Chapter 1: Chitose to Shiraoi

Whilst the thought of flying internationally with two bikes was quite daunting, it actually ended up being a surprisingly straightforward affair.

We couriered the bikes to the hotel in Guangzhou where we would be flying from, and somehow managed to get two fully boxed bicycles through the airport without too much drama. In fact, travelling with bikes turned out to be remarkably easy. We got them to Tokyo, collected them, stored them in the hotel room (or, more accurately, downstairs in the hotel lobby), and then somehow managed to get ourselves and two bicycles onto the domestic flight to Chitose, near Sapporo.

Then came the final hurdle: getting the bikes from Chitose to the bike shop where we’d arranged for them to be assembled.

And that went smoothly too.

It was all strangely simple.

Once the bikes were assembled, we headed into Chitose to buy the things we couldn’t take on the plane—camping fuel, lighters, bear spray and various other bits and pieces—and suddenly, after a year of planning and preparation, we were finally ready.

Our first day had arrived.

Chitose → Shiraoi

Our first ride was approximately 63 kilometres, almost entirely flat, and we set off with a strange mixture of extreme excitement and absolute terror.

This was it.

We were actually doing it.

And, as first days go, it was fantastic.

The route took us through proper Hokkaido countryside, past huge motorways, through cute little villages, and along roads that were already making us realise just how different this was going to be from cycling around China. We found wonderful bakeries, stopped for delicious ramen, and generally spent the entire day grinning like idiots.

The ride itself was surprisingly easy. Flat roads, relatively quiet traffic, beautiful scenery and two bikes that were behaving themselves. We were starting to think that perhaps this whole bikepacking thing was going to be easier than we’d imagined.

Of course, we’d only been riding for one day and we had absolutely no idea how we’d feel the following morning.

After reaching Shiraoi, we set up camp and had the enormous satisfaction of spending our first night actually camping in Hokkaido. There was something particularly exciting about looking at all our gear spread around the tent and thinking, this is home now.

We had a day to explore the area, so we headed into town, visited a local museum, and hunted down a couple of cafés. It was exactly the sort of slow, relaxed start to the trip we’d been hoping for.

And then the sky decided it had other ideas.

An absolutely enormous thunderstorm rolled in.

It wasn’t just a bit of rain. This was serious weather, heavy enough to be broadcast as a dangerous event. As darkness approached, we realised that parts of the campsite were beginning to flood, so we had to hastily move our tents to higher ground before we ended up sleeping in our own little swimming pools.

So much for our peaceful first night of camping.

We survived the storm, survived our first proper night in the tents, and woke up the following morning feeling very pleased with our decision to move. When we went to look at our original campsite, it was completely underwater. We’d moved to the highest part of the campground, and even there, puddles had formed all around our tent. The entire campsite had effectively turned into a river.

It was a very good reminder that, when camping, higher ground is your friend.

Still, we survived the rain, and now came another first: packing up the entire contents of our lives onto two bicycles in the rain.

Welcome to Hokkaido.