Shimanami Kaido Cycling Day 3 – Omishima

Our third day of the Shimanami Kaido adventure was cycling on Omishima, one of the islands of Ehime Prefecture. Our original plan was to head to Tobishima Kaido today. However, due to the historic rainfall (read my story about visiting Rabbit Island during historic rainfall in Western Japan and visiting Onomichi on the day after that) and small unpaved roads along Tobishima Kaido, it was difficult for us to cycle there. Cycling routes between Imabari and Matsuyama were out of consideration as well due to the road blocks and landslides. In comparison, the road condition on Omishima was more suitable for cycling.

Previously, our first day of Shimanami Kaido Cycling was full of rain, road blocks, land slides, and closing attractions/stores/restaurants/hotels (read my story about Shimanami Kaido Cycling Day 1). In contrast, we cycled around Oshima and crossed Kurushima Bridge under a very sunny sky on the second day (read my story about Shimanami Kaido Cycling Day 2). Our third day cycling Shimanami Kaido was even hotter and sunnier (and we were now right in the historic heat wave of Japan)! 

Our journey started from Omishimacho Miyaura. After a good night sleep in Ryokan Sawaki, we were all energetic again and ready for another day of adventure. By the way, I highly recommend Ryokan Sawaki. If you ever cycle Shimanami Kaido, you might want to consider to stay there for a night or two. The Ryokan was very clean. The staff were very friendly and helpful. The town was beautiful and nice to walk around.

Our guide Yuji (here is Yuji’s facebook. You can also find him on Tours By Locals and on Oka Tours) told us that we would climb three bigger hills today. At the moment, I only acknowledged the information and didn’t realize how much climbing we were going to do later on. 😆

Early morning cycling is always pleasant. The air was still cool when we started. Along the way from Omishimacho Miyaura to Omishima Bridge we cycled through town by the sea and then onto a mountain road.

There were birds singing and trees providing shade. Some cars occasionally passed us. They must have been on their way to work or school.

Suddenly, we came to a stop because of a landslide. We waited for a couple minutes for the road to be cleared and also for my mom to climb up the hill. We climbed a few hills, which were pretty easy for me. I bypassed my dad many times when we were climbing. I think both my mom and dad need more training! The downhill after climbing was a lot of fun. Periodically, it opened up to an amazing view of the Seto Inland Sea. I “wowed” many times.

Here are a couple video clips where the downhill opened up to a view of the Seto Inland Sea. Isn’t the view beautiful?

We headed toward Omishima Bridge, which is the bridge between Omishima Island and Hakata Island. However, the bridge was still blocked after the historic rainfall a couple days ago. We turned around and headed toward Tatara Bridge. I was surprised to see that Tatara Bridge was within sight of the Omishima Bridge. These two bridges are quite close.

The road from Omishima Bridge toward Tatara Bridge was wider and more busy. The road was pretty much flat with no slope. However, the temperature got hotter and there was a lot less shade along the road.

Shortly after passing Tatara Bridge, we stopped and rested at a Family Mart that had a great view of the Seto Inland Sea. We got some ice cream and enjoyed the view for a while before we resumed our cycling back to our starting point, Omishimacho Miyaura.

The view of the Seto Inland sea along the road was beautiful.

Cycling routes along Shimanami Kaido and on the islands are very well marked. Cyclists only need to follow the blue lines on the roads.

Unexpectedly (or expectedly?), the road came to another road block because of a landslide. Instead of completing a circle back to Omishimacho Miyaura, now we had to turned back. Although the view was still beautiful, the return journey felt much longer than I would like. I guess I was running out of energy. Finally, we arrived at Tatara Shimanami Park Rest Area and it was time for lunch!

We ordered fried pork over rice, chicken over rice, and some fried octopus. The food was tasty. We also got more drinks from our best friend of this cycling trip, a vending machine. I saw Ehime’s mascot, Mikyan, again on some of the vending machines. Mikyan is everywhere here!

After lunch, we walked around the rest area. There is a cyclist sanctuary by the water with Tatara Bridge in the background. I learned from the cyclist sanctuary sign that Shimanami Kaido is the sister-cycling course of Sun Moon Lake Cycling Course in Taiwan. I would like to cycle around Sun Moon Lake one day too.

Although we didn’t want to leave, it was time to head to our next destination. From Omishima the shortest and quickest way to get to the Main Island, Honshu, is to take the ferry running between Sakari Port, Okunoshima and Tadanoumi Port. From the ferry, we looked back to Omishima, a beautiful island that we would like to come back to one day. From a distance, we again saw rabbits on Rabbit Island, Okunoshima, happily hopping around under a sunny sky, just as if the rain never came. We looked over the calm and beautiful Seto Inland Sea while the ferry approached Tadanoumi Port. 

Goodbye, rabbits on Rabbit Island Okunoshima. Goodbye, Shimanami Kaido. See you next time! I can’t wait to come back!

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