It was going to rain all day today so I elected to take it easy on myself and took the train from Matsuyama to Imabari, which cut my riding in the rain roughly in half. Here I am on the train.
Imabari is at one end of the Shimanami Kaido, a series of bridges across several islands in the Seto inland sea that lets you bike from Shikoku to Honshu. The total distance from Imabari to Onomichi is about 70 km. There is one day each year when they close a lane of traffic to motor vehicles so that cyclists can ride straight across. Normally you have to take a series of ramps or switchbacks to get up to the level of the bridges which increases the time required significantly.
Arriving at Imabari station, it is immediately obvious that this is a huge draw for cyclists. I met this fellow unbagging his folding bike, just like me.
He made sure that I got a picture taken as well.
There is a large Giant bicycle shop right in the station that does a lot of rentals of higher end drop bar bikes.
There was a decent selection of accessories available, and I bought a phone mount to replace my broken Garmin. This mechanic spent about half an hour installing it. Labour charge: about $10.
Like many things from Minoura, this thing is overbuilt and unnecessarily complicated.
Right by the station, other rental places, a tourist info shop, and bathrooms.
Now cycling towards the first bridge.
Over a slight rise, my first clear view of the bridge.
A decent amount of height to make up.
Here is the turn off to the first bit of the climb which was a series of switchbacks.
Look at that spiral ramp.
The road actually spiralled part of the way, but here is the turnoff for the cyclist only section.
Nice bridge of the bridge with one more loop to go.
Here we go. We are high off of the water. It is raining in earnest now, but fortunately there is not much wind.
A bus stop down to a small island part way across.
Using all the rain gear today. I saw a lot of people without any rain gear, and most of the rental bikes didn’t have fenders either.
Approaching the down ramp to Oshima. Technically the first crossing is split into three separate spans, but from the biking point of view, the only thing that matters is having to go up and down from the highway.
Looking back at the bridge on the way down.
Looking at the second bridge, the Hakata-Oshima bridge.
At this point I was checking to see if my powerbank could charge the phone. I did not anticipate this failure mode. I ended up putting the phone into low power mode, and also airplane mode to conserve power.
Ramp up to the bridge.
Motorcycles up to 125cc were also allowed on the cycling path. There was some kind of toll system for them.
Now climbing up to the Omishima bridge, which was the last one for my riding day.
This bridge is pretty short.
All along the route I saw families biking with young kids in the rain. Very impressive.
This rest stop was near one end of the Tatara bridge, which looked to be another long one.
I’m staying in a ryokan that doesn’t look anything like the pictures on the web. I’m in an annex out the back, and perhaps that is the issue.
The bathroom is shared between three such rooms, and the only place to wash up is at this sink.
Oh well, at least I already had one spectacular stay this trip.
Looks like a wonderful trip and you did already get that free shower 😉