Kottenforst is the name of a forest, but on the ride it is a long, patient place to be. This is the southern end of that great woodland ridge above Bonn, and the Wattendorfer Allee is one of the straight, wide avenues driven through it in the eighteenth century for the Electors of Cologne. The avenues radiate from older hunting points, and they still run dead straight for kilometres, so that from the right spot you can look down a green corridor that ends in a pinprick of light.
What interests me here is the nature rather than the history. The Kottenforst is one of the larger wooded areas left in the Rhineland, and the trees are mostly old oak and hornbeam, with beech where the soil is drier. Small ponds and wet patches in the clay support amphibians, and the area is known for its bats and woodpeckers. The air is damp even on dry days, and the smell, especially after rain, is deep and earthy. Spring brings wild garlic and bluebells in places, and autumn brings mushroom pickers, who are not always happy to see a motorcycle.
Riding in the forest and around its edges is a slow business. The through roads are narrow, shaded and occasionally greasy with leaves, and the tracks are meant for walkers and horse riders, so stay on tarmac. On the western side the land drops towards the Swist valley and the orchards of the Rhineland, and on the eastern side it falls to the Rhine and a view of the Siebengebirge. Nothing here is fast, but the loops through Wachtberg and the villages around it are relaxed and well worth an unhurried hour.
Wachtberg, less than four kilometres away, is a sprawling municipality with several villages, with fuel, bakeries, and a few decent places to eat. Königswinter, farther on, is the tourist town at the foot of the Drachenfels, and Meckenheim is the quieter market town to the south-west, where the apple orchards begin. Weekday mornings and cool, bright October days give the best light through the trees.