We spent a week cycling around the Japanese Alps for golden week. We left Kanazawa with each bike weighing about 10 kg lighter than what we plan to  carry when we are in Mongolia.  We still hadn’t gathered all the equipment we needed to assure us that we could tackle most scenarios we may encounter in Mongolia or Russia. However we were ready for Japan, even if it did feel a bit excessive to be carrying around 10 litres of water as we passed more vending machines than people!

The mighty chariots fully loaded.

Liquid sugar fuel stops. They’re everywhere!

Road 314 in Gifu, winding it’s way up to almost 1000 metres.

On top of a bloody big hill!

An hour later, after free wheeling down the other side of this mountain, a very wet and cold Ciarán turned blue and shook uncontrollably from the cold. Notice the snow in the background!

The bridge to nowhere.

Setting up camp for the night. We mostly went wild camping but we treated ourselves to a campsite here.

Bear warning!

Thumbs up if your bum and thighs hurt!

Wearing my fetching high vis poncho struggling through an uphill tunnel.

First selfie using the gorilla tripod.

Stopping to take in the view.

Beware of the dinosaurs!

Wild camping.

The sun setting over  paddy fields.

Mountain lake in the Japanese Alps.

Japanese Lanterns, Kanazawa.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The route: http://ridewithgps.com/users/478155/activities

The video: