Reaching the Pacific

A henro rest hut

The day after 'The Pilgrim Crusher' trip to temple 12 we took a day off and lounged around all day in the Michi-no-eki, in Kamiyama onsen and the camp field doing nothing in particular. It was lovely. Later that day Hamish, the guy we had met at Temple 8 turned up with his friends and camped in the same field. One of them, Espen, was using a hammock, a piece of equipment that looked impressive but I wondered how practical it was to find trees at every camp site.

The following day we were up and away early, early for us anyway, and were on the road by seven o'clock walking back along a quiet winding road into Tokushima for the next cluster of temples. Temples 13-17 are laid around the outskirts of the city and we visited them all in one day, before heading back into town to sleep.We camped in Kuramoto Park which looked leafy green on the map but turned out to be a massive baseball stadium. Still we found a patch of grass between the stadium and the main road and tried to get some sleep while the traffic roared by.

The following day was a long walk through Tokushima but at last we were heading south. The first 17 temples feel like a mini-pilgimage, a training run as you circle around the city before taking on the Pilgrimage Proper. Hopefully we were up to the task this time.

We stocked up on gas on the way out of town before looking for somewhere to stay. For the second night this turned out tp be next to a busy road, this time in a small but very nice henro hut. The only difficulty was there was nowhere discreet to have a wee which I overcame with the judicious use of an empty pot noodle container.

Rice planted

And so on to Onzanji, temple 18 and 19, Tatsueji. We were crossing one of the plains between the mountains now, through countless small paddy fields being planted out with rice shoots. During the middle of the day the sun felt baking hot between the mountains with not a breath of wind. If it was this warm in April what would June be like? Memories of last year's attempt to cycle this pilgrimage and the oppressive heat we experienced were still disconcertingly fresh in our minds.
'We'll just have to walk through the night,' said Mick.
'Won't that be dangerous?' I said doubtfully. 'What with traffic on the road parts and narrow paths in the woods?'
'Ok, we'll leave at first light,' he said. 'We'll get up at four and set off at five.'
This did not sound tempting but I decided not to argue. Instead I said, 'it'll be cooler on the coast anyway.'

Temples 20 and 21 are both up mountains. We decided to stay at the michi-no-eki at Katsuura below number 20 and tackle them both in one go. At Katsuura we headed down to the town where there is a sento tucked away next to the hospital which opens to the public in the evening. There was a little confusion when we turned up, as my very short hear resulted in me being mistaken for a man. It was only when I opened the door to the changing rooms and gave a little shriek that the poor woman showing me in realised her mistake. 'Sorry, short hair,' she gestured apologetically, showing me to the ladies changing room.

Woodland path

The walk up to temple 20 the next day was steep but very agreeable as Mick put it, a climb up through pine and deciduous woodland, with flashes of bright pink and red azaleas amongst the trees. The walk down the other side was steep, steep, steep though, down through the forest to the valley floor before climbing up again to Tairuji, temple 21. Tairuji is my favourite temple so far, beautifully laid out on several levels connected by stone steps and beautiful little arch bridges, with red and vivid green acers and pink cherry trees, still blossoming here on the higher slopes. We spend a long time sitting here enjoying watching the pilgrims come and go and listening the the calls of birds that I could not identify.

Temple 21

Steps….

…and steps

Finally though we decided to head down. Just after the main gate a wooden post indicated a path through the forest rather than down the switchback road and we took it. It headed east along the ridge for a while before finally dropping down. The only trouble was it seemed to be dropping down to the north of the mountain not the south where we were headed. Finally, and far too late I checked the compass. Yup. We were coming off the wrong side of the mountain. One of the pilgrim oaths which henro pilgrims are supposed to subscribe to is: 'I will not complain if things do not go well while on the pilgrimage but consider such experiences to be part of ascetic training.' I wondered if exclaiming 'Oh bollocks!' in a very loud voice counted as a complaint.

As it turned out it could have been worse. We asked for directions and were told we had a 6k walk back to the bottom of the road we should have come down. But bad enough after two mountains climbed that day. We both secretly hoped that the woman who explained this to us would offer us a lift but none came and we trudged off down the road.

Crap place to camp

We camped outside another michi-no-eki (Mick has a thing about needing to camp near a toilet) and the next day woke to a dripping wet tent. It must be raining. We put off getting up for a while, and it was only when we finally emerged from the tent that we realised that it was not raining, but that we had camped under a badly designed roof that had been dripping on us all night. Mick tried to blame me for this debacle which I protested and some rather choice words followed, causing me once more to recall that pilgrim oath. There seemed to be a lot of oaths on this pilgrimage but not quite of the right sort.

Snake in the grass

But we had a grand day, despite a 5k detour to a non-existent supermarket. Instead we feasted on fish from a local shop which was delicious although I have no idea what it was. While we were stopped resting on the side of the road we met the pilgrims from temple 12 who had laughed so heartily at our plans. It was really nice to see them and they seemed pleased to see us too. We exchanged snacks and address details and then for the rest of the day we kept passing each other, all the way to the coast.

Now THAT'S what I call a rest hut!

Henro man

The first sight of the Pacific was terrific, as we wound our way down to the little fishing village of Yuki. We planned to camp at Tainohama beach. The way on seemed to be up a large flight of steps. We puffed our way up them, and then up some more. Mick muttered something about being an effing fine way to finish a day's walking, as we made our way wearily up. But then we came to a viewpoint looking out over the ocean and it was suddenly all worth it. The late afternoon silvery light reflected in the calm water as it lapped rhythmically on the beach far below us and beyond the mountains rippled away down the coast, reaching to the water's edge and plunging far below the surface. From here it was a trot down to the hut alongside the beach where we set up camp and sent to sleep listening to the sound of the waves coming ashore.

Today we reached Hiwasa and after visiting the turtle museum spent the day doing some long overdue laundry before tomorrow's big push down the coast.

Camp at Tainohama Beach

Fish sorting - Kiki

Ohama beach Hiwasa, 

Street light, Hiwasa

Foot spa for weary travellers at
michi-no-eki, Hiwasa

Doing the laundry

Hiwasa

Yakuoji, Temple23