the wildlife like to jump onto the back of speeding bikes too. So best to go slowly, apparently. Defies my logic but I’m not a cute girl on a dualsport so…

Michael and John enjoyed the climb. 👍

Who’s that way over there?

Mountains to the horizon..

How do you like that John?

Just like the way up, endless twisties from there on down.

Views aplenty too!

Soon we were back tracing a river and a closer look was warranted.

Out on the mossy bridge taking pics, soon discovered that my new can’t-miss-that-yellow helmet was a flying-bug magnet. And there were plenty of big stingy ones above this river.

So, back on the road I went! 🏃

And where there are steep mountains and deep canyons with roads cut into them, there are almost always sharp stones falling from the walls. The MT10SP picked one up unfortunately.

Fortunately, mechanic Michael was there to save the day. I pulled in under the dragons…

… and he flew into action.

Nice plug mate. 👍

Plugged and pumped up, we got back into it and soon found ourselves in the great green lined hills of tea.

This is the kanji character for cha = tea

Flowing east and then north we twisted our way up toward Ikawa and its mighty dam.

Round the north side of the dam, we pulled into an old favourite for lunch.

The food’s always fresh from the local fields and the kitchen is staffed by local ladies who know what they’re doing with such great ingredients.

From there, with furnaces fueled, we twisted our way back down out of the mountains and headed east for home.

Back in the big smoke, Michael’s work spoke for itself by getting the MT10sp and I back without event. And the rest of the tyres show it was a well rounded test. 😂

The only thing left to do was celebrate @3000km and a week-plus well ridden.

Abalone anyone? Couldn’t wait…sorry. ☺

Now that’s some choice Hayama Premium beef!

Great suggestion Michael. That was an epic post-tour feed. Thank you!

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Brilliant Goldenweek of riding with a great crew. Full of sideways skewing events but nay a scar or regret. The weather gods tested us a few times but blessed us with predominantly fine weather and clean clear roads. The tour started and finished with three and hats off to Michael and John for their endless enthusiasm, tireless tyre rounding and being a ZERO-PITA. 😁

Already looking forward to next year!

Cheers Gents!