Kuju Golden week adventure 天狗ヶ城・中岳・北大船山・大船山の写真

Kuju Golden week adventure 天狗ヶ城・中岳・北大船山・大船山

九重山（久住山）・大船山・星生山(大分,熊本)

2023.05.03 (水)2 日間

jaykyushuhiking

The weather held out and so I headed off to Kuju for a solo adventure. Day 1 I took the Yufu express train to Bungo-Nakamura. I quickly noticed that the train was full of hikers. I asked the young man in front of me what their plan was and he informed me that he was part of Fukuoka University hiking club and his group was 15 people! I thought the bus would be difficult with such a large number. Luckily a woman at the station helped arrange additional transport for the big group so everybody got to Chojabaru without any problems. Phew! I hiked to Bogatsuru smiling the whole way. It is a wonderful route through beautiful forests with bird singing all around. I especially like the wetlands areas and walking on the wooden wall ways. I got set up with a good view of Mimatayama. It took me an hour and half to reach the campsite so I had a lot of time left so I headed off to the main Kuju area and hiked up Naka-dake which is the highest point of mainland Kyushu. The route there was barren and volcanic with lots of old volcanic rocks around and the steaming springs of Kuju visible along the mountain ridge. Once at Naka-Dake I took in the magnificent view for miles around. I could see Yufudake and Mt. Aso. I hiked down past the volcanic lake and back to Bogatsuru. Before heading to camp I stopped by the mountain hut onsen and washed up. You cannot use soap here and it is small but still it was relaxing and refreshing. I headed back to camp made some food and sat enjoying the enjoying with some beer. When it started to lightly rain I went into the tent and crawled into my sleeping bag for the night. Day 2 I woke up early and packed up my sleeping bag, airbed and pillow. Made some coffee and had some breakfast under the gaze of Mimatayama. I then set out to hike Mt. Taisen. The route is very different from the Mt. Kuju area. It is forested but still has volcanic rubble to clamber over. I reached the top and took in the splendid views of the Kuju mountains. The view of Mt. Yufu was especially good. I hiked down and packed up my tent. I set off to hike back to Chojabaru and made it before 11am. This gave me plenty of time for another onsen to wash properly and I went to the restaurant for some lunch, chicken nanban burger! I relaxed with a nice view of the mountains waiting for the bus. There were no delays and I made it back to the Yufu express train without any problems.