CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Ordered leg totals agree within rounding. Stop distances are approximate sums of rounded legs. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
From Strel'na it runs 499 km to Strel'na; allow about 7 h 37 of riding. The stops in between: Forts of the Island Kotlin, Lindulovskaya Roshcha, The Road of Life and back through Lindulovskaya Roshcha. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For about 47 km this is Saint Petersburg Imperial Shore, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
Strelna lies on the south shore of the Gulf of Finland, on the road to Peterhof, and it is where Peter the Great first thought of building his seaside palace before he settled on the site a few kilometres to the west.
Read the complete A.F.Orlov's Datcha write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
A.F.Orlov's Datcha is where the day begins. Next is Forts of the Island Kotlin.
Kotlin island carries so many forts that the usual way to describe it is as a single stone ship moored in the middle of the gulf. The whole island is fortified, and you can see the evidence from the water, from the road and from the air: low batteries, round towers, harbour walls and the great forts built on artificial islands in the shallows. Many carry the names of tsars and grand dukes, and some, like the fort known as Alexander I, have a more sinister reputation, since it was used as a research station for plague bacteria in the early twentieth century and is still called the Plague Fort.
Read the complete Forts of the Island Kotlin write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Forts of the Island Kotlin comes up about 47 km into the recorded legs. Next is Lindulovskaya Roshcha.
Out on the Karelian Isthmus, in a landscape of pine, birch and sandy soil, stands a grove of larches that looks entirely out of place. The Lindulovskaya Grove was planted in 1738 by an admiral, Fyodor Soimonov, who wanted to grow shipbuilding timber for the Russian navy, and he chose Siberian larch, a durable and rot-resistant wood. Some of the trees are nearly three centuries old and very tall, and the grove is protected as a natural monument, the oldest planted larch forest in Russia. Walking among the trunks, with their orange-grey bark, and the soft light filtering through the needles, is surprisingly moving.
Read the complete Lindulovskaya Roshcha write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 121 km into the recorded legs you reach Lindulovskaya Roshcha. Next is The Road of Life.
On the south-eastern shore of Lake Ladoga, east of Saint Petersburg, a road ends at the water. This is the start of the Road of Life, the supply route across the ice that kept Leningrad alive during the siege of 1941 to 1944. The siege lasted 872 days, from September 1941 to January 1944, and it cut the city off from nearly everything except the lake. In the first winter, when Ladoga froze, trucks and horse-drawn sledges began to cross the ice with food and fuel, and on the return journey they carried out women, children and the sick. Lorries broke through the ice, and bombing and artillery attacked the route, but it kept going.
Read the complete The Road of Life write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The Road of Life, about halfway. Next is back through Lindulovskaya Roshcha.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Lindulovskaya Roshcha write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Lindulovskaya Roshcha sits at 248 km, about halfway. Next is back through Forts of the Island Kotlin.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Forts of the Island Kotlin write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Forts of the Island Kotlin comes up about 450 km into the recorded legs. Next is A.F.Orlov's Datcha, 62 km on.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete A.F.Orlov's Datcha write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
A.F.Orlov's Datcha closes the day.
A.F.Orlov's Datcha → Forts of the Island Kotlin is 47 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Forts of the Island Kotlin → Lindulovskaya Roshcha is 74 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Lindulovskaya Roshcha → The Road of Life is 140 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
The Road of Life → back through Lindulovskaya Roshcha is 126 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Lindulovskaya Roshcha → back through Forts of the Island Kotlin is 63 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Forts of the Island Kotlin → A.F.Orlov's Datcha is 49 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.