Day Eight - 5月6日(金曜日)

今日は一番大変な日！ 豊後竹田駅からすぐ山が有りました(~_~;)
久住山は本当に高い！ 最初の2時間半ぐらいは12kmだけ出来た。
その後はすごく早かった、でもあの山の道は危なかった‼ 夕方7：30ごろ日田市に来ました。
今日は93km出来ました‼‼ 今までには730キロ以上！

We always predicted that this would be our toughest day and we were spot on. As soon as we left Taketa Town the mountains started. The Kuju mountain range is pretty high, but when your horizon is green with no sky it kind of sucks all of your hope away and replaces it with awful doubt. This was the one day where we physically and mentally couldn't envisage a favourable outcome. We only travelled some 12km over the first two and a half hours, and most of that was spent pushing our plus 20kg bikes uphill. We hit "the wall" I guess and there seemed little chance of breaking through it. We couldn't stop to catch our breath as time was very much against us. So in a last-ditch attempt to break the back of the beast we put our iPods on for the very first time (at other times it would have been too distracting) and listened to Karl Pilkington to keep us amused! It worked!
After a few more tough kilometres we eventually made it to flatter land - we still had to push in parts though as the mountain road was often narrow, without barriers and we had to contend with large trucks whizzing past us!
And then downhill!!! Hitting top speeds in excess of 40kph I really thought my bike was going to fall to bits or I was going to get slammed into a wall/barrier by the strong wind. At one point near kurokawa onsen town I thought I had lost James, for ever I mean. After a particularly dangerous stretch I waited at the next corner for him to follow behind me to see if he had made it too. And waited. And waited. After 5 minutes I began to worry, and tried to call him - but no answer. After ten minutes, and many unanswered calls, I was really panicking ...but then he called me back!!! It turns out he passed me some 2kms back and was now miles ahead, bloody distracting iPod!
From then on it was all plain cycling into Hita City. We didn't arrive until 19:30, but earlier in the day we didn't think we would arrive at all!
Today we travelled an amazing 93kms - and in total have now covered over 730kms and have spent more than 57hours in the saddle!
Only one more day to go - Saga here we come!!!