Steps: 31.239 (27,2km)
Temples: 3 + 2 + 1
Today’s walk took us over the last prefectural border crossing of the pilgrimage. Osaka pass crosses from Kagawa and back into Tokushima, and is one of the most pleasant mountain trails we have walked – wide, well kept and with a slow and steady elevation throughout.
It didn’t hurt either that the weather was absolutely stunning – clear blue skies and sunny, it was the perfect day to tie a ribbon on the trip and walk back to temple 1.
The trail crosses from the sea, over the mountains and comes out at temple 3. From there you walk in reverse, past temple 2 to temple 1.
At the top, we toasted to a good trip, to each other and to Kūkai.
Once we got down on the other side, signs started appearing with the distance to temple 3 – less than five kilometers – now less than four …
As is only natural when you are nearing the end, we started thinking back on some of the experiences we have had on the trip. “Remember when we saw the monkeys?” “Yeah, too bad we didn’t get a picture”. “Remember when we went over that old mountain pass?” “Remember all the eagles?”
All of a sudden, we heard a loud rustling and, as if to prove we hadn’t been hallucinating back in Kochi, three large monkeys came flying out of the bushes chasing after each other.
And then suddenly, there it was, temple 3. We had both forgotten how beautiful it is.
On the way to temple 2, we met a crispy white henro walking in the other direction – “Finished?” He asked. “Yup” we nodded enthusiastically. “I’m just starting out!” “Have an awesome trip” we called after him.
I envied him a little. He has so many wonderful experiences ahead of him.
Back at temple 1, Jonas couldn’t help himself but to measure his stick against one of the new ones.
Turns out, it was a good 4-5 cm shorter than when we started out – no wonder it’s been a little hard on our shoes 😅
We still have a few sections to cross off before we can officially say we are done, so tomorrow we’re getting up early (Jonas hates me by now for saying this 😅) and catching a train back to Tokushima.
💪🥳❤️👏👏👏🥂🇩🇰💫💫