#TDAIHJ Day 43 Ada to Onna

Posted on by Mustbesomethingbro

Thursday 13 November (Okinawa island)

Strava Flyover virtual summary: https://strava.app.link/yBFTrXL7fYb

Though the wet and windy weather had appeared to have eased (or was still expected to ease), I decided to continue my state of “cranial nudity” (as Justin termed it) i.e. ride with out my sun brim on the helmet in case the winds were not favourable.

It was wet for first part of the morning but predominantly intermittent light rain and reasonably sheltered from the wind. The climbs for the most part were moderate.

Good roads made handling the wet conditions easier

I rode by myself for much of the morning and was the back marker (i.e. last rider ahead of the Sweep) for quite a while.

The wildlife icon for the area i.e. a bird (replacing the rabbit on the previous island of Amami-Oshima)
Still wet and overcast at around 09:00am
The sun attempting to break through.
09:30am: A rainbow – a welcome sign of the improving weather.
30 minutes later – Rain? What Rain?
Cloud cover returned periodically but the rain was pretty much done for the day.
Padraig up ahead, we overlapped for a while mid-morning.
The cemetery on the left reflected a different style of construction than earlier in the tour.
The ever present vending machines (drinks).
Passing the American military base Camp Schwab
The plaque on the left stated something about the owl sculpture signifying happiness.
Appropriate at this stage of the day’s ride and the tour as a whole.
I was last into lunch but not late as it had comparatively easy riding into the lead up to lunch
(at 54km just over half way distance wise for the day’s ride).
Plenty of other riders taking a relaxed approach to the lunch break. An indictor of good riding conditions.

Padraig and myself, resumed our appointed positions i.e. the last to leave lunch and rode loosely together for the afternoon. Sometimes with Amy the sweep.

Despite the lack of a wide shoulder the road felt safe to ride on due to the cautious/respectful nature of the Japanese drivers.
Nonetheless where possible I took the footpath/sidewalk option

Just to keep it real and to stop us from getting complacent there was a serious bit of climbing with approx. 10km to go. In the warm afternoon sun and after ~94km it did seem to extend for a long time.

Last bit of the last serious climb of the day.
Twice before this I recorded what I thought was the final stretch of the climb only to discover there was one more crest to surmount.
The rewarding cruise down the descent
Padraig and myself celebrated the penultimate day’s ride with an ice cream and cool drink –
2km from the hotel

Overall good weather- no wind of significance so could have worn the sun brim.

Room View.
Sharing with Peter
Bikes were to be stored in our rooms.

As lead into the afternoon Riders’ Briefing, there were drinks and presentation of the tour rider’s jerseys. The idea was that we would all wear them for a photoshoot in the morning and ride in them day -it being the last riding day of the tour. The presentation of the jerseys was often done in pairs of those that rode together (more often than not). So that meant Padraig and myself. However, I thought that we should have been the last to be presented to reflect where we generally rode. 😀

It was raining with strong winds throughout the night. The expectation/hope was that it would blow over by the morning.

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