04 - 10th March; through Takachiho and up to Beppu
Writing this on the 22nd April, in the early morning of the flight for the next leg of our trip.
Cycling around Kyushu was wonderful. So much happened since we left Fukuoka early in March, it seems like several months ago, and not just last month.
The tandem worked pretty well. There was one occasion where I asked if ML was pedalling as we struggled up a hill and we didn`t seem to be making much progress, which didn`t go down too well. Turned out, in fact, the front tyre was only partially inflated, for which I had to apologise.
The lowest gear was low enough to get up all hills without requiring to get off and walk and push. It is so low that we could pedal at an OK cadence whilst moving as slowly 3.5km/h up the steepest hills. Having a system weight of around 180kgs also meant the downhills could be tremoundouly fast -- top speed being 77.5 km/h.
My only concern with the brakes was overheating. As I wrote in Amami, there was one time the rim heated up so much it vapourised the water I sprayed on it from the bottle. It was during a descent which was extremely twisty and steep, which meant I had to persistenly break rather than let the bike roll for a while.
The next leg of the trip will be a bit more challening from a logisitcal perspective. Japan is extremely convenient. In most of the trip we passed a at least a couple of convenience stores a day; you can camp quite easily; there are public baths to wash and clean yourself; drivers are safe and the roads are well kept.
I`ve tried to keep this journal up to date, but I frequently found myself putting it off for days, at which point the events are not quite as fresh in memory and writing about them seems like a bit of a chore. I will try to keep this updated more frequently, as I already slightly regret the events and encounters which I have inevitably missed writing about due to lack of effort.
For the lest week or so of the Kysuu trip, I`m going to just paste some pictures and add some captions.
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