March 13,
We spent last night looking at maps and routes. We found another hotel that we are going to ask the desk clerk to call for us this morning. Yesterday we crossed paths with Andreas. One of the options today includes taking a ferry. Andreas is going to walk. I think we are going to decide when we get to the ferry dock. We pack our packs and head down to the desk. We hand the desk clerk the name of the hotel and the number. He phones them and after talking for awhile, he calls for his manager who also talks for awhile. We are clueless about the conversation, but when it is over, they nod and say you have a reservation for tonight. That is a relief. We had found a campsite, but it would have been a very short day so this is much better. The day is crystal clear. we go back over the bridge that we crossed yesterday and head to the roads along the water. We admire all of the boats neatly lined along the shore.
If we decide to take the ferry we won’t have to worry about rough water.
When we got close to the ferry dock, it seemed like an easy decision to just keep walking. We would have to wait for the ferry to depart and then the ferry goes to several ports with waits at each spot. It would take longer to take the ferry than walk. We are enjoying the walking.
We are getting excited to see the cherry blossoms.
We pass a rice field that a farmer is getting ready for planting. We read about the process to grow rice and how labor intensive it is. We understand why it is important as a manner of respect to eat all of the rice when it is given to you.
preparing the rice field
We pass a lot of small rice plots that seem to be family ones that they maintain.
We also check out bee hives. Hives here have no structure for the bees to build their honeycomb like the US. They are opened boxes.
Some are closed so not sure of how the bees make their honeycomb.
This had bees being very active going thru the slit at the bottom
In a small town there is a store selling scallops and other shell animals for sale
And here are signs like the one below which we have no idea what they are saying. We realize that driving a car here would be very challenging.
It was a meandering day of walking. We paused often to check things out. We still arrived to the town where our lodging is located about 2 in the afternoon. We found a 7/11 with seating arrangements and got our favorite berry smoothie drink. As we were sitting there enjoying our drink a couple of young girls started a conversation. They had studied English in school and wanted to talk to us in English. It has been an enjoyable day and it was made even better this morning when we had accommodations confirmed for the night. As we were sitting there a Japanese man started talking to us as well and wanted to let us know about his pilgrimage on the El Camino in Spain. Before we started this trip one of our big concerns was accommodations. So far things have worked our and having a tent gives us a piece of mind. We have found some campgrounds that we should be able to stay at in the next couple of weeks. We head to our hotel and have a nice soak in the bathtub. With no temples to visit the walking seemed to go quickly. The temples for the next couple of days are spread out with some days not having any.
Accommadtion Bandaga Hotel (business hotel)
Mikes hiked 15