1100 Ks in 4 days

That's right.

        1055 kilometer by Esther the Car,

  and the rest (42K) by Asics Kayano. 

Some great "tradition" to start the New Year with.

One tradition also is a visit to Paparin's Shibaraku restaurant where all customers drink a Happy New Year toast from a decent size sake bowl...

Piece of cake for Marijke as you can see.

 rest stop at the Kyushu Express way.

So, the next day( Friday)...

with some of us still Happy on Sake ...

we dropped N & W off at their Favorite Cat-Jail...

and climbed on board of Esther to drive down to 

Sunny Kagoshima.

As you can see, that day.....No cloud to be found.

Perfect weather....

....for some bird-watching around Makurazaki Area..

Hmmmmm , something happening there?

 Oh yes, there it is!!!

All Hands @ the Nikons.

See It?

Well, for Way Better Shots, (and info) you'll have to go to Marijke's Blog, of course.

The following day (Sat) was more bird-watching and after that, 

driving down to Base Camp 1.

Yep, time to settle in and prep for the 

Yearly Nanohana Marathon.

See the weather? Still perfect.

Ooji-san enjoying the sunshine and...

deliberating what shoes to wear the next day...

Blahhh....just 1 hour before the Sunday 9 Am start...

the rain-cloudS found Ibusuki.

And did it rain!! for the rest of the day.

Can you find Waldo?

The guys and girls up front...

Their duty is to explore the route for us...

We, the slower ones, can just follow them ;-)

(borrowed from my short HHH career).

 The Nanohana Marathon is named so because of

....flowers!

 Some runners even took some time out for a quick
 New Year Prayer..

and then moving on again, in the ever pouring rain. 

By now there was also a howling wind...

Like other years, the Man with the Wheel.

Even with these lousy condition it was

amazing fun to do the Nanohana Marathon together with

18.000 other participants!

To all the people running and along the course 

and @ the aid stations ...

ARIGATO!

(Some of these pictures i have borrowed from the internet. Thanx).

On Monday the sky was empty and so...

we drove back to Makurazaki area where some more great bird-watching took place.

Again, see Marijke's Blog.

Salute.