Sounkyo to Kamishihoro

We started the day early (it's hard not to this far north, the sun is up before five in the morning), and we made good headway east through the gorge.  There were some long and flat tunnels early on, and they gave us a good opportunity to stretch our legs and warm up.  The good times didn't last however, and we were soon climbing a windy road that went steadily upwards.  It was a very hot day and after a few hours of this, we were hurting and struggling to stay on the bikes. 
The scenery was nice though, and there were lots of workers out repairing the snow barriers on the sides of the road; their cheeriness and waves kept smiles on our faces.
We finally reached a very long tunnel which marked the mountain pass, after going through escorted by a road worker (they were fixing the tunnel too) we popped out at the other side to be presented with spectacular views over the foothills of the mountains. Right of the road was a trendy base and souvenir shop, and we stopped for a coffee.  We were visited by a fox which was clearly used to being fed - it came close enough for us to have a good look, though we had to shoo it away when it tried to get into our panniers.
What followed was almost an hour of descent, followed by fast riding on the flat for another hour before we reached Kamishihoro.  It was a relatively easy end to a tough day, and we were glad to bed down at the campsite that night after another onsen and spaghetti at a great little restaurant on the main street.