Distance cycled: 89km from Hagi to North of Shimonoseki, Western Honshu, Japan.
Average speed: 16.8Km/h
Moving Time: 5h11m
Elevation Ascended: 1385m
Total Distance on Current trip: 2,152km
Distance until I have cycled the circumference of Earth: 10,138km
Money spent: $23
Admittedly a big school trip destination and local tourist hotspot, Akiyoshi Dai is certainly an incredible place to see. On the surface is a vast grassland and limestone plateau that is the second largest in Japan and beneath is the largest cave in the country but second largest in Asia.
Cycling the road to reach the plateau was steep but arriving at where the grassland begins was reminiscent of my trips to northern Scotland. It was a welcome change but strange for the scenery to abruptly change as it did and it was for me something new to gander as I cycled by.
Formed from what was once a coral reef this 'karst' tableland has given archeologists and scientists some understanding of what creatures first inhabited the region hundreds of thousands of years ago.
There were a few viewpoints along the way overlooking the plateau but what lay beneath was far more interesting for me.
What is known as Akiyoshi dau is a cave 30 meters deep 20 meters wide and a kilometer in length. For the price of 1200¥ ($12) I gathered my camera gear and entered this cave and explored.
When I mean "explore" I mean follow the well beaten track that everyone else follows, unfortunately this included the ridiculous amounts of school kids blocking the paths and not watching where they were walking knocking my tripod when I was taking a long exposure (!) note: no concept of spatial awareness. Needless to say they were annoying however this place was spectacular, just the shear size of the cave was enough to keep anyone enthralled.
Having spent more than two hours in the cave it took a while for my eyes to adjust to the bright light of the outdoors - today was particularly sunny and hot and an ideal day to sit on my bike and not exhort myself in any way.
This was my attitude, simply relaxed.. However my route took me to places that interrupted this idealistic state of mind; first I thought I could take a short cut down an old road that became progressively more overgrown the further I entered to the point where I cut up my legs from spiked branches.
Secondly I had a 2km stretch of swarms of bugs beside a river that made it difficult to breathe as they pummeled my face, arms and legs as I cycled into them
And Thirdly, the mosquitoes this afternoon when pitching my tent were relentless and unforgiving, as much as I enjoy taking pictures of insects I also resent them especially the ones that bite.
Leaving Hagi and hitting up the high road
Enter the high plains Akiyoshi Dai
Entering into the Cave
Akiyoshi Dau Cave
Found a converted shipping container with nothing but vending machines filled with sex toys
One of the few roads I took that led nowhere
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