The time passes so fast, we can imagine that we have less than one months to go. It’s almost unbelievable, we remember again when we started, 3 months seemed like an eternity. We did not know how wrong we were…This trip it’s truly an adventure of a lifetime, we will make the most of it before it ends. The melancholy gets through slowly. We are more and more determinated to enjoy every moments of this adventure.
For now, we ran more then 2250km from the start. We just realizde that last week only we climb over 6319m of elevation, that means higher then the Mont blanc.We are curious to count how much elevation we have reached from the start, we will do that at the end of the trip.
In the morning we wake up at around 5am, pack the tent, eat; sometimes sausages, sandwiches, eggs with homemade coffee. We are fully equipped to cook. Between 7:45-8:00 we start running. The day before we look at the map to be aware of that we will have to do the next day. On and on we run between 9h-12h a day, approximately 50-55km.
Recently, we discovered the stations (Michioeki). In Japan, those are made for all travelers, so we are welcome to stay there with no problems. In those stations, we can find food, the famous vending machines, toilet and places to wash. Day after day we know where the next stations are, we can easily plan our day accordingly to them. For us it’s a true gift, because we don’t have to stress to search for a place to camp. At the stations, we meet a lot of traveler, we feel so lucky and inspired to be part of this community. Most of them travel by bicycle, we are the only team who travels with by bicycle and by foot. We are often called ‘sugoii’, a japanese word that means ‘amazing’.
Japan is a stunning country, ever days we discovered scenery that we can see easily see on National geographic. We find ourselves so lucky. The Japanese people are so kind, it’s even difficult to explain how kind they are. This week again, we were stop to be given sports drink and even camping equipment!!! True story. Regardig the language, we always manage to be understood. The magical app ‘Google translate’ works off line, so it quickly became our best friend! Keep in mind that Japanese people are normally helpful, so they do whatever they can to help, so the language is no barrier.
Mother/Daughter relationship
Some of you ask about the relationship between mom and daughter along this trip. We work truly as a team, so everything you can see on the blog or on FB are from the both of us. We share also the same views about the trip. The relationship that we have in Japan is the same then the relationship that we normally have at home. As a mum, I am lucky enough to have a daughter who is passionate by sports and travel, so we live together in a tent and on the road instead of a house. We will share together memories of an adventure of a lifetime tough!
Highlight of the trip
Each day we have some great moments, no specific highlights. The country here is really beautiful, when we travel and discover the amazing scenery everyday, it’s just stunning. We really appreciated the fact that we travel so much distance day by day, it’s incredible the see the distance that we covered by foot until now. When we see the distance on the map, we are speechless.
Festival, food, culture
We found some random festival on our way, nothing big. Last week, we saw a signing show full of old people, that was so cool! Another was a late summer festival, a lot of Japanese people were wearing white clothes and sang something with a bamboo stick.
The locals told us that the ritual was made to remove the bad spirits of the houses: awesome! We also have to remember that we travel in such remote villages in Japan, some people there never met occidental travelers (not mentioning the big trailer with the bike).
Sometimes they look at us really funny! Mostly they are really interested by our adventure, they ask so many questions, really welcoming, open and interested. We have never been to a food festival….
The convenience stores are still our best friends, we know tem by heart now to the point where I can tell you which one has the best coffee! Sadly not the best culinary choices but the most convenient.
We have both lost weight but we don’t know how much, because we did not weight ourselves before the trip😉 and we don’t have access to a balance here!
We are really looking forward to see the rest of the family, they arrive on the seventeen of this month. Before that, we plan to run approximately 50-55km a day, that will give us time to spend some free time In Japan all together without running before we get back to AD. We hope to reach 3100 in less then 80 days, that is a massive load of kms 😀😀😀😀😀
Each day we talk about our next adventure.! We want in a nearest future to run across the Oman coast. We also really want to run in some African countries, we also want to explore some more Asian countries and finish a full Japan tour! An important project for us is go through the steps of Terry Fox, my role model.
We feel that the planet is a playground for us now. We are still impressed and so greateful that we do all that distance each day. A day is like a victory by itself. Doesn’t mater what happens next, we did what we did until now and it’s a great proof, that our bodies and our minds are stronger then what we tought.
Nothing is impossible, you just have to believe in what you want to do, work for it and make it happen.
Simple as that! On and on for the next weeks!