RtG Japan Daily Dispatch - day00 - Flipbook - Page 45
18 September to
16 October 2025
Day 23 Kurashiki to Kochi (239km)
11 October 2025
Photos: gerardbrown.co.uk
Nick and Serita Sleep, 1964 Mercedes-Benz 230 SL
Pierre Gerber and Alice Leuenberger, 1948 Ford Coupe
A Test, a Regularity and an Indiana Jones-style
vine bridge gave us a memorable start to our time
on Shikoku, the smallest of Japan’s four main
islands, and the third in our pan-Japan odyssey.
The Test saw crews running a sighting lap, then an
average-speed reference lap, and then two more circuits
attempting to match this speed precisely. They were then
released for the helter skelter descent towards the Koboke
Canyon and the Time Control at the River Station West.
As legions of locals, and a wealth of weekend warriors,
took to rafts, kayaks and abseil ropes, the rally settled
into a much calmer activity, a Japanese traditional lunch
in a clifftop restaurant with a bird’s-eye view of the action
unfolding below.
Unlike the three bigger islands, Shikoku has no active
volcanoes and has been, historically, quite isolated. It is
considered to retain some of the more traditional aspects
of its culture and architecture.
After an easy run from the Art Hotel in downtown
Kurashiki, we bade goodbye to Honshu at a Passage Control
on Yoshima Island, midway between a series of islands
and bridges which span the Seto Inland Sea. From the
Control, the crews enjoyed amazing views of the 13.1km
Seto Ohashi Bridge, the world’s longest two-tiered bridge
system. An expressway flew us over the marine traffic and
the busy ports beyond, towards a high altitude and high
octane ‘average speed test’ at the Asan Circuit, in the hills
of Tokushima.
At 620m high, and with almost 13km of a steep singletrack
road leading to the gates, it was quite a climb even to the
pit lane. This begged the age-old question of why did we
do it? When pressed, Rally Director, Fred Gallagher, simply
answered, because it’s there!
www.rallytheglobe.com
