Three Weeks in Hokkaido, Japan

After a few, short multi-day trips on our bikes in May and June last year, we were ready for more!  We decided we'd head to Japan and once we looked into it properly, the northern island of Hokkaido seemed to make the most sense.  It's the most rural part of Japan so it's well suited for cycle tourists with spectacular scenery, quiet roads, and tonnes of camp sites (most of which were free).

Disassembling the bikes and them packing them into boxes for the plane was a fairly steep learning curve, for me (Stef) at least.  It took the better part of the afternoon to get the job done.  Then, the next problem, how on earth are we supposed to carry these boxes, and all our panniers, to the airport?  Luckily the bus passes right outside our apartment and goes to the terminal where you can change onto an airport bus.  I remember thinking that there was no way it was all going to be that seamless on the other end but there wasn't much I could do about it so I pushed those thoughts to the back of my mind and listened to Nick when he said 'we'll figure it out' - Nick's default response to me when I over-plan and worrying unduly about things!

Disassembling the Bikes in our Apartment

We made it onto the bus!

Ready to Check-in :)

Anyway....we made it, not only to the airport, or from the airport to our hostel, but we managed to reassemble the bikes without too much hassle and we cycled off on what was, in hindsight, one of the best holidays we've ever been on.  We covered just over 1250km in 20 days, and are now more excited than ever for our big cycle, or 'Bike Back Home'.

Re-assembled, loaded up and ready to go!

Back in Sapporo after 20 days on the road!

If you're interested you can read all about the trip here: Three Weeks in Hokkaido, Japan