In November, we took a road trip to the Kii Peninsula 紀伊半島 to ride bikes in Wakayama, Mie, and Nara Prefectures. We got to go camping in Kawayu Onsen and bike on some amazing gravel roads!
This is part one, about the first half of our weekend. On day 1 we biked from Nabari in Mie Prefecture, and on day 2 we went from Kawayu Onsen to Shirahama on the Pacific Ocean coast.
Jump to…
0:20 – how we got to Wakayama Prefecture
0:58 – what is this area known for?
1:20 – biking around Nabari
4:23 – arriving to the campsite
5:25 – day 2
6:04 – biking to Shirahama
8:31 – do we have to turn back?
11:36 – made it to the ocean
13:53 – Kawayu Onsen
Ride and Route information:
Day 1 ride from Nabari: https://www.strava.com/activities/10265647130
Day 2 ride to Shirahama: https://www.strava.com/activities/10272478966
🎙️ Want to keep up with the rest of our adventures? We have a podcast! : https://www.ramblingramsbothams.com
Links for more info:
More about Wakayama prefecture: https://en.visitwakayama.jp/
Yoshino Kumano National Park: https://www.japan.travel/national-parks/parks/yoshino-kumano/
Kawayu Onsen: https://www.tb-kumano.jp/en/places/kawayu/
Soni Village: https://soniexperience.jp/en/
More videos about Japan Cycling here:
Riding from Kanazawa to Shirakawa-go: https://youtu.be/f-j3oMr7LEE
Kanazawa cherry blossom tour on a mamachari bike: https://youtu.be/Xjn89S64iXE
Biking the Highlands of Japan in Nagano: https://youtu.be/gdDsRhyQUPo?si=laJ0etHK0QaQKRdB
Noto Peninsula Cycling Tour: https://youtu.be/AtgQuM1PLaI
#japancycling #roadcycling #japanlife #jetprogramme #lifeinjapan #gravelride #cyclingroute #ramblingramsbothams #cycling #cyclinginjapan #自転車 ＃サイクリング #biketouring #wakayama #kiipeninsula #三重県 #奈良県 #和歌山 #和歌山県 #紀伊半島 #kawayuonsen #川湯温泉
In November Zeb and I packed up the bikes and headed down to wakayama prefecture for a long weekend of biking and camping on the Key Peninsula it’s like 6:00 a.m. it’s pretty chilly out we’re really close to Nara prefecture right now and we’re starting a biking and camping trip but
Before we get into the riding here’s how we got there it was about 7 and 1/2 hours of driving total for us split over 2 days if you don’t have a car and you’re coming from Tokyo by train you can also get to wakayama on the tokaido SOS
Shansen while driving there were plenty of M noi or roadside stations to stop at and break up the trip you can even collect stamps from the stations as you drive through the country there were a lot of fun trinkets for sale and some interesting Marketing in the dream resolutely so he will be
Able to become to see you in his dream too we’ve been living just below the noo Peninsula but this is the largest peninsula on Japan’s main island of honu it’s maybe most known for the kumano Coto pilgrimage Trail since the peninsula is a sacred place in Buddhism Shinto and shindo religions many people
Visit to see the shrines and temples hike the Lush temperate rainforest enjoy the beautiful Coastline or eat the many fruits like P Simmons and plums that grow well in wakayama climate back to the bike riding though so here we go on day one while our goal
Was to camp in wakayama we first stopped in nabari in mi prefecture to stay in a hotel on the way this is very close to the border of Nara prefecture and our first 35m ride would go through part of both M and Nara on the Key
Peninsula we got up early to get in some riding before finishing the rest of the drive today’s bike ride started by following the nabari river out of the city and around the hinachi lake in fact we kept following the nabari river along Road 422 all the way into Nar
Reflection as the sun rose the colorful fall leaves became more illuminated we began our descent back into Mi prefecture around halfway through the ride we joined up with the sheni river a tributary of the nabari river which we would follow for the rest of the route we rode through lots of little
Towns and Villages including ones like mitsu Village and Sony Village and it’s a place that I’d love to return to and spend more time in this road took us through the shenji River Gorge and finally to shenji Lake back in mi prefecture The Gorge is so pretty this 8
Km Gorge is called kaoi or kaoi Valley there were beautiful fall leaves called mumii as well as Columns of rocks and stunning cliffs in addition to being a beautiful place to bike or drive it’s apparently also a good place for rock climbing back at the car we changed
Quickly and started our final drive to the campsite it was nice to have our ride finished so early in the day because it left us plenty of time to enjoy the road trip we stopped at a roadside station on the Bora of Nara prefecture where we saw their controversial mascot
Sokun we bought some for Simon omag and you can also get omag with shik marun nara’s more conventionally cute deer mascot there were lots of vegetables for sale and we got sushi wrapped in Pimon leaves for lunch this is called kako haushi Pimon leaves also contain a high
Amount of tannin with antibacterial and antioxidant properties so some people say that this helps with the preservation of the sushi why you just ate that whole thing in one bite we saw this beautiful golden Geno tree from the road and drove down to see it in person while we were admiring it
Two other drivers did the same thing and we were all taking photos and talking about how impressive it was the totsukawa river becomes the Kumo River when you enter wakayama prefecture and it was such a vibrant green color the final part of the drive wasn’t on toll roads but wound deep into the
Mountains with a maze of curling tunnels and overlapping Bridges the views down into the river valleys below were really beautiful we’ve been driving through Nara and we finally got to wakayama and look how pretty it is finally we made it to the Campsite in kawu onen located on the Oto River in
The kanano section of wakayama prefecture in the US we went camping a lot since we lived in Western North Carolina so I had to bring some s’mores supplies with us to enjoy around the fire like usual this is the closest thing I could find I didn’t find any graham crackers
In our grocery store but these marshmallows and chocolate cookies were close enough after we ate we actually saw that there was tent space By The River so we moved to that side of the campground and fell asleep to the sound of the water here’s what the evening chime sounded
