Shikoku Trip: Part II

Rafting in the Iya Valley

Day 2: We woke up early and made our way a few hours inland to the beautiful Iya (ee-ya) Valley. The valley is considered one of Japan's three hidden places and with the state of the roads, I can see why, but more on that later. We arrived at Happy Raft, an Aussie owned rafting company deep in the Oboke Gorge. Our guide was Nepalese and a bit difficult to understand. In the beginning of the trip he yelled to us over the sound of the river that our team name was something that sounded like either Chuck Martins or Chick Party. He went on to describe a fierce warrior tribe from Tibet and I think our name had something to do with that. Whenever we would clear a set of rapids, he would have us all raise our oars in celebration and chant our team name. I still wasn't sure what it was, so I decided to go with a cross between my two best guesses and yell "Chuck Party!" when cued.

Our guide was impressively experienced with Class 5 rapids in Tibet and seemed a little bored with the novice class 2-3 scene, giving him an air of recklessness. He would send us down the rapids backwards or sideways all while telling us to relax, and then suddenly yell "Get Down!", which means get low in the boat and hold your oar up over your head. After nearly finishing the first set of rapids (key word: nearly) he called for us to raise our oars in celebration and shout "Chuck Party!", all while the raft continued into a rock that nearly knocked me out of the boat. I found myself wishing we had been assigned to the cute Kiwi guide in one of the other rafts. He kept pushing his team out of the raft, but only in the calm areas. Oh, and he had nice arms.
Check out the picture above. Joe, in front, is pulling the Washington crossing the Delaware pose complete with a determined but calm facial expression. The rest of us, including our guide, have our eyes closed and are screaming. I'm in the back on the right in the blue helmet. Our guide is in the white helmet. Below: This is what to do when your guide says "Get down!" I was quite good at that part.

A little team bonding

Team Chuck Party, thrilled to be back on land

Back on dry land, we set about the business of finding some lunch and a suitable campsite for the night. We knew we wanted to be near the river, and had clearance to camp right there at happy raft, but we decided to go looking for that perfect spot since we had all day. We made our way to back up into the mountains of Iya and enjoyed the view from a Mom and Pop soba noodle shop on the side of the road. We had our afternoon open, so we checked the map and set out to find Iya's famous vine bridges. On our way we noticed what we thought was a man driving a spotted golf cart down a steep mountain road. Upon further inspection we discovered it was a scenic lady bug ride for 400 yen. How could we resist?

Ladybugs incoming!

The lady bug ride offered some spectacular views at the top.

After that priceless little pit stop, we were off to find the bridges. The first of the three was easy to find and was crowded with tourists and shops. The bridge was beautiful and a little scary considering that the space between the planks was usually about the length of my foot.* We marveled at how an attraction such as this could never exist in the super litigious U.S., as someone would sue as soon as they lost a flip flop and shut down the site forever.

Lizzie-chan crossing carefully in loose sandals

And now me...

Cute couple shot next to the big waterfall.

Lonely Planet advised that to escape the crowds and see the longer, higher and therefore better bridges, the more adventurous traveler should take route 438 about 30 kilometers east to the "husband and wife" brides in East Iya. It also mentioned riverside camping near the lesser known bridges. Perfect. What Lonely Planet failed to mention was that Rt. 438 is a single width, two way, non guard-railed, precariously balanced (on sand bags in some areas), insanely terrifying mountain road. We also were unaware that 438 was to be only the second worst road we traveled in Shikoku. 439 was twice as bad, but we'll get back to that on day 6. On these kinds of roads 30 kilometers takes an entire afternoon. We followed the road through its many twists and turns and only screamed when we looked over the edge for the first half hour or so. Joe wins the golden driving gloves award for never showing us he was scared and for keeping all four tires on the road at all times.

We made a few mistakes along the way, first following signs for the resort named after the vine bridges, rather than the vine bridges themselves. This kind of thing happens when your most literate group member can only read half of the sign. We came across an intersection soon after that marked 438 as going in either direction simultaneously. We picked the wrong one and had to double back after discovering it was a dead end. We made it to our destination just after dark. Luckily the moon was full that night and we could see where we were going because in order to get to out camp site we had to carry everything we could from the car, down a few hundred steps, and then across the longer, higher, scarier vine bride mentioned in the guide book.

Joe set up camp in the dark while Liz and I had a beer. He actually said the following: "Sit, have a drink, play some cards. When I'm done setting up the tents and building the fire I'll start on dinner." And when we protested: "I like doing this! Relax! Sit down!" Then he made us a delicious dinner out of almost nothing. Our stash contained chicken, potato chips, some thin steak strips and ampan bread (a roll with sweet bean paste in the middle). He coated the chicken in crushed potato chips and then grilled them on the portable stove. The resulting miracle, which we named Chipken, was a contender for the best chicken I have ever had. Then he grilled the steak and the ampan bread which combined made an awesome salty-sweet steaky sandwich. Those were some good eats! I highly recommend camping with Joe. As a matter of fact, I highly recommend cloning Joe.
Joe- this post goes out to you in all your awesomeness, and I think we should get to work on that self-contradictory impromptu campsite cooking book pronto. Ohmygoshiimas!

*Foot note (pun intended): the yellow sandals I am wearing in nearly every shot throughout the trip were bought here in Japan. They were 1000 yen, or $10, and are a size LLL. They just barely fit me.