Written by Dave

Cape Sata to Ibusuki –  (41k, 710m)

All was quiet overnight at the Cape Sata campsite. Though sometime after dark and after we’d gone to bed another chap on a bicycle rolled in. He was quiet but there are absolutely no lights out on the road to the cape. I have no idea how he got there, unless he had bike lights – not many folks do.

We were up with the sparrows with a goal of reaching Minamiosumi ferry in time for the 11Am sail. We knew the route back as it was just a repeat of yesterday in reverse. Working as a well oiled machine, we managed to get everything done and be rolling from camp at 7:10 – pretty amazing for us. By luck, it was breezy overnight and the tent was dry.

We had lots of climbs to get over and yesterday’s friendly wind was now a foe, mostly right on the nose. The hardest climb was not too bad and before long we were in Tokimi checking out the 2k uphill tunnel. There is a by-pass but we’d seen a sign on the other end of the tunnel with the ominous red printing on it.  We stopped to make sure it didn’t say that pedestrians and bikes could get through. Well, make that, we stopped and Nancy read the sign while I had a nature call – haha – nothing changes. The sign made it clear, the road was closed for all.

With no other choice, we got on with it, a 2k uphill time trail in a tunnel – fun. I popped on the front as Nancy’s rear light is brighter and more eye-catching. It was nowhere near as bad as we feared. Somewhere about half way through the tunnel as we were barrelling along, I got the idea in my head that if we rode hard, we might even make the 9AM ferry. I worked it out that we had 24k total to ride – easy even with the hills and heavy bikes. Nancy wasn’t aware that I’d come up with this idea and I didn’t say anything. I just stayed on the front pushing the pace a wee bit for the next 45 minutes or so.

When we reached 24k and still had one more hill to climb and it was 12 minutes to 9AM I gave up mentally on making it. I told Nancy about my “plan”. She laughed and agreed at that point we’d never make it. Oh well, turns out I had 24k and it was closer to 30k – math error by me this morning. We didn’t slow up, but we certainly weren’t pushing now either. We rolled into town right at 9, thinking we’d go to Lawson and kill a couple hours. But… Just to be sure that the ferry was running we ducked down to the port.

In one of those “no way” moments, just then the boat guys were loading the last car, they saw us and yelled to us to get on and they would take us. We dashed onto the boat, Nancy ran back off to the ticket booth and I helped secure the bikes. It was all a bit of a shock and all I could think about was me on the boat and Nancy having issues at the ticket counter, us sailing and leaving her. I needn’t have worried, she came running down the ferry ramp waving tickets just as the boys were raising the ramp – made it by that much! The first 15 minutes of the sail was a blur,  in our adrenaline pumped state.

Making the 9AM ferry put us 2 hours ahead of schedule. Nancy had talked to a campground only 9k away – reservations weren’t necessary but we couldn’t “check-in” until 3. The forecast for tonight and early tomorrow AM is rain and there didn’t appear to be any covered areas at the campground. We waffled about getting a room, not getting a room, back and forth, back and forth. We ended up riding to the town information center at the train station and asking them to help. They were very nice and helpful – calling around to see if any places in town had room.  It’s the national sports period here in this town, starting today and going for a few days.  So there were lots of places booked out (apparently this is the town where all the badminton games get played).  The information gal found a room at a minshuku (think pension) in town, so we agreed to check it out.

Unfortunately we didn’t get the name and chance to review its online rating before we agreed to check it out. I don’t like making decisions based solely on other people’s experiences but a really low number is always a worry. Once we checked outside the information center, we got worried. It had a very low rating with many reviews saying that it was quite dirty. Hmm, what to do but eat. We found a ramen shop near the station where we contemplated the next move. It is worth noting that the ramen shop’s sister restaurant won the best ramen shop in New York City in 2016 – so yes, the ramen was great, again.

After lunch we found a cafe near where we thought the inn was where we had coffee and considered our next move. We finally agreed that “how bad can it be” was the right attitude and we rode over to take a look at the inn. Well, we will never know. We found the inn, we think. There was a rough old sign leaning on the sidewalk near one of the three derelict-looking buildings. There was no-one around and no obvious entrance or reception area. The neighbourhood around the inn was maybe a once great tourist district. Now the inn, if we had found it, matched the area.  And it wasn’t clear if any of the restaurants were going to be open even if we could raise someone in the inn.  Honestly, it looked pretty sketchy, with no obvious place to safely store the bikes, and all of that coupled with the really negative reviews made us rethink the decision to check it out.

Awesome – Beginning is the first step to success. Let us have some coffee and continue to talk about happy things. Allow yourself to become bored

Time to call an audible. Nancy found a nice hotel with a booking.com special price (30%) less than the rack rate they quoted us at the information center. They had an open room. We booked it and made a hasty retreat from the area of the inn. It’s always hard to manage these things, as we don’t want to offend people but being polite does not mean staying in a dodgy dirty place. So, off the hotel we rode, only checking over our shoulder a few times.

And the hotel, while slightly tired, is pretty amazing. The onsite ones is great. Our room is a spacious tatami room with “old people” elevated beds. We have a great unobstructed view out over the ocean. They have booked us a traditional Japanese brekkie for tomorrow. And best of all, Happy Wife, Happy Life.  We are not sleeping in some flea bag trying to convince ourselves that “this is fun”. 

The forecast is holding with rain tonight and until 10AM tomorrow, then after that 7 days of sun. We have a short day planned and if we have to linger at brekkie and delay our start, so be it – life is hard sometimes. You’ll never find our day today in one of those fancy travel magazines profiling Ibusuki but it was an eventful day for us.  We did unfortunately miss the sand bath, which is apparently famous in these parts. Oh well, maybe next time.

Our map from camp to ferry. I did not map the short ride from ferry to hotel on other side.