Day 11 Minoo Waterfall
I typed a whole report on this day, then my internet crashed (for no particular reason) and everything disappeared into nothingness. So, gotta start all over again...
Um... So... Today started with a short walk (3km) to Minoo Waterfall. The road itself went gradually uphill, but even when walking at a snail's pace, it was enough to leave my husband completely out of breath. He blamed it on the sore throat he's had for a few days now (it affected his lungs too, he claims), but I suspect it has more to do with the complete lack of any exercise for years.
The road to the temple runs past an insect museum and some temples, but to shorten the suffering of my husband I decided not to linger and just walk on. The last thing he wanted right now was trailing after me as I bounced from place to place.
Pretty waterfall!
After a short rest at the foot of the waterfall, my husband decided to return to Osaka city, I would walk onward to Katsuo-ji.
First hickup in my plans happened roughly 10 minutes into my walk, when the entrance to the trail I wanted to take was closed off. And the path itself seemed to have been destroyed by a landslide. For a moment I worried the whole nature trails did not exist anymore, but thankfully I found a (new) entrance just a short walk up ahead.
...and I also found a notice that they had, for environmental reasons, decided to return the closed off part of the trail to the monkeys. Whether they made this decision before or after it was destroyed by the landslide remains a mystery.
The entrance looked a bit forlorn, but nothing indicated I wasn't allowed to start climbing the stairs, so... on I went!
The first bit of nature trail 2 was a bit rough, with some pretty steep drops to the side, but soon it turned more into a forest walk. Albeit uphill, with enough stairs to leave me completely out of breath. Eventually the trail levelled out, and continued with some gradual ups and dows. Roughly 25 minutes later, I reached the end, and continued onto nature trail 3.
I did make a little detour to Minoo dam, but... It wasn't much of a dam. That is, I could not find the water... But I suppose it was a pretty sight?
From there the trail descended to the Minoo visitor center. Including detour, trail 3 took roughly 20 minutes.
Upon entering nature trail 4, it was time to start climbing again, then continued mostly level until it descended back to the road en the entrance to nature trail 5. All in all, taking me about 35 minutes.
And the I found a rope... Closing nature trail 5 off! Hold on, what!? A closer look at the faded pieces of paper revealed this decision likely had to do with the bear that had been spotted over a year ago! So, well... The trail itself didn't look like it had been abandoned for over a year, so I decided to simply carry on. Albeit with a bit more caution. Though I did not hear anything but my own footsteps, and saw nothing that resembled animal activity. About 20 minutes later, I finally reached Katsuo-ji!
All in all, it took roughly 1.5h to walk for Minoo waterfall to Katsuo-ji. Pretty much as planned. Trails were thankfully pretty well maintained, so that was nice!
