April 24, 2019 - Minami-awa Sun Line
Walking on the road in the misty rain of the morning. The visibility was only about 20 metres. There were no footpaths and I wondered if I would hear a car before seeing it. And would that give me enough time to get out of the way…
The owner of the guest house had given me some reasonably clear instructions on how to get to Mugi ferry terminal where I was to catch the ferry to my nights accommodation “on an island”. I had breakfast of a piece of chicken and a sandwich and said hello to some Japanese Henro as I was procrastinating and waiting for the rain to stop. The three Japanese guys who were getting ready to go, out of the rain in the combini, weren’t a group, just three individuals sheltering, like me, for a short time before stepping out into the wet. I left the combini in the early morning rain.
Once outside I realised all my maps and books tucked away in my back pack would be very difficult to get to under my rain poncho which covered everything. If I got lost I would be buggered, but then I thought I could use my phone for guidance instead. Unfortunately this plan fell apart too as my phone case filled up with water, not from the rain, but from the steamy condensation under my poncho. Luckily the guest house owners directions were clear and once I’d taken the correct turning past the cement works, it was a road with no turn offs, even I couldn’t go wrong this time. Really. Almost couldn't go wrong.
For the first half a kilometre or so I walked, my feet seemed to be holding up and the rain wasn't as hard as I feared it might have been, so I was pretty happy. Fifteen kilometres to go with a deadline for the ferry. I knew G.., following the same instructions, would be along this road somewhere too, but I didn’t know where the three Japanese guys were. I never saw them again. They must have taken the main road
It remained a tiny bit drizzly until I got through a tunnel three kilometres from town. The coastal air was being funneled into the tunnel and it was slightly difficult to walk against the draft, but then it calmed down as I came out of the tunnel and it was only misty. This was the Minami-awa Sun Line. A scenic coastal road. I thought it would be a nice walk if it was just misty and damp, however for the rest of the walk it drizzled and for the last three or 4 kilometres to Mugi it rained quite hard.
Because of the rain I really saw very little of the coast. Just once or twice I caught glimpses of the sea below. Otherwise for almost all of the four hours I was walking I could only hear the sea. The compensation was that many creatures had come out. The first odd thing, I saw a small crab on the road. Unusual to see a crab away from water I thought. I had not walked twenty metres when I saw a second crab and then another 20 metres I saw maybe six or ten altogether. That was the biggest concentration of the little crabs I saw, however I did see them continuously all the way into Mugi. I also saw three very large worms. The second one was a lovely dark aqua blue colour. I saw two frogs, one which sat still long enough for me to photograph and a smaller one which jumped away before I could get my camera out. G.. later told me she had seen some monkeys she originally mistook for dogs. I found out she had been behind me so the monkeys must have come down to the road after I passed by, so I missed them.
It was almost exactly 4 hours from the combini to Mugi town ship. About not getting lost, of course when I got to the township its self I took a wrong through the fishing village and found myself at some sheds on a wharf, the wrong side of the river to the ferry terminal. Four hours was enough to be on my feet so sitting down I had a rest and a drink in the cover of the sheds. I hadn’t had a drink up till that time as, through lack of foresight, I couldn’t get at my water tube under my poncho, and was never able to take the poncho of due to the rain.
A short walk along the fishing wharf and I found the bridge across the river. This lead almost straight to the ferry terminal, which was a small, concrete room with a sliding door. I let myself in and spread all my wet things liberally around the room. I had plenty of time to spare, since, other than the fishing sheds, I never stopped on my walk. There was still 90 minutes to go till the ferry was scheduled to leave. Neither it nor G.. were there. The time allowed me to eat a rice ball for lunch and to dry out a little. I was drenched. My shirt was wet up to the elbows, my dress was wet to the knees and the socks inside my boots were so damp they were squelchy. The most surprising thing was that my fingers were all wrinkled from being exposed to the rain for so long. This was probably the longest I have ever been continuously in rain in my life.
When the ferry left the harbour and started to pitch a little, G.. said something like “fook”. The crewman smiled, as I think he must have been able to speak a little Irish. On the other hand, I don’t know what she meant at all.
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