Route 58
I had to go out to the Hyakadai park on the Shimabara peninsula the other day and wanted to find a little traveled twisty to make the trip worthwhile.
Google maps was showing route 58 as wider than the “Wide Farm Road”, which I knew wasn’t the case. I had been on it about 10 years ago in my Jimny (Japanese version of the Suzuki Samurai) and remember it being tight and not worth the effort. On a bike, however I was wondering… Click Read More to continue.
So I gave it a shot. A couple things about country roads here:
- They are generally well paved
- Fallen leaves and sticks can be a problem if they aren’t well traveled
- Blind turns generally have mirrors so you can see if anyone is coming the other way (which don’t usually work if the cars don’t turn their lights on even in the daytime – I always turn on my brights)
Well, it turns out that the road was in good enough shape and had very little traffic so I could ride hard. The combinations of straights and really sharp turns made for an excellent chance to practice “emergency” braking then slow-in-fast-out on the turns. Since I basically didn’t know the road, I approached most turns like they were hairpin until I could see the out. You never know when you are going to get a farmer coming down the middle of the road anyway, so I was trying to keep to my side of the mostly one-lane track.
Anyway, it was a beautiful ride through the forests both coming and going. If anybody is out here in Nagasaki looking for a place to ride, there are some fantastic roads on the Shimabara Peninsula. I’ll try to write some reviews of some others when I get the chance.
Here’s a link to the Google Map.
