Wednesday, September 5, 2012

Day 23: Higashihiroshima – Shimanami Kaido


[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.








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