The Best and The Worst

 May 16, 2023

We start out early on Rt. 438, which will take us into the mountains as quickly as possible. Good decision, as the next three hours were locked in a battle with anything from nice smooth curves along rivers, to the meanest hairpin turns way up in the heights. Like that guy from my Copenhagen workshop who can be simultaneously both the shortest and highest person in the room, this road is both the best and the worst one we have ridden so far.

Amazing scenery, and just the kind of route that my workshop mates would have loved to tear into small pieces. They of course ride motorcycles with real suspension front and rear, and brakes that are worthy of being called that, while I am making do with 2 1/2 inches / 6 cm of suspension. No real 'oh shite' moments, as the occasional three wheel slide is controlled and predictable when I misjudge a lefthand turn and go in too fast. It is not the first time I praise the extra strong fork brace I made before shipping off the bike. And not the first time I curse the brakes.

In any case the ideal bike for this would be any lightweight supermotard, because sportsbikes, even small ones, do not have suspension for this crap surface. Jack Nicholson's line (in Easy Rider) 'I think I'll order kidneys, 'cause I left mine out there on the road somewhere', comes mind more than once. Good thing I wear two kidney belts. I did wonder how on earth the little old lady on her electric four wheeled scooter we overtook somewhere here can make it on these hills.

Along the way we see a good number of abandoned houses, some literally falling apart, and cars that are standing here and there too, on the rims and overgrown with moss, like in a post-apocalyptic sci fi movie. A friend back home who goes to Japan every so often told me about whole ghost towns, brought about by the combination of an aging population dying out and the next generation moving to the cities. Like it happens many other places too.

Breakfast and lunch bought at the ubiquous Lawson or 7-eleven convenience stores are enjoyed at the side of the rivers next to 438, falcons and herons in the air right close above us. Midday it is 32 degrees C, and there is little relief going up in the heights. After some 70 miles/110 kilometers of this we're both done for, and ride the major artery to Kochi, 50 miles/80 kilometers of smooth surfaced curves, but still with the wonderful scenery Japanese valleys all offer. Wonder if I have superlatives enough for the whole trip.

On the other hand, whoever made the algorithms for Booking.com will have a seriously hard time in his or her next incarnation. Arriving at our hotel in Kochi we realize that the non-refundable 2 rooms mysteriously have turned into one room, a smokers' room to boot, and they have nothing else. So we head for the only other hotel in town with rooms available at a cost only slightly less than your firstborn son, me having become pretty fatalistic about the finances by now. Still, cheap hotels usually makes for meeting fun people, while ones with golden elevators to the 22th floor restaurant do not (nice view, though.)

Rt. 438, much recommended, and on the hillside the kinds of concrete you see smacked up when the mountain surface is deemed too unstable. Other places they have put up 60 or even 100 feet tall steel netting, like the web of some giant spider.

Abandoned house with one of the ever present soft drinks machines outside - clearly abandoned too.

Houses and small garden lots are fit in where ever there's place. There are few industries, but logging may be what keeps this area alive.

Lunch in the shade.

Pretty Racing indeed. Most everything, up to and including the frame on this bike, was chromed....

Bosozoku bike workshop by the side of the road with several young guys working on them. Lots of chrome on one, typical raised quarter fairing and extended tail piece on another.

I just had to ride the bike all the way across this bridge, only to find there was nowhere to turn it around. 

Axel filmed me pushing it rearwards all the way back.

Stone sculptures like these can be found all over.