Shikoku Bike Tour - Part 5
UFO Line → Ozu · Kochi & Ehime
We woke up this morning in our lodge high in the mountains. We’d rolled in late the evening before, right around 5pm, just as the sun was setting, and we were the only ones checking in. It had been a cold night. I remember taking a shower with everything in the room freezing except the hot water, which came out at a trickle. The room was so cold, and the water so hot, that it felt amazing after such a long day on the bike.
My alarm went off pretty close to when we’d agreed to come over to the main hut for breakfast, so I threw on a shirt and walked straight over. And what a breakfast it was, coffee, tea, juice, bread, a fried egg, a little bacon, salad, soup, and fruit, basically everything you could want. I loaded up and had a few coffees before heading back to pack our things.
It was cold outside, cold enough that I wore my pants over my cycling shorts for the first time this trip. We didn’t want to start too early either, worried there might still be frost on the road, so we waited until around 10am to roll out. On the way down we saw icicles hanging off some of the rocks by the road, which was pretty neat.
Coming down off the mountain the wind cut right through you, so I had every layer I’d brought on, gloves and all. We got most of the way down the UFO Line before running into some fellow bikepackers, a couple of Kiwis on the phone with a friend back in New Zealand who’d just gotten engaged. They’d been out on the road a long time and had a ton of gear loaded on their bikes, apparently they’d stocked up on thrifted clothes in a local town. They’d clearly been at this a lot longer than us. We chatted for a bit before carrying on our way.
A little further down we spotted a troop of monkeys in the trees right over the road. They had these distinct pink-red faces and were small, about the size of a medium dog, hanging out in the branches and jumping across the highway overhead. Really cool to see.
The morning stayed cold, but eventually we rolled into a little town with a pizza shop. A man and a woman ran the place, with a brick oven in the back, and the pizza was delicious. Tom and I each put away two of them, we were pretty hungry by then. It was around noon, and we still had a lot of cycling left to do.
Our legs were tired and we’d originally figured the rest of the day would be all downhill, but there was still a fair bit of climbing to do on the bike. I had to dig up some power in the legs. The route wound around some beautiful river valleys, red tree foliage, crystal clear water, and I watched the fall colours slowly come back. Up at the top of the mountain everything had been bare winter branches, but as we lost elevation the season seemed to wind back into autumn, which was really cool to see.
Near a cement factory I realized one of my spokes had broken. I’d deal with it properly later, but for now I just taped it up against its neighbour so it would stop clanking around on the bike. The sun came out through the afternoon, which was gorgeous, and we rode through some bamboo forests. We did one more little climb out and then dropped back down into the valley, the colours all around us and the sun feeling warmer, maybe close to 20°C at one point, though it honestly probably wasn’t.
We eventually rolled into Ozu somewhere around 5pm, right around sunset.
The bathroom at our hotel was amazing, a giant wooden tub and one of those little stools you sit on while you shower. There’s nothing better than sitting on that stool and letting the hot water hit you in the face. Limited water pressure again, but that was fine.
The host recommended a restaurant in town, and I’m glad we went. They grilled everything in front of you and passed it over on a long wooden paddle, a whole spread of seafood, meats, and vegetables. Grilled squid, a whole salt-grilled fish, skewers, it was a really delicious meal. Tons of good food.
We still called it a night pretty early, probably around 9:30 or 10. The plan was to stay in Ozu again the next day, so there was no need to get up early since we didn’t have anywhere to be. I did have a broken spoke to sort out and needed to figure out what we’d get up to on our rest day, but that was a problem for the morning.
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