[post of
Saturday 25th of August 2012]
The alarm
didn’t work today, so we woke up at 9am instead of the planned 6am. We pack as quickly
as we can, have breakfast with the ice-cream leftover from last night, and run
downstairs to prepare the bicycles. Considering that we have a 75 km stage
ahead of us, we won’t get to Yamaguchi in one go. Usually we set up to do at
least 10 km per hour, including the time to have a rest and eat, take some
picture and stretch up legs. So there is no way we get the whole figure of 75
km for today. No problem, we’ll be fine… we’ll just spend more time in
Shimonoseki, and have a better look at its sanctuary.
After the
last days of clouds, today the sky is back to its normal shiny look. The sky is
deep blue and the warm more pressing than ever. For a change, it’s Ainhoa the
more touched by it, and today she feels particularly weak. She cannot cycle up
through the smoother up-hills, and she’s experiencing problems in keeping up
with the normal speed in the plain parts of the stage. We get a break from the
cycling and to give some rest to the cramped hands. Then, we get an even longer
stop to recover a normal body temperature, which is quite high. Every time we
get more delayed, and Ainhoa is sure we’ll never get there. In addition,
Gabriel decides not to bring his bike to a mechanic but to fix it himself once
he finds the right screwdriver to tight up the back wheel.
And yet
another stop… it’s 4pm and we have more than half stage left. We give a call to
Josh, our host for the next two days. He wanted to join us for the last part of
the stage, but he couldn’t expect us to be so lame!
We arrange
to meet up at a Seven eleven. He’s the one heading the march, and pushing us to
make the remaining 35 km left. We go through them without a stop, without
resting, without stretching up, without eating. We’ve got no time, it’s almost
night and Josh’s family is waiting for us for dinner.
10 km
later, we meet another Japanese guy who is doing cyclo-tourism through a route
very much like ours… he’s just started six days ago, but he’s got an impressive
rhythm of 175 km per day! Since he doesn’t have where to sleep for tonight,
Josh gives a call to his wife and ask her is it would be a trouble to host a
third person in their house. It’s fine, so we cycle through the last kilometres
like a small platoon, a new thing in our personal experience of cyclo-tourism
and Japan.
At Josh’s
we find his wife and their twin daughters, a perfect company for the dinner. We
feel lucky sharing our rest today with such a great family.
No comments:
Post a Comment