So maybe that’s being a little on the melodromatic side, nothing bad really happened, but unfortunately a few things didn’t quite workout how I’d either planned or hoped.
I’d like to first start of on how I’d planned to spend my time in Hokkaido, and give a run down on why some of it didn’t work the way I’d planned, and then give advice to people.
My intentions were to begin in Wakkanai. This is the North most city in Hokkaido, located on Cape Soya (about 20km’s or so from the northern most tip of the Japanese territories.
This was an excellent idea, at least it was this year. Originally I’d intended to start in Sapporo, and drive a large 4WD vehicle which would get me through most circumstances I could encounter. Wakkanai is generally snow drenched around this time with -20 degrees normal circumstances. This was an experience I wanted. I wanted to see water thrown into the air and immediately turn to frost. The cost of hiring anything in Sapporo is double that of Wakkanai, and wasn’t enough reason for me to start in Sapporo
(ps. Below, you’ll see a list of goals of what I wanted on this trip.)
I would then drive down the East cost, getting to Abashiri during which time I could also take in the ice flows.
After stopping for the night, I’d then go onto Nemuro for the next night. Here I would see the disputed islands, and get to travel the Shiretoko peninsula mountain road.
Going forward then to Obihiro where I’d have two nights at, with a gap day, as I’d need one in order to see the Japanese Cranes in action, as I wouldn’t have during the day before.
Then onto Ashihadake (Asahikawa) and then onto Wakkanai again.
I sure did make it to the final stops, but there were a few things I didn’t count on… Bad drivers.
There’s easy way to say it nicely, but the people in Hokkaido are the worst most ignorant, unpredictable, and erratic drivers on the road I’ve ever seen.
If we our license from a box of Weetbix, the Japanese are handed them on the back of tissue packets on the streets.
I don’t say this lightly either… I have experience of driving in France, Rome, Croatia, China and Taiwan (Taiwan was the lesser of the other evils for sure though).
To list all the faults would be simply too tedious… And no, I’m not saying I was without fault, but there are laws that are follow around the world, but don’t seem to be here.
So anyway. First leg of the trip started out okay, it was always going to be a hard slog. I left Wakkanai at 8AM on the dot, which was my original plan. With a predicted average hopeful speed of 60km’s, I should reach Abishiri in around 6 hours take a little. As you leave Wakkanai and head into Bakai (a town not 5 minutes away) you reach a sign which informs you, there are 319km’s between you and Abashiri. That works in well with what I planned.
Here’s the problem… the people who got this calculations used maps that were either out of scale, or they drew a straight line from one town to the other, and measured it. I covered nearly 450km’s on that first day. Even with back tracking and off path excursions, there wasn’t an extra 30km’s in that… I was still in excess of 100km’s. I had noticed this fairly early on, when the distances on the signs were no longer matching up with my estimations I was doing on the fly. When only 50km’s had been completed at nearly 2 and a half hours into my journey I was starting to get very concerned… Would my entire trip turn out like this?
fortunately, it wasn’t entirely like that, though the issue did come up.
First major issue was no ice flows… Not one, not even in Wakkanai or Soya. I couldn’t even see Sakhalin in fact, let alone any of the disputed islands… the snow was immense. I don’t say that lightly. At times I couldn’t see 5 metres in front of me, let alone islands just 40-50km’s from the coast.
It carried on much like that. The bad drivers causing me to either drive slowly (under 30km’s which itself was dangerous in the conditions too) for extended periouds.
The snow was also a huge issue in itself. With the constant storms, driving wind, made it incredibly hard to take photos, even if it was getting out of the car… but suprisingly, it was warmer this year apparently then most years… And I can believe it. The coldest situation I experience was Sapporo, which was -12 and had a chill factor of close to -8.
To cut it short (because I’m tired)…
1. Water thrown into the air.
- Didn’t happen, wasn’t cold enough.
2. See the Sakhalin Ice Flows.
- Didn’t happen, again not cold enough.
3. Catch a glimps of Yuznho Sakhalinsk in the distance.
- Too much snow storms.
4. Catch a glimps of the distputed islands.
- Again too much snow storms.
5. Japanese Cranes.
- I did get these, but unfortunately a stuffed SD card and an accident caused many of these photos to be corrupted… I’ll be trying to repair these when I return to Australia.
6. Ice skate on a frozen natural lake.
- There was plenty of it, but not safe enough to skate.
Anyway, here are the photo’s. I appologise for cutting it short, it’s been a long series of days, and there was no opportunity to upload during that time.
On a side note, I’ll have more photo’s from prior to this section of my trip, as they’re also due, but haven’t had a chance to work on them. Once I’m in Australia again this weekend, I’ll be doing a full set of post processing also for the final images so that everybody can see them in the final collection.
