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| Tweeting posts? |
Ikuchi-jima has polished posts which serve as barriers and places to lean and park your bicycle when visiting a nearby store for food, drink, snacks and gifts. Someone had the neat idea of welding stainless little birds on them which I had first seen here on Ikuchi-jima and later saw going through the west of Tokyo though not as finely finished and polished.
Kind of funny sign for wild boar/animal awareness on the path of the Shimanami-Kaido. It looks more like a cute piglet.
The Shimanami-kaido is basically an elevated superhighway for bicycles. It has rental bicycle stations on either end from various vendors featuring all classes of bicycles including higher end carbon fibre racing bicycles, (rental rates vary depending on the bicycle) that you can rent from a few hours to several days. You can return the bicycles on either end of the Kaido and be on your way to wherever you would like to go. Theoretically, you can come here, with only a small suitcase and/or backpack and have a bicycle mini vacation. The infrastructure has multiple rest stops on the various islands specifically catering to cyclist with parking, restaurants, almost enough seats and tables and of course the ubiquitous vending machines.
While the full infrastructure is from Onomichi to Imabari, there are designated, marked paths that even go into and through some parts of Shikoku. Here are a few of my pictures of the Shimanami-kaido from a previous visit on a not so cloudy day. As you can see, It is almost forever memorable and picturesque on a good day and there is even a special high end, gourmet hotel in Onomichi which lets you bring your bicycle into the room and store it on a stand on the wall. A perfect place to impress a date or husband or wife who is into cycling. Nearly all the islands on the Seto Inland Sea on the Shimanami-Kaido has several camping spots usually equipped with bathrooms, designated spots to stake tents, electrical outlets and sometime even outside (cold) showers.
One thing I noted about nearly all the outside public bathrooms in Japan is that they are nearly all made of solid concrete or heavily structured reinforced wood. The reason for this is probably that the area is prone to rain squalls and typhoons. If you are caught in the outdoors in a typhoon, the bathrooms offer a form of solid safety in an emergency.
On landing at Ikuchi-jima, I followed the marked path on the Shimanami-kaido and onto Hakata-jima stopping at a very scenic camping spot on the south part of the island. Coming down the stairs from the road above, I saw the current was incredibly strong creating eddys and whirlpools and while I was there staking out a camping area, a loaded river barge was attempting to go through the strait between Hakata-jima and U-jima.
I pitched a tent near the bottom, had dinner and turned in at dusk. For some strange reason, I wondered if this was a free camp or not since some of the long bridges on the Shimanami-kaido actually have a toll which you drop into a box. I searched on my tablet and saw there was a building, possibly an office a few hundred yards further down below the road. Upset and tired, I broke camp at around midnight and climbed up to a covered gazebo area shuttling for the bike and panniers, put on my raingear and sat on the bench resting my head on my folded arms on the table. It was freezing. I woke pre-dawn and wrapped the ground sheet tarp around me. I think I got around 2 hours of sleep.
In the AM, I got food and coffee at a conbini near the entrance to the bridge and continued on towards Imabari and following the northern coast of Shikoku. Following route 13 into Saijo and Nihama is straight forward and fast. Beyond Nihama, the road starts climbing in a valley then starts climbing up to a pass in some of the steepest S turn climbs I have pedaled anywhere. There were three very steep short sections that I remember with pull offs on the side of a road. At each pull off, I had to stop to recover and catch my breath. I eventually reached the top and started downhill but not before stopping at a pull off to admire the views of the Shikoku coastline and Hiuchi-nada sea. A young woman was driving the other way and had stopped admiring the view. She commented something to me in Japanese which I didn't grasp but was obviously a pleasantry regarding the view. I nodded and smiled as we both took in the view. She then said that she would vacate the spot she parked so that I could see the view from where she stood.
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| Wild Boar Crossing |
Kind of funny sign for wild boar/animal awareness on the path of the Shimanami-Kaido. It looks more like a cute piglet.
