A spectacular ride from Kitakyushu to Munakata

A tough day of riding yesterday followed by a late arrival to our hotel has left us both feeling pretty tired. Last night our priority was simply to visit the Onsen at our hotel,, eat in our room and fall into bed. Today, we will try not to take a break until we reach 25 km. This sounds easy, but some of our most memorable moments while travelling come from the unexpected and unplanned encounters a day can bring.

A beautiful day for riding. The highlight of our stay here was soaking in the Hotel’s Onsen last night. We stayed in the original, older wing of the hotel, but the Onsen has been recently added to a new wing. Very nice.

Now, I know that we said no stops before 25 km, but a stop at the neighbouring Conbini helped us stock up for the day.

This older woman stopped to chat with me with our combined limited knowledge of each other’s language. Nonetheless, we managed quite well. We enjoyed a nice visit and then she returned with more questions. She was very curious about our trikes. We had a good laugh when she figured we must both be old because of our similar grey hair. Then, she unexpectedly said, “ you have beautiful teeth”. This got us both laughing particularly when I mimed that .they can be removed. Well I guess it is confirmed…I am getting older!

I enjoyed getting to spend time with this interesting woman. Time well spent…riding is just a part of the adventure.

Images like this are so iconic and stay with us.

We stay very near the NHK (national broadcaster) in Osaka. The shape and architecture of their buildings are quite similar.

Loving that the bicycle routes continue to,be good in this area.

Toto toilets etc were created and originally made here in Kitakyush.

Our ride is going well, making our way out of Kitakyushu. But when we saw the towering bridge overhead we wondered how we would access it.

We didn’t know that we would need a boat to cross …. a nice surprise.

…we saw this small ferry, not expecting that we could fit or access it. It is our lucky day. The back section has an access point where locals (and us) simply rode or walked onboard. What a treat.

We have lived up to our commitment to ourselves and didn’t stop until we hit at least 25 km.

The coastline of Kyushu is spectacular…sand dunes, breaking waves and gorgeous scenery. Lucky for us, there is a dedicated paved cycle route along here for about 12 km which closely follows the ocean. Wow.

Surfers are enjoying the good surf today.

Lucky us to have put a bike route on Ride With GPS this morning as it directed us to ride this route.

We started to see fencing on the land side of the trail and suspected it was a base of some sort. And indeed, it is a Japan Air Base.

Now we know, it is the Onga-Munakata Bike Path…our destination today is Munakata.

We met a few locals out riding here. This man stopped and we had a great visit. He was a musician and loves to ride his bike. We discovered that we all share the same age of 70, and are still riding strong.

We not only share a love of cycling and our age….we also share the joy one feels when settling in to a recumbent trike. He sat on my trike, burst into giggles, gave us a thumbs up and simply said…”I am happy!”

A very good Rest Area for cyclists. We love that Kyushu is investing money into a bike infrastructure. Not so long ago, we would missed this experience and would have had to ride on the road with cars and away from the sea.

The cement wall has a lovely painted mural celebrating bike culture.

The bike route has ended, but we are happy to ride on the road with the view.

Love this wide lane for cyclists alongside the road.

What a curious sight this is. At first we thought that only a few of the fence posts had bottles on top, but there are so many it is hard to count.

A man hole cover for this area fittingly has fish, trees and waves featured on it.

Thankfully we rode with purpose this morning as the ride along the ocean has required many stops. What a special day we are having.

Our destination is a hotel/spa on the outskirts of Manakata by the sea. It is an older hotel but they have recently added an extension with a marvellous onsen and spa. We are learning that prices are significantly lower during the week, so we will stay a night or two, recharge and enjoy.

These were for sale in the gift shop. We enjoyed the packaging.“

The hotel has a few interesting features…a lounge that offers free snacks and beverages, including beer in the afternoon. In the evening, they swap from beer to mostly local liquor like gin, scotch etc. As is typical in Japanese accommodation, people move around the hotel in their yukatas. Very relaxing.

Coffee, tea, soft drinks, juice…whatever you like.

Some people get married here and have their reception at the hotel.The pool is closed for a few days for maintenance.

Blissed out from an excellent time at the Onsen and a small scotch. Time to retire for the evening.

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