The Shiminami Kaido

Billed as one of the classic cycles in Japan; an island hopping route of bridges and purpose built cycle ways between Imabari and Ominichi. Organised with Japanese efficiency it was difficult to get lost as a 15cm wide blue line on the road marked the route and gave distances travelled and still to do. Our hired bikes had gears and almost enough air in the tyres, but we weren’t trusted with the difficult stuff such as pumps, tool kits or puncture repair outfits. If they were needed, we had to phone the bike rental company and a representative would appear and do the necessary. Luckily we didn’t need to make that call.
The bridges were impressively huge and often eerily devoid of cars (bridge tolls are prohibitively expensive) and the cycle ways were very straightforward if somewhat over engineered. There were clear maps and sign posts at every junction, warnings before steep descents (over 3%) and padded cushions on the walls where the bends were sharp. That, and the mainly industrial, ship building landscape that we travelled through, detracted a bit from our sense of adventure, but was more than made up for by a slight anxiety around whether the bikes would make it to the finish, or whether  we would find enough coffee shops en route to keep Margie fuelled up.

The last bridge, to Ominichi itself, was considered to be too busy/dangerous, and we crossed our last river by small ferry. It deposited us at the bike rental drop off point just beside our hotel. The Ominichi U2 Cycle Hotel had been built in a ware house but mimicked an old style Ryokan design. It was quirky and interesting and catered for cyclists primarily. We did make use of the Japanese hot bath for soaking off muscle fatigue, but had no use for the hooks for hanging your bike on the wall.