大崩山, Okue-yama and Wakuzuka trail

In to the wild. Three exchange students half awake half a sleep in a mountain cottage. Temperature both outside and inside +2 degrees. No one has a sleeping bag or a sleeping mat. That is how it was when a Dutch, a German and a Finn decided to make a two day off season hike at the Wakuzuka trail.


Let me explain more. On Sunday morning we drove south to Miyazaki prefecture and through Nobeoka continued to Sobo Katamuki Quasi-National Park, an area of rare untouched nature and true wilderness.


The first day was pick-nick like. The walk to cottage was effortless-barely a half an hour of length. Real hike awaited on the sunrise of the following day.


The reserve area is mother nature's art room. Not only this twisty tree branch but all the surroundings from riverbed rocks to streams have been formed free of human touch and are very beautiful to an eye.




When the rainy season is not on the enormous river rocks reveal. Quite tempting (and dangerous) sport is to jump from one to another. The trail, more or less, goes along river and streams, this being the main stream.


One can only imagine the strength of the mountain river when rainy season hits in. These huge tree trunks were conveyed by seasonally strong current over time.


Sausages and potatoes wrapped in a foil. Cup of aromatic pine tree tea. Chattering around a fire until dark. All fun. During the teeth rattling night everyone had slept few hours in some miraculous way, a surprise for each of us.


So rested we awoke. It was around 7:00 am as we left and already at the very beginning the trail offered a terrific view to mountains we'd later on climb.



First high peak and a fantastic lookout point down to the valley.


The nine hour hike was still young. When sun was half up we headed higher.


I can never get enough of the depths of these wide scale views.


The freezing level was not really high, therefore from time to time we encountered frosty rocks and icy waterfalls.



Best part. It doesn't show from the photo but the most beautiful section of the hike was this riverbed at the end of the day. The trail can be hardly said to exist there, so difficult it is at times to see the marked path.

This Wakuzuka loop is said to have the highest rate of lost hikers of all Japan's trails. In many situations the wandering hikers have been found by a rescue helicopter but there are cases were hikers have been found dead, or have never been found and remain lost till today. Quite worrying, huh?