The Kumano Kodo and the El Camino are the only two world heritage listed pilgrimages. You collect stamps along the way and if you do both of them, you get dual pilgrim status. There are several routes you can take. We walked the Nakahechi route that started in Takijiri.
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| Start of the trail |
We visited the information center where we found that this is the 20th anniversary of it being a World Heritage Site.
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| Jinja on left, information center on right |
Then across the street to the first Oji (shrine) and stamp for our booklet.
The trail is pretty steep and a bit rough at the start.
Partway up the hill we came to Chichi-Iwa rock and Tainai Kuguri cave.
It's good luck if you can crawl through the cave. The trail has several nice viewpoints and small shrines.
Next stop was Takahara, a small village on the mountain with the oldest Oji on the trail and a nice view.
The trail then went along the mountain ridge and passed a few more Oji and stamp boxes. You pick up a stamp book at the start and stamp it at the stamp boxes along the trail.
At many of the Ojis, people give coins for good luck.
The trail has markers like these every 500 meters that are also on the map so it's easy to figure out where you are. They have free, incredibly detailed maps at the information center.
Our last two stamp boxes for the day were at Gyuba Doji statue and Chikatsuyu Oji.
A wonderful first day even though it was cloudy and supposed to rain. The rain held off until a few minutes before the end of the walk.
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