The Shimanami-kaido is basically an elevated superhighway for bicycles. It has rental bicycle stations on either end from various vendors featuring all classes of bicycles including higher end carbon fibre racing bicycles, (rental rates vary depending on the bicycle) that you can rent from a few hours to several days. You can return the bicycles on either end of the Kaido and be on your way to wherever you would like to go. Theoretically, you can come here, with only a small suitcase and/or backpack and have a bicycle mini vacation. The infrastructure has multiple rest stops on the various islands specifically catering to cyclist with parking, restaurants, almost enough seats and tables and of course the ubiquitous vending machines.
While the full infrastructure is from Onomichi to Imabari, there are designated, marked paths that even go into and through some parts of Shikoku. Here are a few of my pictures of the Shimanami-kaido from a previous visit on a not so cloudy day. As you can see, It is almost forever memorable and picturesque on a good day and there is even a special high end, gourmet hotel in Onomichi which lets you bring your bicycle into the room and store it on a stand on the wall. A perfect place to impress a date or husband or wife who is into cycling. Nearly all the islands on the Seto Inland Sea on the Shimanami-Kaido has several camping spots usually equipped with bathrooms, designated spots to stake tents, electrical outlets and sometime even outside (cold) showers.
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| My Shimanami-Kaido 2017 route |
I pitched a tent near the bottom, had dinner and turned in at dusk. For some strange reason, I wondered if this was a free camp or not since some of the long bridges on the Shimanami-kaido actually have a toll which you drop into a box. I searched on my tablet and saw there was a building, possibly an office a few hundred yards further down below the road. Upset and tired, I broke camp at around midnight and climbed up to a covered gazebo area shuttling for the bike and panniers, put on my raingear and sat on the bench resting my head on my folded arms on the table. It was freezing. I woke pre-dawn and wrapped the ground sheet tarp around me. I think I got around 2 hours of sleep.
In the AM, I got food and coffee at a conbini near the entrance to the bridge and continued on towards Imabari and following the northern coast of Shikoku. Following route 13 into Saijo and Nihama is straight forward and fast. Beyond Nihama, the road starts climbing in a valley then starts climbing up to a pass in some of the steepest S turn climbs I have pedaled anywhere. There were three very steep short sections that I remember with pull offs on the side of a road. At each pull off, I had to stop to recover and catch my breath. I eventually reached the top and started downhill but not before stopping at a pull off to admire the views of the Shikoku coastline and Hiuchi-nada sea. A young woman was driving the other way and had stopped admiring the view. She commented something to me in Japanese which I didn't grasp but was obviously a pleasantry regarding the view. I nodded and smiled as we both took in the view. She then said that she would vacate the spot she parked so that I could see the view from where she stood.
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| Rt 13 east of Nishinoyama |
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| Rt 13 looking out towards Hotezaki |
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| Rt 13 looking down towards Nishinoe and Shimotemna |
Shikoku is dotted and well known for it's 88 Shrines and the many people from all walks of life and around the world, that take a pilgrimage to walk, bus even cycle to visit these shrines around the island. They are easily identified by their white overcoat, straw hat and walking stick. Many Shikoku locals will go out of there way to give these O-Henro pilgrims nectarines, fluids and food. I think there are a few small sheds along the pilgrim route with benches built so that the O-Henro can sit and rest.
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Flying down towards Shikokuchuo my next stop was Ichinomiya park campground. It had a small temple, skateboard park, bathrooms, beach showers (which were closed) and a campsite for tents. At dusk, I started setting up my tent on the side but near the solid bathroom. In the AM, I broke camp and stopped at the local conbini. The register lady acknowledged the park was open and camping was allowed. I left a little puzzled that no one was using the campsite and rolled towards Takamatsu leaving to the sound of large screaching bird sounds high in the trees. I wondered if they were cranes.
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| Small Fishing Port |
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