Day 23: Temple 38 and Ashizuri National Park

Got an early start at 7am walking on a bridge across the Shimanto river.

We came from the small village at the base of the mountain in the first picture and have to walk past the far point in the second one.

Pay phones are still common in Shikoku along with self serve farm stands.

Part of our walk was along a pretty beach.

We saw an osprey picking over a fishing net for goodies.

The trail had some original sign posts (or should I saw sign rocks) and was steep. Sawako is using the rope to go down a steep section.

Temple 38, Kongōfukuji, was very pretty with a lot of water and petrified wood on its grounds. 

After the temple, we explored Ashizuri National Park for a bit.

At the hotel, they washed our staffs, put us in a great view room, and fed us a wonderful dinner.

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I walked 27.7 km with 261m of altitude gain. You can see a map of my tracks here (you may have to refresh the page after a minute to get it to show).  If you have Google Earth, it is faster to download a Google Earth file of my adventure from here.