November 8, 2007
Day 32: Iwakuni to Tsuwano: We cross paths with the Velomad team
After Miyajima and Iwakuni, it really did feel as though the best was behind us; and after a month on the road we were starting to become anxious to see the end of the tour. I was actually uncomfortably apprehensive about the coming few days, in which we would cross western Honshu north to the Japan Sea and then back again, as from the map it looked as though we would be on principal highways nearly the entire route. In my mind I pictured these roads as being similar to the interior highway east of Hiroshima that had felt so unsafe to us. In fact though, we were both very pleasantly surprised at how quiet, lovely, and relatively car-free this part of Japan is. It was very enjoyable to experience a few days of tranquil rural cycling, and made a very nice way to wind down the trip.
The next day's longish ride took us northwest along the Nishikigawa up and into the lovely, sparsely populated interior of western Honshu, before crossing Bojiga Pass and dropping to the Tsawanogawa for another upriver section to our night's destination: Tsuwano. As scenic and relaxing as the day's ride was, easily the most interesting event was our encounter with the Velomad team (velo is French for bicycle): Stani Martinkova and Richard Ferge. Stani from London and Richard from the Loire Valley in France were the only long-distance cycle travelers we met in Japan - and they made our small accomplishments seem almost trivial by comparison to their initiative. Fresh from their recent crossing of Siberia, Mongolia and South Korea, they're in the second year of a round-the-world journey that they hope will lead them back to London - in 2012. Many things about them impressed us, but none more so than that Richard was carrying along a small oven so that he could bake bread at their campground.
Tsuwano, a small historic castle town, was the last really memorable stop of our tour. There is much to see here in a small space, but the most attractive feature is the central street of the historic Tonomachi district - a beautiful avenue lined on both sides by whitewashed samurai homes and storehouses, fronted by koi-stuffed canals (according to our guidebook, the koi outnumber Tsuwano's 9,000 residents by about 10 to 1) and colonnades of young ginko trees, their leaves bright yellow from the season.
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Today's ride: 61 miles (98 km)
Total: 1,298 miles (2,089 km)
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