Third day in paradise with an entire day to fill. The weather was the usual - sun, showers, clouds, sun, overcast, showers, etc etc. By now we were used to the erratic weather and took it in our stride - sunnies one minute, brolly the next, rainjacket on then taking the layers off when it got too hot.
Today was our last morning staying at Cottage Morinokokage. We packed up and said our goodbyes to our wonderful hosts and cosy little cottage. On our way out it started to rain again and we noticed that there were now two other tourists in one of the cottages, Ryosaku told us they were staying for a few days and had not hired a car. When it started to rain we decided to go ask them if they would like to join us for the day, but they had gone for a walk. Bad timing! I felt so bad - if you come to this island you absolutely should hire a car for freedom to do whatever you want, public transport on the island is very limiting, especially with the weather being like it is.
Our destination for the day was....as many places as possible. We decided to do a full loop of the island, departing at 10am and hopefully completing the full circle by 4pm to be able to check into our next accommodation at a good time.
Kuriohama Beach
Our first stop off was Kuriohama Beach, another area for sea turtles to nest. It is also a 'marine park' with a current that brings in a number of temperate and subtropical creatures as well as unfortunately quite a bit of rubbish. One thing to note on Yakushima, although it has a tropical climate and beaches they are certainly nothing spectacular and not the main attraction here.
Kuriohama Beach
Kurio Port
Kuriohama Beach
Kuriohama Beach
Oko-no-taki falls are spectacular. The viewpoint of the falls is from the bottom and you can feel the sheer force of the falls through the thunderous noise and spray.
The locals kept on making jokes about how incredibly large the population on Yakushima Island is, when really they are counting the thousands of monkeys and deer which run rampant all over the place. Disappointed we didn't see millions of them on our first days, we were in luck this day as we saw loads by the roadside during our drive.
This is when we started to enter the Seibu Rindoh Forest Path, a stretch of road on the west coast of the island that is very narrow and runs along the edges of cliffs. Large trees overhang the road and while we were going through cloud hung over the road as well, making the drive especially dark and mysterious as monkeys and deer ran past. It had been raining quite a bit so there were also numerous small waterfalls coming down at the sides of the road and in some cases, even running across the road! But luckily not enough to be dangerous..
Looking down from Seibu Rindoh Forest Path to the ocean
Seibu Rindoh Forest Path
Next stop along the way was Yakushima Lighthouse on Cape Nagata. There were some impressive views looking back from the lighthouse to the surrounding cliffs.
We made a quick stop at Nagata Maehama Beach before reaching where we had been the night before viewing the turtles. It was great to see Nagata Inakahama Beach in the daylight as we could see where we had been the night before and even better, we could also still see the tracks of the turtle we had been watching nest! Funnily enough when we reached the beach the sun came out and it became quite humid, while we were driving around the lighthouse it had been raining and overcast and then when headed towards Isso beach it became cold and windy. Talk about experiencing every season in a day!
Nagata Maehama Beach
Nagata Maehama Beach
Nagata Inakahama Beach
Nagata Inakahama Beach
Loggerhead Turtle tracks!
Loggerhead Turtle diagram
Our last stop on the way around the island was Isso Beach, where we seemed to have caught a busload of schoolboys finishing having a dip in the ocean.
Isso Beach, Yakushima
Isso Beach, Yakushima
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