Trip 2 - Day 3 - Ishizuri to Masaki Port

Lucas and I woke bright and early today, the sun streaming through the window. It's gonna be another hot sunny day in paradise! We quickly gathered our shit together, got it on the bikes and settled down to a traditional breakfast in the hotel. Ahh, the finer things...

Traditional breakfast of champions

Appetite sated, we jumped on our pair of MT-09s and blazed out of the carpark to start our route for the day. Our plan was to head up the Ashizuri peninsula, taking in some coast and some mountain roads and finish up at Masaki Port ready to catch the ferry to Kyushu tomorrow morning.

Our route from South to North

Right off the bat we headed up the nearby Ashizuri Skyliner - a fantastic road full of tight twists and turns. A really great way to start the day. The skyliner had to come to an end eventually and so, with our hearts now well and truly started, we headed back to the coast for a more leisurely trip up the 'Ashizuri Sunny Road'. This coastal road ambles through small fishing villages and pleasant coastal scenery on its way up the west side of the island. It was a nice, relaxing pause between adrenalin rushes.

Hot on the heels of the Sunny Road was a run down to Kashiwajima (cape). This notable road was a fantastic ride, full of long sweeping turns as it headed right out to the end of the peninsula. The speed limit of ahem 50kms was a distant memory as we burned our way out to the end. And then we had to turn around and come back. Shame!

A speedy run down to Kashiwajima

With permanent smiles now installed, we headed towards Sukimo to meet Richard at a 'Michi-no-eki' (roadside stop). Here we met a couple of Japanese guys who had been popping up at the notable roads for the last two days. We shared some riding stories, took some photos of each others bikes, sucked down some Pokari Sweat and went our separate ways. Bikers really are the friendliest dudes.

Japanese bikers at the rest stop.

From Sukimo we headed to route 4, taking us back into the mountains. The amount of variation on this road, the number of riding experiences that it offered was astounding as it followed a mountain river up a densely wooded valley. Starting with wide sweeping corners that had us healed over and our speedo's pinging, as the road drew closer to the level of the river it changed to a single lane all over hanging with foliage. Once we crossed the river, the single lane gave way to a wider road again, this time with shallow twisties that had us throwing the bike from side to side with abandon.

Wide sweeping curves of route 4

And down to a cosy single lane down at the water's edge

With route 4 completed we were famished and stopped at a quaint little restaurant just outside Uwajima for lunch. For very little money we filled our stomachs with a buffet of gyoza, tempura vegetables, karage chicken and many more delicacies. The iced coffee was particularly nice and a few glasses helped to focus my mind for the afternoon's ride.

Mmm japanese delicacies.

Our quaint lunch spot.

Back on our bikes and we took to the coast again with yet another run along route 378 through sleepy fishing villages surrounded by citrus groves on unbelievable slopes. Yet again the landscape was awe inspiring with the rank upon rank of Shikoku's mountain ridges marching from the sea into the misty distance. It was a slow trip, with much of it being single lane and requiring 30km/h riding. All in all a very satisfying ride yet the slow pace was very tiring!

Stopping on our coastal crawl to admire the scenery

Finally it was time for us to make our way north west to our final destination. This is the small port town of Masaki from which we will be catching a ferry to Kyushu tomorrow. Jumping on route 197 we again flouted the speed limit as we burned along the high ridge running the length of the narrow ithsmus out to the port. Yet another great ride to close out the day, and one we had no real idea existed.

The port town of Misaki - from whence our ferry to Kyushu leaves

Dinner was another ordeal on the scale of the night before with no shops being open after 6pm. Damn these quiet country towns! However in true arsey Lucas style, he was saved from having to eat convenience store food by a very nice shop owner who offered to make us poor gaijin bentos for dinner. Phew - saved by the bell. She'd even closed up shop and stayed around to do it for us - such amazing hospitality

Saved by the Bento

Now we're sitting in the rider's house stinking the place up with sweaty riding gear, eating our bentos and thinking about the plan for tomorrow. Yet again there's very few photos inserted into this post owing to the shitty state of the internet here. I'll try to get some added in the coming days. Stay tuned!