[post of
Sunday 2nd of September 2012]
We say
goodbye to Koubun and her flatmates, and head off to today’s stage in the best
way possible, down-hill. When we decided our route for the trip, we planned it
trying to get to visit the more interesting places along the seacoast, at the
same time that we avoided the hardest roads in terms of the average of up-hill
and down-hill we had to face. However, as days go on, the body gets used to the
task of doing cyclo-tourism, so we are getting more trained for the parts
up-hill of the trip. In addition, to travel with your partner has both positive
and negative sides. It looks like now we get up-hill in a more confident way,
with less effort than in the first days… even thou the force that pushes you to
keep on going is pride more than love. To feel pride is tricky and, most of the
times, useless. To get to share this great experience with your other half is a
treat, and a great one, but there are both good and bad days. When tiredness
piles up, and the warm melts up your good sense, you direct you frustration
toward the only other person with you. Alice from the “Rodadas” pages is right;
when you have an argument with your partner, and you live together, you can
always get out and have a walk… but in a stage you’re doing together, there is
no such thing as a way out. However, you still need to put some time aside to
talk, to discuss today’s stage and plan the way to face it together, to tune
your cycling with that of the other and, above all, to put that useless pride
in the saddlebag. Today is the day for all this.
We go from
Higashihiroshima to Onomichi through a beautiful road, although it seems that
all Japanese tracks have decided to pass through it. Some (few) track drives
beep us; some to cheer us up and goodluck, the other because we’re slower than
them; other don’t care about the safety distance and we get to breath their
track’s smoke… then you get these special persons we’ve been meeting all the
way through here in Japan. A track driver beeps us and then stops along the
road, to wait for us. When we get there, he comes out from the track with an
Aquarius bottle and a huge smile on his face. We have a rest for a little
while, and a chat about the trip in JapanEnglish. These people are great!
When we get
to Onomichi, we have a walk around through the city. For a change, we take too
long and it’s late. Today the idea was to stop midway through the Shimanami
Kaido, a route for bicycles of some 70 km. The Shimanami Kaido cuts through a
series of small islands between the Great Honshu and the Shikoku Island. We are
a bit disappointed by the fact that this route is publicised as ideal for
bicycles, one of these routes where you are not bothered by the traffic…
instead there is little difference with any other road with a
pedestrian/bicycle way as those we found before. The state of the road is
better than other roads, that’s true, and there are very few cars. However,
this is not the most beautiful route of Japan, nor the more breathtaking. The
most spectacular aspect of the Shimanami Kaido are the bridges that cross over
from island to island, real pieces of mega-architecture.
It’s
already late and is getting dark; we’ve got neither food nor a place where to
sleep. The nearest camping is at 15 km. The surroundings are not that wild as
no to allow to camp there. We decide to keep going until we find a place where
to eat and, then, to go back to the camping we’ve just passed. Like in
Miyajima, the camping is closed so we cannot use the facilities (or take a
shower), but we assemble the tent in a nice spot, a beautiful plain beside the
beach… and we have dinner under the full moon.
No comments:
Post a Comment