Kume-jima loop with Ou-jima and Hiyajo Banta

Prefectural Route 245 rings Kume-jima, and Japanese Wikipedia gives its length as 40.17 km. Our loop follows it for most of the way with two changes: it adds the causeway to Ou-jima and Tatami-ishi, and it cuts through Gima on Route 89. By our route data that comes to 37.2 km. Sugar Ride Kumejima runs a 45 km round-the-island course on the same roads each spring.

North of Eef the road follows the Maja coast at sea level, then climbs to Hiyajo Banta, and by our route data that rise gains 182 m over 4.9 km. The lookout stands about 200 m above the sea and looks down on Hatenohama, the long sandbar that you otherwise reach only by boat, with Aguni and the Kerama Islands on the horizon.

From Hiyajo the road runs west through the hills of the north past Gushikawa Castle Ruins to the airport, then Route 89 brings you through Gima and Kanegusuku, the island's main villages. The last stretch swings south round Shimajiri and up the east side to Eef, where the hotels and soba shops wait.