👟 Weekly Summary

This week has been long and tiring, but also fantastically wonderful. Joy had her first wild camp, and that’s been followed up by more nights in parks and forests. We’ve been lucky with the wildlife here in Hokkaido, we’ve seen a snake, squirrels, birds of prey and plenty of deer. No bears yet though.

Monday’s run was good, a nice 48 km. After a fantastic start my knee started to swell, which lead to us slowing down and wild camping under a clear, star-filled sky.

Tuesday was another big day, 51 km and another campsite, this one was a proper one, so we got the luxury of a shower. It was definitely needed with my knee swelling up.

Wednesday was a bit shorter at 43 km, but ended with an onsen, which was tattoo-friendly, and allowed us to get clean and more relaxed than we had been. My knee is now recovering, if only to give space for new problems.

Thursday rained. It was a great day. Another 48 km covered, but it was wet and windy, which was hard for me to run in, but I think perhaps a little harder for Joy on her overloaded Brompton.

Friday is where I pushed a little hard, 55.5 km and by the end my achilles tendon on my left and my right shin were struggling. We did, however, end up at a forest campsite, which was a beautiful place to wake up.

Saturday was a short run into town, only 34 km done, but it was slow with my ankle troubles. A hotel and a bath were welcome, as was the chance to do some much needed laundry.

And we followed that up with another short day today, only 37 km today, but we’ve plodded through some beautiful countryside and we can’t wait to see how the photos turn out.

☀️ Photo from the Road

🧠 Running Through My Head

I’ve been continually amazed by Joy’s ability to keep going this week, for someone who has never cycle-toured or camped before, she’s doing well, and she’s enjoying the experience too (which is the main thing).

🗓️ This Week I Have Mostly Been…

🎵 Listening to: One Week - Barenaked Ladies
📚 Reading: Maps… we’re making this route up as we go, which has definitely been the right choice, but has taken up a lot of time.

🏁 Finish Line

That’s all for this week, it’s a short one because I’m tired and it’s already late.

Thank you for reading and for all your support.

Take it easy,

Phill