Over the Mountains to the Sea Again

 

Leaving Kubokawa and temple 37 Iwamotoji, the route carries on south towards temple 38, a long way a away down at the tip of Shikoku, Cape Ashizuri.

It is December 1st, the twentieth day of my walk along the famous Shikoku Pilgrimage, and it's cool and damp with the clouds clinging to the forested mountain slopes and the rain intermittent.

It's not a day for dawdling and exploring.... I pass some small shrines but do not check them out...

Much of the way is narrow roads with little or no traffic, and a few times, tunnels replace what would have been passes in earlier times...

After the tunnel, it is pretty much downhill all the way...

The rain picks up a little..... I have now crossed over from Shimanto to Kuroshio.

By the time I reach the coast at a place called Saga, it gets windier too...

I take a break in a seaside park and cook up some oatmeal....

The park shelter is not enough to keep the rain and wind out, so I use my umbrella as a windshield...

The tiny stove I have runs on the little paraffin blocks used in restaurants..... with the tiny kettle they only weigh a few ounces, but I can make tea, coffee, soup, oatmeal, instant noodles, pretty much anywhere....

I carry on down the blustery coast....

I had heard there was a free place to stay not far away and I hope I can find it....

The previous post in this series on the space between the temples on the Shikoku Ohenro Pilgrimage was on the Kominka Cafe near to Iwamotoji Temple.

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