April 19th. We woke happy and rested, except for our feet. Mine definitely hadn't forgiven me for the previous day and the first few steps were painful and I was sort of hobbling. I didn't know at that point, that that feeling would become a fixture in my life. Anyway we sauntered back to Ishite ji (no.51) and said our prayers for the day. I was feeling good, I think it had a lot to do with not having my pack on my back and the prospect of having clean clothes again.We hadn't had the chance to do any washing since we had left Dustin in Shimane, some 2 weeks earlier and my socks were downright offensive. So we went to the coin laundry and spent a very happy couple of hours doing our washing.I am sure that fact that we didn't have our packs, were sitting down and I got to pluck my eyebrows contributed to the feeling of well being.
After the coin laundry we dropped the washing off at the hostel and went to the castle. We couldn't find the entrance at first and this resulted in more walking than I had anticipated and even involved another hill. Not happy.The castle was cool and we got to go inside, which Betsy hadn't managed to do on her previous visit to the city. With our tourist obligations out of the way we went back to the hostel to use their internet for the last time. We repacked our bags and headed to the train station. That night we spoiled ourselves with dinner in an Italian restaurant, with beer and then caught the train to near Enmyo ji (no.53) and started to walk the 2kms or so in the direction of Taizan ji (no.52), our starting point for the next day.It was late and dark when we started our walk,but we were headed in the right direction.We decided that we needed to stop for the night and find a camp site. Unfortunately there was nothing in view, I guess we were looking a bit lost as a taxi driver stopped and asked us what we were up to. We explained and he said there was no where to park, but for free he would take us to the temple, so he did and we all decided that we could camp in the parking lot of the temple.Before leaving us the taxi driver bought us a drink and wished us good night.We set up the tent and went straight to sleep.
The next day, April 20th, we woke up at 05.30 and were ready to go at 06.15, so off to the temple we went. We were feeling pretty good as we were getting an early start and despite not doing anything much the previous day we were somehow ahead of schedule. Things were going well and we would be able to walk to the next few temples, which would be cool and we would be in charge of our destinies again.So to Taizan ji to pray and then on to Enmyo ji,on another beautiful day, although a little cooler than it had been in Kochi.From Enmyo ji we caught a train to near Enmei ji (no.54), walked there and then walked to Nankobo (no.55), Taisan ji (no.56) and Eifuku ji (no.57). From Eifuku ji we we were lucky to get a lift to Senyu ji (no.58) and Kokubun ji (no.59) with a Mr and Mrs Yoshida, another lovely couple.They then said that they would stay the night in Imabari at an onsen hotel and would go on to Yokomine ji (no.60) the next morning and if we wanted we could go with them. This was a great offer as both Betsy and I wanted to get into an onsen, the next temple was about 20kms away on top of a huge hill, but they had a small car with lots of stuff in it, even before we got in it.We accepted and so it was to an onsen hotel for clean futons, food and a hot bath. A lovely end to a lovely day.