Trip 2 - Day 11 - Tengu to Oboke

When we arrived yesterday afternoon at Tengu-Lodge the nice girl behind the desk told us that we'd better take some photos now because tomorrow was going to turn to shit. Of course when we opened our bleary eyes this morning she had indeed called it. The mountain was completely shrouded in cloud and rain was hitting the window. Looks like our second day of rain is finally here!

With this in mind we revised our route for the day. Instead of the glut of tertiary twisties that Lucas had so meticulously chosen, we would now go for a straight shot to our destination - Oboke in the Iya Valley. Main roads would be the order of the day, not tertiary roads or goat tracks!

The revised route. No tertiary twisties in this weather!

On went the rain outers, and Michelin man climbed on the bike for the run back down the mountain. Initially the roads were shrouded in cloud, but as we went on it was only rain we had to contend with. Unfortunately, all those nice switchbacks that made the way up so awesome now became treacherous on the way down. Due care was taken, and after what felt like hours we were back to route 440.

Setting out. The road down is shrouded in cloud.

Back on the main road, it was then a matter of simply putting in the hours on the seat to drive through the rain. Despite the weather, routes 440 and 33 gave us some amazing scenery; both running along rich river valleys with large green rivers and tall wooded sides. Shikoku really is beautiful no matter where you turn.

Turning on to route 440. That tunnel has our names on it.

Route 33 again showed Shikoku's amazing beauty

With our energy flagging, and having broken the back of the required distance, we stopped in the village of Tosa for lunch. We found a nice little restaurant and ordered Tonkatsu; this time sitting outside (under cover) so as to not drench the place in rainy gaijin drippings. The required number of Tosser-related jokes were duly exchanged.

Sitting outside the restaurant

Interestingly, when our Tonkatsu came they were all covered with tomato sauce. Weird and inexplicable. Either they always serve it that way or it was a special treat for us gaijin. We didn't ask, we just ate. And, it was good.

Tosa tonkatsu with tomato sauce

Revived by pork, we jumped back on the bikes and motored the rest of the way to Sunriver Oboke, our onsen hotel for the night.

Sunriver Oboke right by the river.

By the time that we'd arrived, the rain had finally abated and we were treated to the spectacular Koboke gorge in all its glory. I managed to take a walk up the road and down to the water's edge to snap some photos of the gorge before the sun went down. A pretty breathtaking location, even for Shikoku.

Pretty soon it was time for dinner, and we were treated to a pretty good one. It started big and the courses just kept on coming. Definitely no lack of food tonight.

Another great Japanese dinner tonight.

Soon we were stuffed and ready to hit the rotenburo for our mandatory deep relaxation before bed. We're about to head there now as I type. The weather is set to improve drastically in the coming days, so we'll wait and see what tomorrow holds!