We arrived at the Shikaribetsu Gorge Kanno Onsen carpark at around 4pm, after driving almost 5 hours from Shibecha Town further east. We were just getting ready to leave the car when a staff member from the Kanno Onsen asked us not to park our car in their carpark. They seems somewhat fed up with people leaving their cars there overnight to visit the wild onsen beyond the campground. Fair enough.

So we moved the car to just in front of the closed gate that leads to the campground.

Despite it only being an overnight trip, and only having to ski about 15 minutes to our campspot, we were carrying plenty of gear. To be fair, much of the extra was food, and the two Swedish torches – for a nice contained campfire – added to the bulk.