No that does not mean it was a bad trip that just means the weather was not at its most cooperative. There will be pictures in this post at the end I’ll put some in.
Is this being said let’s get on with that shower you day one was the nicest weather day weld first day and a half taking out of the Kyoto Nora area headed down to the original plan was to leave go to Nachi Falls via rt 168 as I haven’t ridden that road.
Sadly I used a new to me and Abby they Garmin 550 is Sumito which they’re great units but it was not very cooperative and I didn’t check my maps enough and wound up on route 169 to old Route 309 and then onto Route 169 over to route 42 into Nachi Falls. Still a great ride however. Some of you have written route 169 before it’s got some nice twisties it’s a nice road however old Route 309 and I emphasize the word old is a narrow narrow road how they still consider it two ways unbelievable it’s about a 25 case section great scenery some really nice twisties in there not made for a big ass sport bikebike like I was on lol. Now if you were on an adventure bike or a smaller sport bike that road can be tremendous fun. I still had a great time but it’s rough on the big heavy bike.
I got back out to route 169 and then over to 42 and got to not she falls the weather was quite cooperative wasn’t hot maybe 18 or 19° crowded as it usually is but it is a great site spend some time there if you get a chance see the pictures below.
From there I headed another hour south to Shionomisaki lighthouse. Now for those of you not familiar that is the southern most tip in Wakayama. And a great camping place and of course with golden week being longer this year it was very crowded but I got a great spot it run ¥600 a night per person so it was well worth it since I was there last they have added a Ramen shop a coffee house there’s also a rest house there and the person who runs the rest house is a huge cat fan and I mean he’s got a lot of them there so if you like cats great if you don’t stay away. i’ve got to tell you this camping space has never disappointed I’ve been there a few times. And this year my site which happened to be under trees right over looking the out the water when I woke up in the morning there was no dew on the bike or the tent which made packing up I was so much nicer and easier.
The next day the plan was to leave out of there in the morning head to the ferry port and catch the Nankai ferry over to Tokushima. I say that was the plan but however that is actually what happened. The ride from the lighthouse to the ferry as some of you may know is a great ride most of the way the first hour or hour and a half on route 42 itself are just twistes in and along the coast and if you’re fortunate enough to leave early in the morning like I was I pulled out about 6:30 AM the road was quite empty and open you could go at my pace get some great great ride in before traffic really started showin up. I wound up getting to the ferry port office at about 920 and the ferry was it 10:35 so it was quite nice. And as it turns out about 20 minutes after I got there I got my ticket is getting ready to pull over to get in line and in rolls about a half dozen guys that I had seen at the lighthouse the night before.
Now for those of you Who have written the ferry you know what it’s like for those of you who have not ridden on the ferry or any ferry in Japan it’s a great experience enjoy it have fun with it it’s a short ferry this particular one is only about two hours.
Arrived in tokushima weather was still in my favor I was getting hopeful so I knew that Rein was coming in but I didn’t know when or how bad it would be.
There’s a camping place a free camping place about 44 minutes to an hour away from the port off rt 11 on the coast.
But knowing what the weather was and where I wanted to be the next morning I thought I would skip that place this year and shoot straight through the middle of Shikoku to get to where I wanted to be.
So I shot through the city and then into the mountains over towards , Ayauta-gun in Kagawa.
As I was riding and roughly 30-40 minutes out it started. The rain .. so I continued to ride towards my destination put towards my where I wanted to be and it continue to rain and rain and I knew there was an Aeon mall close by to where I wanted to be. A good place to go that has a covered area for bike parking so I could sort out where I was going to stay for the evening.
As I was there I saw three other bikes loaded down like mine probably doing the same thing I was. When in the mall grab a drink came back out and there were the guys who had ridden there 250cc bikes from Tokyo.
As it turns out they were in the same situation I was. And we started talking. They suggested the net café now I’ve never experienced one before but I was up for it so the four of us road about 20 minutes to this net café and you’ll see pictures also which had semicovered parking for the bikes which was nice. Turned out to be a great cheap place for the night with the shower it wound up being about ¥2700. Great time great company
The next day after a nice dry night sleep the rain seem to of taking a break and I headed over to Yamagoe Udon. I know what you people are thinking but trust me it is worth the trip best you don’t ever in my opinion but they are only open from 9 AM till 1:30 PM and they do get a line and I mean big lines.
After udon I had to make a decision because the weather was not looking too terribly great in my favor so instead of going down and over the Seto Island bridges like I had planned I decided to tool along up towards Takamatsu hit Rt 11 along the coast and not far past where we like to camp on route 11 I cut over on route 183 which is a nice small road goes along with tip over near Naruto Beach I believe it is up over the mountains some great views so I could take the bridge over to Awaji I had never been so I wanted to go and see what it was all about. It was a great ride got some nice pictures as you can see.
After awaji back to Kyoto.nothing eventful at all on that small part.
