Air Drop Bird

Now, first things first, I have been meaning to talk about this for the last few days on the blog and I keep forgetting. There is a bird here that sounds like the noise that Air Drop on Apple devices makes. If you use Air Drop you know the sound I mean. It’s really quite disturbing- we will just be walking or riding along and I hear it and I think some one somewhere is using Air Drop. Like I really did think that for ages, until I realised it was a bird. So there you go. Air Drop Bird.

We had to leave Setoda today and cycle to Onimichi which would be the end of our ride. Rain was forecast which was a bit of a bummer, but we can’t complain too much as we got pretty decent weather for the rest of the time.

We had breakfast at our ryokan and packed up and headed on our merry way.

We couldn’t resist one last coffee at Soil cafe next door before we left. And I managed to buy some lemons that I was hoping to squeeze in to our water bottle for an extra zesty kick (or something) – the citrus around here is world class.

And then we were off. There was no rain yet so we tried to make the most of it. We had two bridges to cross today and a ferry crossing.

Next island was Innoshima. We were originally meant to be staying on this island but the accommodation was all booked out, hence we stayed 2 nights at Suminoe – a good decision in the end.

We stopped at a Lawson and picked up some onigiri for lunch snacks because we were unsure of what we would find. We tried to find a nice place to stop to have them but there were a lot of shipping yards and nowhere really good to stop. We rode up to a place that we saw on Google maps – but it turned out to be a cult like place that ferments vegetables and had a restaurant and farm and we weren’t allowed to eat outside food there and it was all a bit weird tbh so we had a quick look around before hastily exiting. Another Quick Look at google revealed a park up ahead with a giant dinosaur- that seemed perfect to us!

We got to the park and there was a cool looking cafe there and a delicious curry smell coming from within. It had started to drizzle and get cold – so, sorry onigiri, we are totally having curry instead.

The cafe was super dooper cool – really nicely designed and with comfy seating and cool jazz playing through the stereo. There was no one else there except us, we wasted no time in ordering chicken curry and home made ginger ales.

The food was so good! So good!

We sat there for quite a while…I couldn’t resist getting an icecream – milk and Mikan flavour complete with a cute dinosaur cookie.

Unfortunately, just as we decided to leave the rain got quite heavy. But – we had to see the dinosaur! And we also had to get moving, as much as we wanted to stay at that cafe all day.

For the next and final bridge – we got to ride under the road. Super cool!

On to Mukaishima!

The rain was pretty heavy by now and we were getting a bit wet and soggy, so we mostly just headed for the ferry over to Okonomichi.

The ferry trip was short but a great way to get across the last stretch of water.

And then, as if by magic, we were in Onimichi! We had to return our bikes – which was a little bit sad, plus there was no cool depot with original goods to purchase – just some slightly grumpy guys in an underground car park taking your bike. And just like that, the Shimanami dream was over. Good job everyone!

Now we had to find our accommodation – which was located at the top of a hill with many steps. I kind needed to recalibrate before heading off so a quick stop off at our old fave Mister Donut was in order. A nice hot cup of coffee and delicious matcha donut was just what we needed.