I saved several bright yellow ones from previous tubes and bring them over to new tubes as required. The smallest of my dogs usually finds the transparent ones when I lose them on the patio. He chews them up then spits them out!

The valve covers are probably not so important on Presta valves, but with Schrader valves they keep the dust out and help keep the air in if the valve fails suddenly (eg from a shock load).

Do you need them?  I tend to put them on if they're there, but not bother if they get lost, I've considered their main function to be protecting the tube when it's folded in storage.

Usually over time manufacturer’s improve their products but I really can not understand the current craze for clear plastic valve covers.   They look OK, but no better than a coloured one……but when you drop them they disappear!
And just to reinforce the point, all the spare ones I have in a little jar of valve parts are black or coloured - as those don’t get lost.

Thanks for the post. Sounds fascinating. How much motor traffic did you meet on those roads, and how courteous were the drivers? Your comment about the 30km of no-car bliss suggests there were enough cars elsewhere to get your attention.

It's easy to imagine the bliss though, whether or not things got sketchy in other parts.

Interesting on making yourself understood. On my one Japan visit, a brief work-related trip 30 years ago, I met a Japanese couple on my flight home who wanted to practise their English but said they could read and write the language quite well, since like most Japanese they had learned it in school.

I didn't get to test that, and had found it easy to order food and the like where I was staying in Tokyo, but I wondered afterwards whether resorting to writing might help sometimes when travelling.