The final days of a tour has a lot of “lasts”. Today would be the last time I woke up beside the Pacific Ocean, for example. It was also the last day of riding that would end with a night spent camping. There was a solid day of riding ahead, so I left Kannonzaki early. I was cutting across Kyushu now to get to the road on the eastern side of the peninsula, as there was no route directly to Cape Sata from the Pacific Ocean side.

The morning and early afternoon ride was along lonely cliff roads with great views of the ocean that would descend into small bays with sandy beaches dotted with surfers.

I was lucky that the road I had planned to take was actually open, apparently it has been closed for the last year as part of it had collapsed into the sea!

A few hard climbs met me as I turned inland to cross over to the other coast. I was saved from spending the whole day climbing by following the Nitta pass. It was here also that I saw the first road sign for my Satta Misaki, my final destination!

flat land along the Niita pass

I arrived on the other side of the peninsula at about 3:30. There was a campsite I had planned on staying at ninety minutes further down the road, but I decided I’d rather spend my last touring night down on the beach overlooking Kagoshima bay. I set up down by the sand, but while cooking dinner spotted a large front rolling in. I decided to move camp up to the grassy park above the beach and took cover under tree. It wasn’t perfect weather for my last night sleeping rough, but it was fitting.

setting up for last night