September 29, 2024
Day 4: Shimamaki to Miyano
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Little did we know after our 7:30 departure that today was going to be all about tunnels. Big tunnels, little tunnels. Old tunnels, new tunnels. Half tunnels, full tunnels. Most importantly, short tunnels, long tunnels.
Komoot and my bike computer don't understand tunnels. I thought we were in for a lot of smaller hills instead. It was going to be either a curse or a blessing. Considering that there was very little auto traffic all day, and that we had a consistent tailwind, I'd say that it was absolutely a blessing.
Many of these tunnels were over a kilometer long. We feel an urgency within the tunnel. It's exhilarating and exhausting. At the end of an insane 3km tunnel, we were greeted with a nice little rest area. We decided to eat most of our lunch items as second breakfast. Or was it third breakfast? I'm starting to lose track.
We passed through a lot of fishing villages. Most of them seemed pretty run down, but there were still people walking around or working on their houses. Small fishing boats dotted the ports. Abalone seems to be the cash cow around here.
We were going to head inland, following the GPS tracks laid out to us by Japan Cycling Navigator, but we ran into an Italian bike tourist headed the other way, and he recommended sticking to the coast. So we did, and we were handsomely rewarded for it. It just kept getting nicer and nicer. Plus, we avoided a pretty big climb by going this way.
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Our official lunch was at this nice little park. There really wasn't much in the way of amenities today, so we smartly stopped and stocked up on supplies at both convenience stores along the route.
When not in a tunnel or a village, we were greeted with beautiful ocean views. Here is a sampling:
As we neared our chosen campsite for today, I started to worry that it wouldn't work out for us somehow. It's located across the street from a michi no eki that serves as the toilet facilities for overnight visitors. They have showers too, which would have been awesome had they been open. Some things about Japan perplex me. They seem to shut things down for completely random reasons or no reason at all.
We had to carry our bikes and all our gear down some steps to get to the beach, and worse yet we'll have to carry it all back up tomorrow. But it's worth it, as once again we'll doze off to the white noise of the waves crashing. And once again we have the entire beach to ourselves.
Today's ride: 92 km (57 miles)
Total: 331 km (206 miles)
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