Kumano Kodo Day 4

Destination: Nachi Taisha – final finish

We allowed ourselves to sleep in until 7am, we thought our bodies at least deserved that luxury. We only had 14 km until Nachi Taisha, our final destination!

The trail began with an ascent once again, but I’m grateful for this structure as my body moves the best in the morning after breakfast. The day was raining as the forecast said, but the cold air was perfect for the final climb.

Everything looked different from what we started 4 days ago at Koya-san. The track was more green and mossy. A lot more steps were made by rocks, and they were quite slippery from the moss.

We started descending down, the final stretch!

We stepped out onto civilisation and immediately saw the magnificent red grand shrine.

We did it! <High Five>.

My first pilgrimage completed. Now my feet can rest. We were able to briefly see the Nachi no Taki – the biggest waterfall in Japan – behind the mist of clouds. Unfortunately as we walked closer, the view was covered by the thick clouds that swarmed in. I still briefly saw it at least! 

We treated ourselves to lunch before catching the bus ride to Kii-Katsuura station. When we arrived at the station we found out the only train departing to Osaka was at 6 pm. With 3 hours to kill, we took a stroll around this dead spooky town by a port. We killed time by bathing in an Onsen so we didn’t stink on our train ride home. The best decision really – it was heavenly.

We hopped on a 4-hour train-ride at 6 pm only to realise we forgot to buy dinner. How could two worn-out hikers forget about food? This train didn’t offer food like the Shinkansen does and didn’t stop long enough for us to hop out to buy anything.

4 hungry hours later – we arrived in Osaka!

From 10pm we caught a train ride from Osaka back to home, arriving at 11.30pm, asleep around midnight. What a crazy trip. Very fun, first multi-day hike since moving back to Japan.

I would love to hike other routes of Kumano Kodo in the future – they all look so beautiful.

Elevation Profile

Total Km: 14km
Total Ascend: 1260m
Time: 6 hours