CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
The recorded total and the leg detail need reconciliation. Inspect the leg notes before using this record for timing or navigation. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
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Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
291 km from Liverpool to Liverpool, about 4 h 13 of riding. On the way it passes Jodrell Bank Observatory, Pontcysyllte Aqueduct and Canal, back through Pontcysyllte Aqueduct and Canal and back through Jodrell Bank Observatory. It suits an unhurried touring pace.
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For 1 km this is Cat and Fiddle Road, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
Liverpool owes its looks to the sea. The three great buildings on the waterfront, the Royal Liver Building with its two bronze Liver birds, the Cunard Building and the Port of Liverpool Building, are known as the Three Graces, and they were built in the early twentieth century when the city was one of the richest ports in the world. The Albert Dock, with its brick warehouses, is now a place to eat and visit museums, but it also tells the story of the trade that made Liverpool, including the dark chapter of its role in the slave trade, which the International Slavery Museum examines frankly. The city lost its UNESCO listing in 2021, after arguments over new development along the waterfront.
Read the complete Liverpool write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Liverpool is where the day begins. Next is Jodrell Bank Observatory.
You see the dish long before you arrive. The Lovell Telescope at Jodrell Bank rises out of the flat Cheshire farmland like something from a science fiction film, a white steel bowl seventy six metres across, tilting slowly to follow its targets across the sky. When it was completed in 1957 it was the largest steerable radio telescope in the world, and one of its first tasks was tracking the rocket that carried Sputnik into orbit. The observatory, founded by Bernard Lovell after the Second World War, has been at the forefront of radio astronomy ever since, and it was listed by UNESCO in 2019 for its role in the development of the science.
Read the complete Jodrell Bank Observatory write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Jodrell Bank Observatory comes up 37 km in.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Jodrell Bank Observatory write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
74 km in you reach Jodrell Bank Observatory. Next is Pontcysyllte Aqueduct and Canal.
You hear it before you understand it: water running in an iron trough thirty-eight metres above the River Dee, on stone piers so slender they look drawn rather than built. Thomas Telford and William Jessop finished the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct in 1805 to carry what is now the Llangollen Canal across the valley, and more than two centuries later narrowboats still glide over it, steered by people trying very hard not to look down. There is a towpath on one side with railings; on the other side there is only the edge of the trough and air. Walk across if you have a head for heights. It is one of the strangest and best ten minutes in Wales.
Read the complete Pontcysyllte Aqueduct and Canal write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Pontcysyllte Aqueduct and Canal, about halfway. Next is Pontcysyllte Aqueduct and Canal.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Pontcysyllte Aqueduct and Canal write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Pontcysyllte Aqueduct and Canal sits at 147 km, about halfway. Next is back through Pontcysyllte Aqueduct and Canal.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Pontcysyllte Aqueduct and Canal write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Pontcysyllte Aqueduct and Canal comes up 184 km in. Next is back through Jodrell Bank Observatory.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Jodrell Bank Observatory write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
221 km in you reach back through Jodrell Bank Observatory. Next is back through Jodrell Bank Observatory.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Jodrell Bank Observatory write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Jodrell Bank Observatory, late in the day. Next is Liverpool.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Liverpool write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 291 km.
Liverpool → Jodrell Bank Observatory is 66 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Jodrell Bank Observatory → Pontcysyllte Aqueduct and Canal is 81 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Pontcysyllte Aqueduct and Canal → back through Jodrell Bank Observatory is 81 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Jodrell Bank Observatory → Liverpool is 66 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.