Kumano Kodo day 3

Another stunning day on the Kumamo. In just a few km we reached the end of our pilgrimage, the Hongu Taisha. It was really quite impressive and lively with the sound of chanting, drumming and the thrum of tourists. We spent a wee while ringing bells, bowing and clapping with the peaceful crowds, and once fully spiritually awakened, went for a coffee. At this point we decided we wanted to walk on to our nights accomodation rather than the planned series of buses, so up and over to the first onsen ( hot springs) where we boiled some eggs then on down the valley across bridges and through tunnels to our hotel.hotel tonight was somewhat more glamorous than the rustic home stays to date and we swanned around in our kimonos for a while. Our hotel is built around an onsen , so instead of immersing eggs we immersed ourselves and had a lovely soak as dusk fell watching red kites fly up and down the valley and the moon rise over the trees.Read more