Day 67 — Ryuga Beach Campsite to Uwajima - Tom and Marilee Retire to the Road

November 8, 2025

Day 67 — Ryuga Beach Campsite to Uwajima

We’ve been having campgrounds to ourselves a fair bit recently, but this one kind of stands out in terms of isolation. The young woman running it left at 4:00, so we were on our own after that, free to have loooong hot showers and drain the electrical outlets into our devices and bike lights.

It was admittedly a bit eerie as the sun went down, with the nearest humans being in the fishing village across the bay, which by land was up a steep hill and at the end of a pitch black road. We both spent time lying awake wondering if monkeys were nocturnal and if it was such a great idea to have brought bananas in our food bag. But all was well, and it was another glorious morning in a truly remarkable spot which we had to ourselves.

Morning shakeout and de-dampification of the gear

Though the spot itself was lovely, the closer view reveals a disheartening reality. The beach itself was awash in plastic. At the far end larger plastics were the bulk of the flotsam at the high tide line. Bottles, fishing line, styrofoam, general industrial effluvia, on and on. The bay itself had a loose net from the fish farms floating in it. And an even closer look at the beach showed a rainbow assortment of decaying mini-plastics turning themselves into microplastics.

The day’s plan was devised hurriedly the evening before. The plan was for another night of camping near Uwajima, however the weather forecast showed heavy rains overnight and into the next day. We had accommodation and a day off planned in Matsuyama the day after that, so we’re prepared to have a day getting wet riding — not fun, but tolerable. However packing up soaking wet from camping then riding in the rain was definitely not on. We booked a cheapo business hotel in Uwajima across from the train station, and set out for a longish and maybe hillyish ride.

One tricky bit with the navigation apps is their occasional unreliable information on elevation gains. This may be a Japan specific problem due to a) unreliable data sources and b) occasional lack of integration of tunnels resulting in an overestimation of elevation gains. And Japan has a LOT of tunnels. Today’s projected elevation gain was a bit frightening, and the hope was it was inaccurate. Marilee told me not to tell her what it was, and I complied, but we did start out early just in case.

But first, a 50m climb up from the campground to the road. Gets the blood flowing!

The first tunnel we encountered bolstered our hopes. It was 1700 m long, normally a nightmare but this one had a generous sidewalk for riding on as well as a lack of traffic. And it resulted in 160m being shaved off our projected elevation gain. Yay tunnels, I guess.

The ride in the morning was the reverse of our approach to Ryuga Beach, and was very nice in the early morning. After an hour and a bit we rejoined the larger highway. The scenery made up for the increase in traffic volume. And as predicted, the projected elevation gain fell as we went through tunnels and rounded headlands. Phew.

Another day of having a sit down lunch. Spaghetti and omelette rice with curry

Looks ominous, but it was a bike specific tunnel! Nearly a kilometre long! Now that is cycling infrastructure

Many of the bays were devoted to aquaculture. You could smell this one as you rounded the cape

Classic Japanese business hotel. Tiniest hotel room yet. Beats camping in the rain!

Once again we picked an izakaya at random to see what they would come up with. We ended up in the hands of the restaurant host, who guided us to some local specialties. First, some braised tuna that they did over an open flame stoked with (we think) rice straw. Was a bit of a show, and gave it a true smoky flavour. Then it was a set meal with raw egg and a soy based sauce with sashimi, which you were supposed to dip your rice in, but we messed it up and did the opposite.

Then it was off to bed to hope the rain would be a lot less than projected for the ride to Matsuyama the next day. (Spoiler, it wasn’t).

88 km, 789 m elevation gain. Original projection was 1460m elevation gain, so… phew.

Today's ride: 88 km (55 miles)
Total: 3,431 km (2,131 miles)

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