Lovely acts of kindness today …

Off to a rocky start – nice breakfast at Veloce – western style cafe – bacon/egg bun and good coffee. Komoot at the ready but somehow we were heading east not west. I think I added a pin on the map or something … oh well … overhead in front of us a huge highway … oops underneath a cycleway then a deadend. Stopping to ask 3 young teens … one said he would run and we follow to get on track …he said he likes to run. 3km later we are directed on track – Komoot is happy = we are happy. The young teen hasn’t broken a sweet. We had done a circuit of the harbour.

Still quite busy as we leave Fukuoka we pass high rise apartments and office buildings then out in the suburbs. Cherry Blossom trees adorn the streetscapes. Hey a bike shop a quick stop to check we are going in the right direction … John has a nature break and the shop owner proceeds to inflate our tyres and a photo of us – lovely man.

We are hugging the coastline – clarity is good and many islands to see. Rocky outcrops and very large sandy beaches is our vista today. At times we go inland through agriculture areas … I smell onions. A small field of canola … I see tourists with cameras in the field as we pass by.

We stop by the beach to see croquet being played and a lone road cyclist stopped for a chat. Turned out he was headed in the same direction .. follow me, he said the rest is history – we said we can do up to 25km/hr and he sat in front all the way to Karatsu. We enjoyed a coffee with him – more culture – learning to operate the coffee machine at a 7-11 store. Before Karatsu we rode through a very old pine forest – very shady as the trees all met above the road.

We parted with our cyclist, Suzuki, after 40km.

Karatsu Castle was worth the visit with panoramic views, again adorned with cherry blossoms at full bloom.