After almost a week of not cycling, five night in the city then two out on Nogata I left early on Sunday morning ready, refreshed and eager to resume the cycle. This was the start of the final leg, in less than a week I would be finished.

Nogata to Beppu was a pleasant cycle, mostly flat as I followed a river. There was going to be a climb at the end of the day that loomed over like a dark cloud, but I enjoyed the easy riding in the morning, trying to forget I had to go over a mountain to get to my destination.

I passed by a shipping container that had been out by the side of the road and turned into a diner. I thought it looked cool, so I stopped there and had lunch.

The climb before Beppu wasn’t as bad as I had expected actually, the mountains I had seen on the map and thought I had to go over were divided by a small pass that the road and railway followed. There was some climbing, sure, but not half as bad as I expected.

an old theme park I passed while coming into Beppu

Beppu is a city famous for its hot springs, both those you can bathe in and the scalding hot springs that pour out of the earth. The latter was one of the reasons I came through Beppu, to see the famous “hells of Beppu”.