Summer vacation - Daisetsuzan National Park

On my way from lake Akan to the Sounkyo (kyo=gorge) my Japanese Navigation system wanted to give me some additional adventure and guided me through nice back country roads. I'ts just good, that the rental cars in Hokkaido have all wheel drive.

I was going up to Mt. Kurodake. On a nice walk in parallel to the chairlift I saw some blue berries and stawberries, the first on my trip and I had the chance to take the first pictures of dragonflys.

Nice panorama

On the way down with the chairlift (that was going about two meters above the ground) I saw some pretty flowers. Reminded me of  Enzian. Unfortunately not close enough to get a good picture.

Afterwards I was checking out the waterfalls alongside the gorge and the gorge itself. Unfortunately most of the gorge is not accessible. This was very disappointing.

Summer vacation - Lake Akan

Next stop from Shiretoko: Lake Akan
In this lake the famous Marimo, moss balls, can be found. An my way to lake Akan, I passed by lake Mashu. Unfortunately cloud base was very low. So from the first sight seeing spot I could not see much but white clouds and on the second spot, the clouds also were comming down pretty quickly. But I could take at least a decent panorama:

Arrived at lake Akan I met with a local Tour guide, who took me on a nature walk to Lake Onneto. We saw lots of mushrooms and other stuff, which I will show in a separate chapter of the blog. Here a nice panorama of the lake. Later it started raining again but most of the walk was dry.

On the next day I first did a canoe tour on Lake Akan.

Afterwards I was taking the boat tour across lake Akan, that allows you to see the Marimos in a museum on an island in lake Akan. They have some of the in an aquarium on display and the have a camera which shows a spot in the lake, where they can be seen "live".

After the boat tour I took a walk to the mud pools, which are bubbling in a way that I prefer, not to fall in.

In the evening I visited a performance of Ainu dancers. Afterwards a ceremony was held.

On the next day, on my way to the Sonkyou gorge, I visited lake Onneto once again and made a little hike to a special waterfall. It has special conditions, so it is "producing" mangan

Summer vacation - Shiretoko

Still some days to catch up on my summer vacation in Hokkaido.

From Wakkanai I was driving all the way down, along the coast line to the Shiretoko National park. Although it is only about 400 km, it would take almost a full day. It's all country roads and the speed limit is 60 km/h or less.

On the day of arrival I was driving up to the five lakes, hoping to get some walking done but there was Bear activity so the ground path was closed. Only the wooden pathway was open. Some nice  mystic clouds:

Afterwards I did a short walk to the cliff with a lighthouse and the first of a series of waterfalls. On the way I saw some deer.

On the next day the ground path was open again. After a short lecture, where we were told, how to behave, when we meet a bear (or better: "do everything to avoind this") we could leave for the walk. At the beginning it was drizzling a bit but it stopped soon and the atmosphere was quite nice in this damp forest with its five lakes.

At the end the walk would lead over the pathway, I was taking the day before already. Then I decided to try lake Rausu. On the way I came by a fox, which was everything else but shy.

The path to lake Rausu was much longer than I expected. As I had to either walk 30 minutes from the start of the walk to the parking, where I had to leave my car or to catch a bus, which would only run 4 times a day, I decided to turn around at the second little lake, that was alongside the path. I'm sure it would have been a very nice hike despite the a bit dirty path. I understand, why they have rubber boots for rental at the ranger station.

Comming back down to the coast line, I visited two more waterfalls, one of the belongs to the 100 most beautifull in Japan.

In the evening I climbed a little hill or rock at the harbour to watch the sun go down.