Did I mention long and thin? If the map weren’t split in this manner, you’d almost need a magnifying glass to see it. As you can see, there is only a relatively short section at the end where there’s only one way up and back; for the rest of the route, you can travel up along the more heavily-trafficked main road (which mainly follows the ridge) and return via the tiny roads on the north coast the other way. (The westernmost section of the northern coast road doesn’t quite connect up with the main road on its western end, so you have to cycle a bit further east, past Misaki, before you can access it.) If you’re really worried about getting lost, try the north coast first; that way, if you get lost and spend too much time on that section, you can return via the main road on which you’re much less likely to get lost. I do NOT recommend traveling along the northern coast at night, as there are few if any streetlights on these roads.

Yawatahama is the closest city (and train station) and therefore the ideal place to use as a base camp for this route; there are reasonably-priced accommodations in town. If you’re feeling energetic, you can also stay at the youth hostel in Ozu about 20 km inland; there’s train service between the two cities so you can take the train from Yawatahama if you run out of time and don’t want to cycle the road at night (since there’s a long tunnel, that might be the safest option anyway). The Story &  Photos section (and the map above) show the route starting from Ozu. There’s also a train station further up the coast at Iyo-Nagahama, so if you take the northern route on the way back and have some time, you can cycle all the way along that coast and make this your end point.

One minor clarification: I’ve been referring to Sadamisaki as a peninsula, so some people may feel some confusion at the map above which refers to “Cape Sada.” In fact, the proper name of the peninsula is Sadamisaki Hanto, which would literally be “Cape Sada Peninsula.” And while we’re on the subject, the “Misaki” place name above has different characters from the Japanese word misaki that means cape.