北海道自転車旅行：Jul 9 富良野/山部

Since we were camping in the "Sunrise park auto camping site" (日の出公園オートキャンプ場) at Nakafurano (中富良野) which was famous for Lavenders, we climbed the hill the whole park was built on to the other side of the hill where the Lavenders are.

So that's the whole camping site seen from the top of the hill.

And that's the other side of the park. It's nice, managed quite well. Yet as we just left the beauty of Biei (美瑛), this dulls in comparison.

Okey, a park full of flowers alright.

So we then continued on route 237 to the king of all Lavender gardens: Farm Tomita (ファーム　富田). It was said that this is the must stop that most tour guides would take people to see Lavenders.

Given it's popularity, we were quite surprised that it's all admission free, with absolutely no gates. But then we realized that the revenue from all the Lavender related merchandise is abundant enough.

Here's how they dry the Lavender for farther treatment into products.

Here's how they distill the aromatic oil from Lavender.

And here's the gift shops, with a not too short waiting line in front of the cash register. So it's essentially a great big garden selling souvenirs.


Here's the great colorfull hills that goes on to a lot of Hokkaido postcards.


Lavender up close.

A photo of the three of us. (What weren't there four of us? Yeah, the other guy, 毅軍 was glued to the gift shops, picking gifts for his girl friend...)

A look back at the great plains of Furano (富良野), the land famous for Lavender. Interestingly, someone told us that Furano originally meant "land of bad smell" in the language of Hokkaido natives, because of the smell of the sulfur hot springs near by. Yet now, tourists are flocking into the "land of bad smell" for the aroma of Lavender.


I got a slice of melon (メロン) for ￥350, about a 1/8 slice of a melon. Still quite expensive, yet slightly better then a whole melon, which are more expensive then ￥350*8. As it might have a special flavor of Hokkaido, I decided to try one.

And sure was it the best honeydew I've ever had, the sweetness just right. I just can't afford a 2nd piece.


And that does it for Farm Tomita, a feast for your eyes, smell, and even tastes if you are willing to try.

We next continued along route 237 to the Furano train station, in search of lunch and supermarkets to prepare for the needed food supply for our future climb onto Daisetsuzan (大雪山), the highest mountains and national park in Hokkaido.

There was this very nice train called "North Rainbow" at the station that I could not help but take a picture.


We also met a Canadian couple who was just about to finish their own ride around Hokkaido. They had took the route by the southern shore and rode against heavy rain and strong wind. My respects to them. Interestingly, they were using the same "Touring Mapple (昭文社 ツーリングマップル 北海道)" Map booklet that we were using. Turns out almost every cycler and biker were using the same map.

After lunch, and getting all the food supplies for the next week (we were not sure if we will be seeing any more supermarkets before going into the national park, and the map suggests no more sizable cities that might have supermarkets), we almost doubled our luggage weight. 毅軍 even got a huge box and tied it to the back of his bike, which turned out to be filled with all the light yet space consuming stuff (bread, noodles... 我們稱之為「壯觀」XD). As my bike had the best condition of us all, and I was usually the one riding in front, I figured I was the one with surplus leg power, and so I took the heavy, liquid leaden cans and stuff. After distributing a good balance of cargo weight between the 4 of us, we continued on.

As the sun was quickly going down, we decided that me and 毅軍 would ride at faster speeds to the next camping site on the map, in case the campsite management called a day off too early.

The "Land of the Sun Camping site at Yamabe Natural Park" (山部自然公園太陽の里キャンプ場) was 5km from route 237. From the map, I figured that it was a brisk ride through farms and grasslands. Well, surprise surprise, after that right turn from route 237, it was a grueling no frills straight climb up hill. My speeds dropped from 30km/hr to just 10km/hr, yet paddled on since the next possible place to stay was a day's ride away. It was almost like the middle of no where, with a sign that said something like: "KFC 100km away" (I didn't remember the exact number on that laughable ad banner.) Well, we climbed on, constantly asking each other: "Are we there yet?"

We arrived at the park, which was so natural that the grasses were quite high and seemed to be seldom managed. There was a single stinkin' restroom (yup, stinkin' ), and a sign that said "no camping here". Uh, okey, so where's the camping site? Across a row of bushes, the camping site came into site. Not too few people, and the view was very nice. I was starting to like the place until we started unloading. As we were unloading under a lamp, there were like hundreds of tiny flies (the size of half an ant) flying around me, boy were they annoying. The good thing is that after I moved farther from the lamp, the number of flies around was cut in half. Simple insects, huh. I looked for the manager's office as checking-in is common in Japanese campsites. Well no office, just a little wooden box next to the entrance, with a sign-up book, a pen, and a sign "admission free" inside. I wrote my name, from Taipei, and 4 people. Then I flipped over, and saw "Mr. Chang, Hualian, 2 people" ("張先生，花蓮，2人", full names not provided).

We then rode back down hill for dinner. Downhills were always fun on bike. The only shop near by was a "Seicomart" convenient store back on R237. They had really good microwavable curry rice (which tastes more like fresh food then TV dinner). Notably, on the ride back up hill, this time without all the cargo, our speeds doubled to 18~20km/hr. I guess no longer hungry was also a factor, but that cargo really did made a difference.

The girls had got the the camping site during our dinner, and the first thing they told us was: "That toilet stinks!! And there's no flush!!" Oh, I thought, so it also stinks on this side... (smirking). I was happy to notice that all the flies were gone by now, and though the flies was less tolerable then the toilet, since the Seicomart downhill had a public, modern toilet.

Well, walking around the camp site, I found that the whole site was split in half by a river, and there were much more people across the bridge. The river was dazzling at night and had a very natural fell to it. Some guy across the bridge had a van and a great big tent with a generator, watching TV inside. And here's the big deal: right across the river, there is a large wooden constructed restroom, with flush and only stinks slightly.

And try as I did, I didn't find that Mr. Chang from Taiwan, Hualian.

Jul 8th 美瑛から、富良野まで << | >> Jul 10th 富良野から、新得まで