Day 25: Niihama – Mima

[post of Sunday 2^nd of September 2012]

We break all previous records and wake up at 5am, but not because we wanted to. The fire alarm in the room has gone off, and it doesn’t shut up… not even when we remove the batteries. Finally, when we manage to switch off the faulty fire alarm, we also switch off our alarm and sleep a bit longer. It doesn’t matter if today’s stage is another one of 100 km, or that we have a difficult up-hill in the middle of it. If we don’t get to our final destination, we can always give a call to our next host, and camp somewhere outdoor. The most important thing is to enjoy the trip, not to go crazy or die in the effort of following the original plan. We’re working ahead of time and putting this in writing, just in case we need to give that call, and we get (or not) to Mima too late.

It rains the whole day except when we have to cycle up-hill and, even better, when we get down-hill afterwards. We thank the kamis and keep on going through one of the most beautiful valleys we’ve seen so far, in the middle of a rural environment, through a road without traffic. Today’s stage is truly dangerous, with the constant possibility of your gaze getting trapped into the view and away from the road… but that’s unavoidable after all. We stop as many times to take pictures as those in which the rain stops. You must go and see it yourself.

Midway through the afternoon, some of the clouds go away and the sun shines again… but it’s still raining. We want to know exactly which cloud is getting us as wet as a soup (so to speak!). We have a swimming pool in each shoe, and it’s getting cold. In front of us, the rainbow is the main gate to Mima… we’re there! Thanks to the beauty of the valley distracting us, we’ve arrived smoothly enough, and not as late as we thought this morning. Our host, Mika, greet us in the street and we enjoy a lovely dinner with her and her husband.

We cannot believe that what we are experiencing all the way through the trip is just good luck. We’re sure the kamis have blessed us. We’re gonna miss them when we go back to Spain.