DAY 1.
About a week ago we were back on our bikes, not in Switzerland, but in Japan this time. We cycled from a place called Onimichi on Honshu, to a city called Imabari on Shikoku island. I was really excited to be back on a bike because I hadn’t been on a bike for a whole year!
At first, one evening Mama and Daddy took us out to a bicycle rental place and we looked at the bikes and then we walked back to the guesthouse we were staying in and before going to bed Daddy let Sascha and I read a blog about a lady who took the recommended bike route to Imabari and it was really interesting. She felt that she undid all her cycling by taking the boat back to Onimichi. I was sure that I’d also feel like I would be undoing my work when I’d come back in a vehicle of some sort.
The next day we walked back along the coast to the bicycle rent place and started to choose our bicycles, my final choice was a bicycle with 3 gears and it went really fast and it was really good at up-hills. Sascha’s was an 8 gear one but I don’t know how good it was because it wasn’t mine. Even Elliot was riding his own bike! It was Elliot’s first time touring on his own bike.
When we started we had to take a ferry across a little stretch of sea to our first island because the bridges that go to it are only for cars.
When we got to the other side we got ready to go and then we started cycling. I was very impressed by how Elliot was cycling compared to in Australia. We cycled to the other end of the island looking at all the beautiful countryside around us. When we got to the first bridge I was really excited because it was the first bridge and the cars went on the top of the bridge while we went on the below the cars where the cycle path was.
To get up to the bridge it was 1.2 km with a 3% up-hill. The bridge was 70m above the water.
From the bridge you could see islands all around you and the big bluey-green sea filling in all the gaps between the islands. When we were on the other side of the bridge we had a break and congratulated Elliot.
After a nice break and a few pictures we set off again and we cycled across the island to the second bridge which we had to go on top of with the cars but luckily a fence separated the bicycle lane from the cars. On the island we cycled to the place we were going to stay that night, Sunset beach. The guesthouse even had an onsen!
view from our hostel room, it is also the same view from the onsen.
us eating a delicious meal at Sunset beach hostel
Statistics:
Ice creams on day 1 = 2 each
kilometres on day 1 = 39km
DAY 2
When we got back on the road early in the morning I felt very good. We crossed our 4th bridge..
…and…then…our…5th bridge that day. When we stopped for a break at an empty campsite (we weren’t going to camp there) Daddy was looking for a way down to the beach and eventually he found it. We stopped on a lovely shady and sandy beach for a long time, 2 hours at least. I made 3 villages and Sascha and Elliot made railway network out of sand.
What was sad was that big ships kept on passing which made big waves and they destroyed one of my villages while I was there. it was nice being in the shade and building sand. The ships were also quite cool.
Soon we arrived at our destination, it was a really nice place, an old style traditional japanese house. They even had a private beach which was all for us. That night we had the whole house to ourselves.
Statistics:
Ice creams on day 2 = 2 each
kilometres on day 2 = 29km
LAST DAY. (3)
On the last morning to Imabari I felt really excited that we were going to go across the 4.1 km long bridge.
I wasn’t very excited about getting to Imabari because I knew we were going to go back in some sort of vehicle. When we got to the final bridge we could see Imabari in the distance and on the ground there were markers to show how far it was to Imabari and I saw one which said only 8kms! Before I knew it we were in Imabari and we stopped at the port by the bicycle rental place where we gave back our bicycles and then the man who was there saw that we were tired because it had been a hot day and he ran off to somewhere and when we were eating the food we had just bought ourselves, he came racing up to us on a bicycle and gave us a bag of all his favourite foods!… I was touched by his kindness and and still am touched by the kindness of the Japanese.
The ferry arrived soon, it was a two decker passenger ferry. The top deck was for staff and the bottom one for passengers. On the way back we saw all the bridges that we crossed before. We also saw lots of little islands not connected to the others. The closest ones had nothing at all manmade on them, they were mostly small with lots of trees covering them. Soon we stopped at Habu port and got on a bus and it took us across all the bridges to Onomichi. When we were on the ferry to get to Habu port I saw lots of islands on the side of the boat that we didn’t see from the cycling route and I felt like all the work was worth it…
TO BE CONTINED ON 5TDM.XYZ………..!
Statistics:
Ice creams on day 3 = 1 each
kilometres on day 3 = 25km
While I’m finishing writing this blog now I am sitting in an airport in Tokyo and Elliot keeps annoying me. I’m sorry I just have to do something..,……… ELLIOT WILL YOU STOP THAT!!!!!!!!!! ….sorry now I need to say my last two words:
THE END
Rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr….I’m going to get Elliot for this.