Lost!

A weekend outing to Miyajima was had with Sir S and the visiting Greenwood-Winspearses from Melbourne. We took in the fresh sea air along the prom and watched young lovers admiring the view of the red torii gate mirrored in the sea. Ropeways were flying-foxed and pinnacles reached in our ascent to Mt Misen. Despite close shaves with frisky deer and a surprising absence of red-bottomed monkies, the descent down to the bay was fraught with misleading maps, a lack of mile markers and too many steps for one's calves and bott to cope with. After 2.5 hours of down-diddly-down and up-diddly-up, we made it just in time to the Udon Tavern back on the flats, where miso soup was greedily slurped and hot oysters were deftly gulped to revive our flagging travellers' spirits. Even now my calves are all a-tremble at the thought of our trek, but at least I have a handy box of Miyajima's famed momiji manju (maple leaf-shaped cakes), chocolate-flavoured at that, to numben these recollections. It is also a nasty thing when one starts dreaming of descending a never-ending staircase, to awake with sore legs!