Hokkaido - day 4

The night before, we reached Utoro, where people take the boat to go around Shiretoko peninsula. After the onsen, lucky we found a camping site in Shiretoko and took a rest.

In the morning, we went down to Utoro to take the boat. Tickets are 8,000 yen for 3h tour. Boats are the only way to see around the peninsula. The guides are very careful regarding to the nature preservation. As nominated the world heritage 2005 by the UN, Shiretoko has been visited quite a lot this year. Local people are very concerned to keep everything as the nature made.

The weather was not so good; many clouds actually made us see many animals there.

Even the bears, what local people say it is rarely seen, we were able to meet 4 of them. They were fishing their lunch and the binoculars helped to see them well.

An "obento" (lunch box) with a super fresh "ikura" (salmon’s eggs) were served in the boat. Delicious!!

On the way to Shiretoko once again, we met some deer and foxes. The are not afraid of human and stay eating in front of us for a while.

They are completely free, none of them can be touched or feed. While you’re driving, just be careful because other cars are stopped in the middle of the way taking pictures ;-)

In the afternoon, we went to the 5 lakes inside Shiretoko’s mountains with a non-comparable landscape. The lake 2 is the biggest and the most beautiful.

In our guidebook, there’s a description of a natural onsen waterfall few km after the 5 lakes. We asked for the place and it’s only possible to reach there with a special bus. No private cars can reach the waterfall to protect the nature.

When I arrived there, the sensation was like climbing the Fuji Mountain with water falling down calmly. The water however is warm. And the smell is like in the onsen tamago’s place.

You climb for about 20 min to reach the place you can take the natural bath. As we arrived end of the day, there were few people and I felt all the onsen waterfall only for you. First time in a real very natural onsen that provides the amazing sensation of what God prepared with His hands. I took some pictures with the instant camera, but I still have to process them... I will upload later on ;-) it's worth!!

After so relaxing time, I faced a problem… to get down on the waterfall is much but much more difficult than climbing… it is very slippery and sometimes you have to go down with the water, otherwise you stay there forever.

Many people were slipping and falling down… when I was almost on the bottom… it was my turn! Boooom…. Fell down in a very beautiful and original way, with my left hand getting all my body’s weight against the rocks…

This made my visit to the onsen waterfall unforgettable. Because after we return to the campervan, I went straight to the hospital to make sure my hand wasn’t broken.

And thank God, it was fine, still painful but nothing broken.

At night, we still drove down to Nemuro, a very interesting area… in a huge farm in the middle of the nature, we rest one more night.