Vol.81 ~English Version~Ofuyu Shore sea kayak trip

It's been a while. Finally got to work on an English version. The first story is from Hoshino.

The summer is always hot anywhere. The northernmost part of Japan where I live (Hokkaido) is also not an exception.  It hit past 30 ℃ for a couple of days in a row.

This story is about my very first sea kayaking trip. (Usually, I write about mountain related adventures but this time it's about water sports) As you all know, Japan is surrounded by ocean so why don't we take an advantage of its location?

This time I went to Hokkaido Ishikari area,  Ofuyu Kaigan (Kaigan=Coast) that has the red circle on the map above. There is Mashike Sanchi (Sanchi=Mountain regions) nearby and has heavy snow in winter seasons. The highest mountain in the area, Shyokanbetsu Take (Take=Mountain) is popular for the blossoming of flowers in summers and backcountry skiing in winter.

The route we took was about 20 km, an overnight trip from Mashike chou(Chou=town) to Chiyoshibetsu.
As you can see the red lines above, the short line is Day 1 and the longer one is Day 2.You might get an impression that we didn't make much progression on Day 1. Let me tell you, there is a good reason for that.

The ocean was surging on day 1.  It seemed to be still manageable so we left the shore with a certain degree of confidence. I need to note that I was impressed by the amount of load that can be into our kayak.

 The continuous waves and winds were hitting against our boat. Combined with my inexperience made our journey become super slow.   All factors made both suffer from horrible seasick and we agreed on landing at the nearest spot.

There were several times that I found promising shores but when we got closer, we saw reefs blocking our ways.  With a few discouragements, we finally got to a point when we were almost surfing on the boat.  Finally, we arrived at the shore but another big wave came towards us.   We held onto the boat so tight so it wouldn't be washed away. At the same time, we were throwing all our stuff onto the shore then holding the boat upside down to drain water. This absolute craziness completely allowed us to forget about horrible seasick. Looking back now, it must have been the funniest scene from other people's eyes but at that moment we were just dead serious.

The shore didn't have sand and instead, there were full of stones. The stones caused a few punctures on our kayak but other than that everything else seemed to be good. We started a fire and warmed up our freezing body.

Grilling with a beer. There were so many floating wood pieces which saved time and made the whole process a lot easier.

Sunset in the ocean

Our hotel for the night. With a little bit of creativity, you can still sleep comfortably.

The day 2. Although the sky wasn't in our favour, the wave got way calmer.

Also, I need to mention that this boat was built by a partner on this trip. He said he bought drawings online and made this based on them. He also told me about the regulation for a kayak that we can't build more than one boat from a single drawing.  Knowing that this is the only boat in the world made this trip extra special and at the same time I can't help but feel an admiration of this guy who casually say that he built it.

Even though there was a little wave along the way, it wasn't like yesterday and sailing went very smoothly. We spotted a few caves along the way that we could go inside with a boat but we skipped checking out for this time.

The gorgeous view of Ofuyu Cape.  With the presence of the sun, the water would have appeared much brighter.

A climbing area of Ofumi Shore, Ofumi wall.



My pick of the picture from my other trips

                                          Magellanic Penguin coming back from swimming in the ocean (Chili)
                                                                                   Translated by Yumiko Mori