CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Ordered leg totals agree within rounding. Stop distances are approximate sums of rounded legs. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
From Tanabe it runs 260 km to Tanabe; allow about 3 h 24 of riding. It goes by way of Kumano Sanzan - Kumano Hongû Taisha, Kumano Sanzan - Nachi no Ôtaki, Pilgrimage Routes - Kumano Sankeimichi - I and back through Kumano Sanzan - Nachi no Ôtaki. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
The Kumano Kodō is a web of ancient pilgrimage trails across the mountains of the Kii Peninsula, south of Osaka, leading to the three grand shrines of Kumano: Hongū, Hayatama and Nachi. For over a thousand years, emperors, aristocrats and ordinary pilgrims walked these paths through cedar and cypress forest, stopping at small subsidiary shrines along the way. The Nakahechi, the most popular of the routes, leaves the coast near Tanabe and climbs inland through the hills. It is part of the Sacred Sites and Pilgrimage Routes in the Kii Mountain Range, listed by UNESCO in 2004, one of only two pilgrimage routes on the list along with the Camino de Santiago, with which it is twinned.
Read the complete Pilgrimage Routes - Kumano Sankeimichi - N write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Pilgrimage Routes - Kumano Sankeimichi - N is where the day begins. Next is Kumano Sanzan - Kumano Hongû Taisha.
Deep in the mountains of the Kii Peninsula, where forested ridges fold one behind another like the scenery in a woodblock print, stands the head shrine of the Kumano faith. Kumano Hongū Taisha is one of the three grand shrines of Kumano, and for over a thousand years emperors, aristocrats and ordinary pilgrims have walked here along the network of mountain trails known as the Kumano Kodō, now part of the Sacred Sites and Pilgrimage Routes in the Kii Mountain Range listed by UNESCO.
Read the complete Kumano Sanzan - Kumano Hongû Taisha write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Kumano Sanzan - Kumano Hongû Taisha comes up about 37 km into the recorded legs. Next is Kumano Sanzan - Nachi no Ôtaki.
Water falls a hundred and thirty-three metres in a single drop at Nachi, the highest single fall in Japan, and it is not just a scenic attraction but a god. The Nachi no Ōtaki has been worshipped since long before the shrines were built, as a place where a kami lives, and the Kumano Nachi Taisha, a vermilion shrine on the hillside, was set up to honour it. Next door, the Buddhist temple of Seiganto-ji, with its three-storey pagoda in front of the falls, is one of the most photographed views in Japan, and shows how the two religions lived side by side.
Read the complete Kumano Sanzan - Nachi no Ôtaki write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 89 km into the recorded legs you reach Kumano Sanzan - Nachi no Ôtaki. Next is Pilgrimage Routes - Kumano Sankeimichi - I.
The Iseji is the eastern branch of the old pilgrimage roads to the three great Kumano shrines, running down the coast of the Kii Peninsula from the Grand Shrines of Ise to Kumano. For centuries, pilgrims followed it through forests and over passes, and stretches of its stone paving still survive in the hills, laid to keep the path usable in one of the rainiest parts of Japan. Owase, a little up the coast, regularly ranks among the wettest towns in the country, and the moss on the stones and the dripping cedar forests show it. The Iseji forms part of the UNESCO listing of the Sacred Sites and Pilgrimage Routes in the Kii Mountain Range.
Read the complete Pilgrimage Routes - Kumano Sankeimichi - I write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Pilgrimage Routes - Kumano Sankeimichi - I, about halfway. Next is back through Kumano Sanzan - Nachi no Ôtaki.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Kumano Sanzan - Nachi no Ôtaki write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Kumano Sanzan - Nachi no Ôtaki sits at 138 km, about halfway. Next is back through Kumano Sanzan - Kumano Hongû Taisha.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Kumano Sanzan - Kumano Hongû Taisha write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Kumano Sanzan - Kumano Hongû Taisha comes up about 224 km into the recorded legs. Next is Pilgrimage Routes - Kumano Sankeimichi - N.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Pilgrimage Routes - Kumano Sankeimichi - N write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Pilgrimage Routes - Kumano Sankeimichi - N closes the day.
Pilgrimage Routes - Kumano Sankeimichi - N → Kumano Sanzan - Kumano Hongû Taisha is 37 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Kumano Sanzan - Kumano Hongû Taisha → Kumano Sanzan - Nachi no Ôtaki is 52 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Kumano Sanzan - Nachi no Ôtaki → Pilgrimage Routes - Kumano Sankeimichi - I is 41 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Pilgrimage Routes - Kumano Sankeimichi - I → back through Kumano Sanzan - Nachi no Ôtaki is 42 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Kumano Sanzan - Nachi no Ôtaki → back through Kumano Sanzan - Kumano Hongû Taisha is 52 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Kumano Sanzan - Kumano Hongû Taisha → Pilgrimage Routes - Kumano Sankeimichi - N is 37 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.