Hokkaido Touring Day 9: Approaching Shiretoko World Heritage

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I woke up at 6 am. I lookup the crisp sky and It's going to be hot. When I went to the bathroom and shaved, my face is slippery because from TsuruTsuru hot spring yesterday. Moreover I can see not much gray hair, maybe because of this bicycle touring lifestyle. I think a bicycle touring is good for anti-aging measures. Why don't you try it? I ate ramen noodles as a breakfast and my ramen stocks have run out.

I took a break at Seicomart with a view of Mt. Rausu across the bay. An elderly motorbike rider was resting too and eating onigiri (rice balls), and I had a little chat with him. He told me that he lives in Soya, Hokkaido and he is riding around whole Hokkaido after retiring.
"I wanna go to Cape Kiritappu, how about there was ?" he asked me.
"It was so cold three days ago that I needed down jacket." I answered.
To hear that he was pondering whether he should stop going or go somewhere else. In resulting I ended up taking a break for more than 30 minutes there. Like anywhere else, time flies when I'm taking with person while taking a break like this. It is one of pleasure for touring.

I arrived in Rausu and went to buy lunch and dinner, but there were no supermarkets and not many food shops. There is nothing for it but to go Seicomart again. They say it's a world heritage town, but I think this doesn't attract tourists very well. I'm better that way....

After about 3 km of steep hills to the camp site, I arrived at the Rausu Onsen Campground (Tent site + 400 jpy for garbage). It was hot today, but the distance was short and I felt it's a blink of time. The caretaker didn't arrive until 3 pm, but I heard it was OK to pitch the tent first, so I pitched it and did some laundry. They will dry quickly because the weather is still good. Since it is supposed to rain tomorrow, I will take them in at night. .

There was "Kumanoyu' which means bear's hot spring on the opposite side of the road of the campground. I went there at once. It is a real town-owned hot spring with a rocky open-air bath near the river and a hut, and the fee is free ! The water was hot, but the smell of sulfur was strong, white and very pleasant. In Hokkaido touring, I'm blessed with hot springs everywhere.

I talked to a number of other campers at the campground, and they told me it would be difficult to climb the Shiretoko Pass from the Rausu side. Speaking of which, a cyclist I met in the hot tub earlier asked me the same thing. The Rausu side is pretty steep, and the Shiretoko side is more gradual, he said. There's only about 15 km to the pass, so I'm afraid of bears, but I may push them if I can't continue climbing, right?
Yeah, I got the answer ! the reason why does everyone go around Hokkaido in a clockwise direction is because of this pass ?

In the evening, there was a Korean cyclist who came over on a Moulton. He said he often comes to Hokkaido. The direction of his route was also clockwise... I cooked rice for dinner, and had corn croquettes, spicy curry, small tomatoes, cabbage, egg salad, and three cans of chuhai. Tomorrow I'll cross the pass but rain is forecast, so let's leave early.

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From Nakashibetsu to Rausu 70km