Like and I signal for the end of another Day good morning the T part has been up for like an hour and built a fire which is really nice today we have an almost 100 mile ride planned so I’m pretty excited we’re going to wait until it warms up a little bit cuz we don’t have
Anywhere else to be which is nice so we’ll have some coffee and breakfast and then start getting out on the road today look at him go making us some Coffee caffeinated and ready to ride we set out on the biggest route of this trip a 90 mile or 145 km journey through the mountains to the shirama coast and back we almost didn’t get to finish it luckily we had some generous help to get back on the road more about that soon
We’ve been a campsite now it’s really pretty morning we started by riding along the Oto River out of Ka onen and into the key mountains much of our riding this weekend was in the Yoshino wo National Park a 614 km park across areas in M Nara and wakayama
Prefectures cou onen where our campsite was located is famous for the naturally occurring hot spring water in the Oto River each year from December to February a huge shining buo or outdoor bath that can hold nearly a thousand people is dug into the river bank we
Were a couple weeks early for this but it would be so cool to Experience Following the Oto River took us into beautiful Lush forest and the road soon turned to gravel this was a surprise but we had wide enough tires that the rougher terrain wasn’t a problem so we continued deeper into the mountains this like a trail the weather is really
Nice oh wow look at that there were colorful fall leaves cool rock tunnels and Views down onto the crystal clear water Wow Come that yeah this Gorge is one of the prettiest roads that we’ve been on it is gravel so I am kind of a little worried about
Daylight but Zeb is not so it’ll be fine look at this the river water is just so blue and the leaves are peeking it’s really it’s nice out here I’m very impressed with wakiyama it felt like the perfect day for biking until we came across an unfortunate sign uhoh guess what this sign
Says C de please urn here with our poor Japanese skills we asked a friendly construction worker if the road was closed to cars only or if bikes could pass so the road is closed but the very nice construction worker here said that if we wait he’s going to go up and check
At the split to see if we can go on the right side road and keep riding and not have to turn around apparently there was a landslide so that’s what they’re fixing out here which happens kind of a lot I guess after some time though we heard him returning and he had great
News Not only would we be able to continue but he would drive us to the top and escort us through the construction zone okay oh wow this was so kind and better than anything I had Expected the construction worker saved our trip thank goodness that was so kind there were some more workers repairing a tunnel on the same section of road but I think the boss had sent a radio message up about us since they didn’t seem too surprised to see us afterwards it was smooth sailing for
The rest of the ride I’m still so grateful that the construction workers took the time to help us through when they could have easily just told us to turn around from here we were back on pavement and it was a really fun long descent towards Shirama we’re back in Civilization that was a really beautiful road but I’m also kind of glad that we’re back on pavement maybe we can finish when the sun is still out Now Look at the Yuzu and the Tea the promised land it’s the lost oh it’s noon we made it almost halfway and now we can finally get something to eat I’m pretty excited we stopped for convini snacks and then started a lollipop loop on our route that would take us out to the coast Look it’s the Pacific now we just have to ride all the way back yep yeah this area is really popular for their Coastal hot spring baths tropical island this is very tropical shirahama means white Beach and the sand was surprisingly white it didn’t feel like anywhere else we had
Been before in Japan and it was especially striking to have such a different scenery in the same ride just that morning we had been in a dense forest and now we were suddenly in a beach resort City that’s so cool this unique rock formation is called Inu Island and apparently there
Are times during the year where the setting sun will be positioned perfectly through the hole in the middle of the rock the only downside of this part of the ride was the really strong wind I was glad I could hide behind Zeb while he faced the worst of the winds for us
This hotel was so striking because of its unique architecture it’s called the hotel kaaku and is one of the most extravagant hotels in the country I read later that its gold leaf ceiling actually holds a Guinness World Record for being the largest in the world soon
We were back in tan those Ze had mixed feelings about this welcome statue mic looks a little rough got a white takayaki though got Bean bun and the ride reminded me so much of nce I got a cafe La well just like Europe just like Europe tastes just like it wow the climb
Back up from the coast was a little rough for my tired legs but luckily we had snacks also after we reached mile 80 the last 10 miles were all Downhill We rolled up to the campsite just in time since the Setting Sun was already getting pretty low we made it back and we put our bikes away at our campsite it’s pretty nice and I don’t have to check into a hotel and stuff again we could just roll up
And put our clothes back on now we’re walking to callou Onsen which is like a 3 minute walk from our Campsite This is where the seasonal outdoor bath is I think the public bath was 300 Yen and you need to bring your own soap and towel since no soap is provided okay it’s a very old style bath so we came in over here and then ze’s
Going to go into the men one and then this means women so I’m going to go in there too and I’ll see you in like 20 minutes or so bye my next video will have the two other rides we did this weekend which includes biking to shingu seeing two of
The main kimono shrines and another Gravel Road Adventure see you soon