On day 7 we started the Kohechi section of the Kumano Kodo trail, which heads northwards from the town of Yagio to end at Mt Koya four days later. Each day the path crosses a mountain range via a series of passes, all involving over 800 metres of ascending, and usually almost as much coming down again.
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Tag: trail
Kumano Kodo Nakahechi Section
On the peninsular south of Osaka is a network of Japanese pilgrimage trails known as the Kumano Kodo. Written records from over a thousand years ago show that these have been used since ancient times.
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Little Waipa Reserve
If you turn off State Highway 1 at the point where it vears away from the Waikato River and heads west to Tirau you will find yourself on the Horahora Road. This follows the eastern bank down towards Arapuni. About half way along is a large reserve on the edge of the river, with a nice launching ramp, so that’s where we headed.
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Vitozza
Vitozza was one of the largest cave settlements in central Italy, and has over 200 dwellings excavated from the volcanic tuff stone. It was inhabited from Etruscan times (around 800 BC) until the end of the 18th century.
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Thetford Forest Park
Last Saturday night we were invited to dinner by one of Felicity’s colleagues, and he turned out to be an even more fanatical mountain biker than me. Not only does he have a basement full of bikes, and more in a shed somewhere, but he’s even building himself a new bike in the hallway outside the bathroom! I took the opportunity to inquire about the location of the best single-track in the area. Continue reading Thetford Forest Park
Sheringham to Cromer
It’s been a stinking hot day here in Norfolk today, so we’ve been to the beach. It was hot enough to swim, but finding somewhere to get changed and keep our bags safe seemed a bit complicated, so we gave it a miss and concentrated on sightseeing.
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North Walsham to Wroxham via Aylsham
Most of the 98km Weavers’ Way from Cromer to Great Yarmouth is for walking only, but bikes are allowed on two sections, one of which runs between North Walsham and Aylsham for 10km. Since Felicity was at the university all day today I hired a bike and caught the train north.
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Wherryman’s Way – Chedgrave to Reedham
Today we completed the final section of the Wherryman’s Way, so we have now walked the whole distance from Norwich to Great Yarmouth. We started by catching the midday bus to Chedgrave, and disembarked outside the White Horse Pub where we had ended our walk on our previous visit.
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Whitlingham
I was hoping to go for a bike ride today while Felicity was at the university, but when I checked the weather forecast it showed there was a band of heavy rain due to arrive around mid-day. The possibility of ending up miles from civilisation wet and cold didn’t seem attractive, so I reluctantly decided to give it a miss. I didn’t want to spend the whole day indoors though, so I set out for a run soon after breakfast.
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Wells-next-the-Sea
This weekend the woman Felicity is working with in Norwich invited us to stay the night with her and her husband at their cottage on the northern coast of Norfolk. We decided to catch the train to Sheringham and walk to Wells along the Norfolk Coast Path.
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Burgh Castle
When I looked for places to visit near Great Yarmouth, the first place that caught my attention was Burgh Castle. It isn’t actually a castle, but instead a Roman coastal fort that they called Gariannonum.
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Norwich Nooks and Crannies West
The third of the three inner city walks heads west from the central market. One of the first interesting places was the site of Bethel Hospital, the first provincial mental institution in the country, opened in 1713 with the aim of treating patients rather than just locking them up. It operated until the 1980s, and has since been converted to apartments.
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Wherryman’s Way – Surlingham to Chedgrave
Travelling by bus to Surlingham from Norwich took us about 10 minutes, which was a lot easier than the almost two hour trip on foot in the other direction last week. For the first part of our walk we were sharing the path with about a dozen other people in a group which was a bit frustrating because every time we stopped to look at anything they would pass us then block the track when we got going again. Eventually they turned off and we could walk at our normal pace.
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Wherryman’s Way – Reedham to Yarmouth
We decided to spend a day in the countryside for a change today, and took a train to Reedham on the Wherryman’s Way. We would have gone back to Surlingham to continue where we stopped last week, but it is a bank holiday here in England and the normal bus service is not running.
Norwich Nooks and Crannies South
The second Nooks & Crannies walk goes to the south of the market, and is 2.5km in length. It starts at the Royal Arcade, which was opened in 1899 and is considered an Art Nouveau masterpiece. The glass tiling and mahogany shopfronts have been described as a ‘fragment of the Arabian nights’.
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Norwich Nooks and Crannies Northeast
The Norwich City Council has published a booklet describing three walking routes titled Norwich’s nooks and crannies. Today we walked the first of these, which is a 3.5km loop to the north east of the city market.
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Waitangi weekend cycling in central North Island
Tuakau Bridge
I had done quite a bit of driving around the city completing chores, so by the time I left town mid-afternoon Wednesday, I wasn’t feeling like travelling far. I also felt like a swim so I returned to the Les Atkins Reserve next to the bridge over the Waikato River at Tauakau.
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Waihaha and Waihora Trails
Section three of the Great Lakes Trail is not easy to get to. As it is 31 km long I wasn’t game to do a return trip so I paid a shuttle to drop me off at the start, and pick me up off the beach by boat at the end.
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Kinloch to Whangamata Rd via Kawakawa Bay
Stage two of the Great Lake Trail in Taupo (otherwise known as K2K) runs west along the lake shore from Kinloch to Kawakawa Bay, then climbs up a valley to the road far above. It is 19km each way, so I’ve ridden 38 km today going there and back.
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Pureora Timber Trail
Since I read about the opening of the Pureora Timber Trail almost exactly four years ago I have been itching to ride it, and with Felicity away overseas at a conference I finally got my opportunity. The trail is 85km long, and while some truly hard bastards ride it in one go, most take two days with an overnight camp in the middle.
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