The fifth day's walk was actually not on the Nakasendo, but on the Hida Highway, an old salt and medicine route. Instead of starting the walk straight away, we were taken in taxis to just below the Karasawa-no-taki waterfall. From there it was a climb through forest to the Jizo Pass.
We stuffed up from the start. Instead of taking a left from a bridge below the waterfall, we kept straight on the more obvious track but the incorrect one. We headed up the road to the pass where a sign pointed, but after quite some time we knew we'd messed up. The road and the track were going to join anyway, so we kept on up the road for a couple of kilometres. We should then have seen another turn off into the forest, but missed that too! It didn't make any difference, except that we had to trek through some filthy forestry sludge all over the road, necessitating a stop at an unexpected snowbank to clean our boots again.
We were clearly above the snow line, as there was plenty of snow about when we finally managed to get onto the forest track again. We'd only missed perhaps a kilometre of nice forest trail, but had walked perhaps twice that along the road to get to the same place.
The pass was freezing, with a keen wind blowing through it, so we didn't hang about. The track down through the trees was very pleasant, though a little slippery where snow had melted and refrozen.
We arrived into Kiso too early for lunch, so we went straight past a suggested cafe. This is an area known for Kiso horses, a particularly sturdy and ancient breed related to Mongolian steppe horses. They have huge round tummies, which is not pregnancy, but is the result of an extra-long intestinal tract adapted for the coarse grasses of the steppes. There's only 130 left and a farm we passed through has 30 of those and has a breeding program. This area grows buckwheat, for soba noodles.
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| Buckwheat drying racks, and mistletoe in the silver birches |
We found another little cafe which had make-your-own coffee and tea for just 100 yen, so we settled in to the nice warm room and had a lunch of bits and pieces we'd brought with us.
We'd got ahead of our program again, so were able to catch a bus an hour earlier to the start of the next leg, a climb up to a viewpoint above the Nishino Pass. Reaching the foot of the climb we passed through great fields used for buckwheat, but fallow in winter.
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| Buckwheat fields |
It was a solid climb up to the pass, and a very steep little grunt to the "observatory", but so worth the effort. The views were excellent, especially of Mt Ontake, a very snowy mountain opposite. Much of the time we were crunching through snow covering the trail, trying to keep in the soft stuff rather than slip on the harder more frozen patches. We rather enjoyed it.
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| Track up |
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| Mt Ontake from the top |
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| Plenty of snow on the way down |
Over the other side and a quick trip down to Yamakanoyu Ryokan. Lovely to arrive at 3pm with plenty of time ahead to change clothes and have a very enjoyable relaxed onsen. Our room was probably the nicest yet.
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| Entering Kaida |
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| Yamakanoyu Ryokan |
Dinner was yet another feast, I suspect tomorrow will be the same. This one was distinguished by the host's own soba noodles being served, and also horse basashi (sashimi).