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: planning record, not independently verified geometry.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distances and riding times are planning figures. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
A 278 km round trip from Seongnam-si - roughly 4 h 48 in the saddle. The stops in between: Seosan Getbol, Kaesong Namdae and back through Seosan Getbol. It crosses from South Korea into North Korea - carry ID and check the toll rules. The line favours views over speed.
Seoul is a city of ten million, and a fortress sits just above its south-eastern edge. Namhansanseong is what the ride calls Area 1, and it is where the Joseon kings used to run when invaders arrived. The wall, about twelve kilometres of stone and earth following the ridge line, was built in the early seventeenth century on the foundations of older fortifications, and the whole enclosure sits on Mount Namhan, a granite hill just beyond Seongnam. It was listed by UNESCO in 2014.
Read the complete Area 1 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Area 1 is where the day begins. Next is Seosan Getbol.
Korea's west coast has some of the largest tides on earth. Twice a day the Yellow Sea pulls back for kilometres, exposing vast shining mud flats, the getbol, laced with channels and alive with crabs, mudskippers, worms and shellfish. UNESCO has listed a series of these Korean tidal flats for their extraordinary biodiversity and for the millions of migratory shorebirds that stop here to feed on their way between Siberia and Australia.
Read the complete Seosan Getbol write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Seosan Getbol comes up about 69 km into the recorded legs. Next is Kaesong Namdae.
Few capitals in Korea's history have left so little room for an ordinary traveller. Kaesong, the Goryeo capital from the early tenth century to the late fourteenth, stands in the south of North Korea, a few kilometres from the demilitarised zone and the village of Panmunjom, and its Namdae Gate, the great southern gate of the old city, is the best-known monument of the place. The gate was first raised in 1394, just after the Goryeo dynasty fell, and it has been repaired many times, most recently after wartime damage. It stands in the middle of a traffic circle, with its heavy tiled roof and a bell nearby.
Read the complete Kaesong Namdae Gate write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 139 km into the recorded legs you reach Kaesong Namdae. Next is back through Seosan Getbol.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Seosan Getbol write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Seosan Getbol, late in the day. Next is Area 1.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Area 1 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Area 1. That is the ride.
Area 1 → Seosan Getbol is 69 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Seosan Getbol → Kaesong Namdae Gate is 70 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Kaesong Namdae Gate → back through Seosan Getbol is 70 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Seosan Getbol → Area 1 is 69 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.