Misty Mountains of Kumano Kodo

 

Before moving to Japan I had lived many years in a desert environment, so one of the most different and dramatic landscapes I encountered in Japan was the mists and clouds clinging to the forested mountainsides.

This was the setting for my third day walking the Kumano Kodo in the first days of March. I left Hongu, deep in the mountains, and headed roughly West towards the coast along the Nakahechi route.

The most travelled of the various routes that make up the World Heritage Kumano Kodo routes, After a couple of hours I had still nt met anyone else, though it was early in the "season", and I was walking in the opposite direction to most.

I was actually walking the Saigoku Kannon Pilgrimage, but for walkers at least, the route followed the same route as the Kumano Kodo for the first few days.