December 18, 2025: Motobu to Kunigami – 48 kms – Okuma Beach Resort

December 19, 2025: Kunigami to Ada – 55 kms – Ada Garden Hotel – 

December 20, 2025 – near Ada – Rain day, no riding – Ada Garden Hotel – Island count: 5, with the addition of Sesoko and Yagaji – total distance cycled: 383 kms

Gordon:  If you look at a map of Okinawa you will notice that the southern third is mostly urbanization, the middle third is largely American military bases (20 percent of the total land area of the main island of Okinawa!), and the northern third is predominantly forest.  We are currently enjoying that northern jungle, most of which is within the Yanbaru National Park.

Although we are in a subtropical area, the jungle in this area is among the richest and least developed that we have encountered on our travels.  Okinawa has a greater population density than most of Japan, but for some reason the northern area has experienced very little development.  There are a few small towns on the coast, and a number of minor farms, but most of the forest feels untouched.  There are a range of tropical and subtropical trees and shrubs, including the always impressive tree ferns.

The jungle harbours a number of interesting animals, including some found nowhere else.  The poster child of the indigenous life is the kuina, or Okinawan rail.  It is an endangered species found only in the north of Okinawa.  The only flightless bird in Japan, its population was reduced to only 700 animals a few decades ago.   The kuina is now the subject of intensive conservation efforts, including a captive breeding program and restrictions on the ownership of cats and dogs.  Yesterday we repeatedly passed a small van that was checking live traps that we later realized were probably for mongoose, an introduced predator.

We saw a kuina at a conservation centre yesterday, and at dusk we were treated to a cacophony from several individuals.  Their loud calls sound similar to some parrots.  After dark a hotel employee took us for a walk around the area, where we were fortunate enough to see two wild kuinas.  Despite being flightless, they roost twenty feet up in trees that they are able to climb.  The ones we saw were not disposed to abandon their roosts, so we were able to observe them closely for as long as we wished.

The hotel employee also pointed out several fruit bats that were feeding at the tops of some trees.  These bats are enormous, with wingspans of almost a metre.  In addition to the bats and kuinas we saw a small owl.

Today it is raining heavily, so we are staying another night at the same hotel in the middle of nowhere.  We went for a walk in the jungle this morning before the rain became serious, where we saw scores of newts enjoying the moist weather.  They are obviously related to the rough skinned newts that we have near Victoria, but the Okinawan species has more variation in its colouring.  We saw one enjoying a very ambitious breakfast of a large earthworm, which reminded me of our own efforts at the buffet breakfast troughs.  We also saw an Okinawan robin, which is a very attractive bird, smaller than our own robin.