Day 61 — Ebisuhama to Yuhigaoka Campground - Tom and Marilee Retire to the Road

November 2, 2025

Day 61 — Ebisuhama to Yuhigaoka Campground

Given that the sun goes down a few minutes after 5 these days, we were in bed super early. And given the sun doesn’t come up again until nearly 6:30, camping these days means plenty of time in the tent. This should mean lots of great sleep, unless of course you are at a campground like Ebisuhama where they have lines of big fluorescent lights strung throughout the campground which they leave on all night. It was like trying to sleep on a movie set.

Anyway, we did cobble together some shuteye, and were able to face the next day not too too bleary eyed. We were definitely looking forward to some more coastal riding, and to encountering temples and other points of interest on the 88 temples pilgrimage. We were also a bit buoyed by the nicer weather, occasional beaches and tropical feel of Shikoku.

View from near our campsite. We could hear, but not see, the ocean from the campsite, as like a lot of coastal Japan, anti flooding walls have been installed.

It didn’t take long to be rewarded with a stunning temple. As we were pedaling along through Minami/Hiwasa, which was barely 5 km from the campground, we looked up and saw the unique looking pagoda in the picture below. This was part of “temple 23” (the 88 temples are numbered), Yakuoji. We hustled through Hiwasa to the gates of the temple, parked the bikes and had a look around.

Minami/Hiwasa from the base of the pagoda

We were mindful of the time and kept the temple wandering relatively brief. We did have over 80 or so km to ride, and knew there was a sizeable climb at the end of the day to get to the campground. We did however have time for a second breakfast at the nearby Michi, in the form of a pork cutlet set meal which hit the spot, even though it was only 10 am.

We get requests for more food pictures, so here’s one. Basic roadside stuff, cheap and filling.

The ride was predominantly along a fairly well trafficked regional highway which clung to the coast. For a lot of it, we did the usual switching back and forth between the side path (good for a while, then bumpy and broken and clogged with weeds) and back to the road (some shoulder for a while, then less so), and it always seemed whichever we were on was the wrong place to be. The traffic consisted mostly of passenger vehicles, which were mostly polite and patient, but several hours of cars passing in twos and threes in tight quarters can get wearing. At a side road around a tunnel (yay!), we encountered a couple on a tandem Bike Friday, who we chatted to, and who were from … North Vancouver — small world.

Several of the bays had surfers in them, and there was lots of evidence of surfing communities along the way.

Feel like I haven’t taken this picture in a while…

We eventually passed through the few towns and settled areas — some of which were neat little fishing towns with warren like streets — the traffic died down and the highway improved considerably, as did the views. The road offered unlimited views of wild coast, with surf crashing on the rocks below. Absolutely amazing cycling. We paused briefly at some enormous sea stacks where we encountered some Australians on a bike holiday, and had a brief chat with them — very brief, as it was 3:30 or so and we still had to find this climb to the campground, which promised 240 m of climbing over 9 km, which meant it would be a push to get there by sundown.

We were helped along in our quest to get to the campground through the generosity of strangers throughout the day — first, when we stopped for a break at a covered roadside picnic table, a man rushed out of his car and presented us with two cans of Red Bull (which we decided to save for an energy emergency, and drank the very next day). Then, when we stopped to get food for the night, the lady running the little village grocery gave us two bottles of water. Both gifts were really touching acts of spontaneous generosity. Then later, passing through a town, a truck slowed down beside us and the driver leaned over to yell “Welcome to Shikoku!”. Well, thanks Shikoku, its great to be here!

Like the Sea to Sky, but without a ski resort at the end

Sea stacks, which are “married” by the rope between them

There’s a fisherman on these rocks — if he falls in he’s done for

We did find the turnoff and started the climb. As we got higher into the hills, it became more and more spectacular. We paused briefly at an observation tower — it seemed a possible plan B for a campsite if this campground didn’t work out. Past the observation tower we were on a ridge line between the two sides of the point at Cape Murato, and we could see the ocean through the trees 200 m below from both sides of the road.

The view from the observation tower — you can just see the road we were on

There’s always that moment of anticipation as you close in on the campground. Is it real? Is it open? Is it full? Is it nice or awful? Thankfully Yuhigoaka was indeed real, open, had vacant sites and was really quite nice, with two tiers of grassy sites, and an open view of the ocean to the west. The Manager had the registration form in hand as we pulled up, and pointed us the way to the showers, which were splendid — hot and with enough pressure to take the paint off your car. The Japanese really do not monkey around with the shower arrangements. Even better — no strings of fluorescent lights!

A good end to a good day!

85 km, 866 m elevation gain. Passed 3000 km!

Today's ride: 85 km (53 miles)
Total: 3,043 km (1,890 miles)

Rate this entry's writing	Heart	4
Comment on this entry	Comment	0