Day 27: Wakimachi – Wakayama

[post of Wednesday 5^th of September 2012]

Today we had planned to leave Wakimachi early (without haste), get to Naruto, have a look at the windmills there and, the next day, to cross over the bridge between Shikoku and Awaji Island. Then, we would have moved to Honshu Island toward Kobe. Thanks to the kami we’re staying in the house of Mika and Hiro. Mika tells us that one of the bridges we planned to cross is closed to the bicycles, and that the ferry doesn’t go to the next island but simply brings tourists closer to the windmills. Ainhoa, who likes to have everything under control, has something very similar to a stroke… while Gabriel keeps having his breakfast as if nothing had happened. We change plan, get the people waiting for us to know, and that’s it.

So… change of plans! We’ll go from Wakimachi to Tokushima instead. From there we’ll get the ferry to Wakayama, a historic city South of Osaka; we’ll get there in two hours. Then, we’ll go to Sakai to see Nozomi, the lady who hosted us on our first day in Japan. From Sakai, we’ll change direction in our original plan and, starting with Nara, we’ll go toward the Biwa Lake and Kyoto… to end up in Kobe. Even thou it’s a bit of a surprise, the change comes quite handy because from Kobe we can then take the ferry straight to the airport of Kansai and, once there, prepare the bikes for the fly.

We have the typical Japanese breakfast, which is the miso soup we’re getting addicted to in these days, double check the new route and off we go toward Tokushima. We fell a bit sad while we say goodbye to Mika and Hiro, they’ve been excellent hosts.

We get deeper into the valley, while we leave the mountains behind us. As we go on, the rural environment changes, gradually, into an industrial one. We’re very lucky, and we can cycle all the 50 km of today’s stage in the pedestrian/bike way of the road, which runs alongside the river. We do all of them in one go, almost without realising it, and we can get the 1.30pm ferry to Taokushima. Once on board we get a massive nap of two hours… Japanese style, simply on the floor.

When we get to Wakayama, the weather forecast becomes true and it begins raining. Initially we thought we could assemble the tent in a camping beside the beach, some 10 km from the city. However, with the orange warning on for storm danger in the Kansai region, we decide to reconsider our original plan for the night camping. Gabriel tries to convince Ainhoa that the rain is caused by a passing cloud, but we see a hotel nearby. A little voice seems to whisper us “come in little ones, I’ve got a hot shower and a cosy bed waiting for us” … and we simply cannot resist the temptation.