A trip down Hidaka

Some days ago I went to Obihiro for an archery competition. Of course that usually doesn't involve a trip down Hidaka,which is quite a detour from the shortest and second shortest route from Sapporo to Obihiro. And Hidaka always being a detour has been the exact reason I never been there: I don't see a lot of destinations there for me. Cape Erimo is a good cape but its potential glory of being the southern tip was nullified by the whole Hakodate part of Hokkaido; lots of horse ranches along the coastline, which surely are destinations for those who are interested in racehorses, while I have as much interest in that as in watching paint dry - well maybe less than watching paint dry.

All that said, I do have a lot of interest in covering distances and just going to places I've never been to. I like how the underpopulated areas of a relatively more developed state can offer decent infrastructure without offering the mind-numbing dense of people.