The Kumano Kodo Kohechi is the northern and most rugged part of the pilgrim trails in Wakayama. Takes four days to walk the 62km from Koyasan to Kumano Hongu Taisha. Hopefully the typhoon off to the south of Japan won’t get here before we finish.
Although the walk is through a remote area, freedom camping is discouraged. The locals all want you to stay with them. So in a lot of ways it’s a cultural tour with some serious climbs in between. It has the advantage that you only need to carry your clothes and some snacks. The downside is it’s not cheap!
1-Oct Koyasan to Omata
Off to an early start. Well 8am, early enough for us 🤔. Steady climb for an hour or so to a saddle. Followed by a steady descent to the first river. Very nice track, graded and even paved with concrete in places. The entire area is plantation Cedar and Pine forest. Very pleasant walking and in the shade. Its hot and humid. I would guess about 30deg and 100% humidity.
There are apparently a few bears in the area. Lots of warning signs. Haven’t seen one yet!
There are also wild pigs in the area. We saw a couple of areas fenced off as they have pig traps set. Lots of signs of the pigs grubbing along the side of the track.
After another much longer climb we stopped for lunch. Had a bit of a view until a thunderstorm started and we got torrential rain for the rest of the afternoon 😢. I think we should call it the day of the frogs. We saw hundreds of them, including these two beauties. The second one was huge, about the size of a cane toad.
Of course it stopped raining once we got to the pension for the night. I have to say, a hot shower and a cup of tea is much more pleasant than putting up the tent in the rain 😊.
The pension we are staying at is called Minshuku Kawarabiso. We can highly recommend the food! Dinner was local wild boar hot pot. Yummmmm😋
We also discovered that the huge bright green frog is an American invader 🤔.
2-Oct Omata to Miura-guchi
A long climb up from the village to the pass. There was supposed to be a detour around a section of collapsed track. The detour was roped off and the track was open?? I suspect it has been repaired. There is a trail race here in a week or two that follows the Kohechi route that may have sped the repair up.
One of the locals has made their hut available to walkers for free. Pretty neat hut, about half way up the climb from Omata.
The locals have put up signs where mobiles have coverage. We can live without it for a bit longer.
The accommodation we stayed at is a couple of km outside Miura-guchi. We were trudging along the river bed amongst all the excavators and earth works when a van pulled up and the driver asked “Yamamoto”. It was the accommodation out looking for us. Pauline was very happy. Cut out a couple of km and a steep climb 😀.
3-Oct Miura-guchi to Totsukawa Onsen
We had seen lots of signs warning of bears. Most Japanese hikers wear a bear bell to warn the bear they are approaching. We wanted to see one in the wild so no bells. We were lucky enough to hear then see a bear just after lunch. It was about 100m away. It was very black with a long shiny coat. Once it saw us it turned and ran off into the scrub. All over in about 20 seconds. Lucky us 😉.
The trail comes out on the road about 8km from where we were staying. So a long trudge along the bitumen. This is always hard on the feet. So hard that we stopped for a rest on a seat next to a chook cage that had been built right on the road verge. The seat turned out to be the local bus stop which we discovered when the only bus for the day pulled up. Pauline was up in a flash, sore feet and all, and straight onto the bus. A very pleasant 4km bus ride to our accommodation at Hotel Subaru. A few of the local women also got off at the same place. We later found out they all came down to go to the Onsen at the hotel.
Hotel Subaru has the best Onsen we have been to. Inside and outside pools, as well as a cold pool. Pauline spent hours in the outside pool with all the locals.
4-Oct Totsukawa Onsen to Kumano Hongu Taisha
First up this morning we saw a couple of monkeys up from the side of the road. We had expected to see more of them. The locals have gas guns near their gardens to scare them off. So not surprising they are shy of humans.
Today’s walk was up over another 1000m pass, 5km up, 5km down. Along the way are the 33 Kanon statues, each with their own offerings. Not sure of the history behind them.
The flora was more interesting today, not as much plantation monoculture and occasional views to the valley below. It was also in the shade most of the way.
After a big climb and fast descent. (We didn’t want to miss the bus to the Onsen) we finished the 67km pilgrimage. The calves are a bit sore from all the long climbs. Planning on soaking at the Onsen for a day before we head off to Mt Fuji and the final climb!