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.
A 178 km round trip from Seongnam-si - roughly 3 h 48 in the saddle. It goes by way of Sareung Cluster, Jeongneung Cluster, Pajusamreung Cluster and back through Jeongneung Cluster. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
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 Sareung Cluster.
A queen who outlived her husband by more than sixty years lies here. Sareung is the tomb of Queen Jeongsun, wife of King Danjong, the boy king of the Joseon dynasty who was deposed by his uncle in 1455 and later killed in exile. Jeongsun lived on in poverty outside the capital, and the story of her loyalty and grief became one of the most moving in Korean history. Her tomb, a grassy mound guarded by stone figures and approached along a path through pine forest, is one of the forty Royal Tombs of the Joseon Dynasty listed together as a World Heritage Site in 2009.
Read the complete Sareung Cluster write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Sareung Cluster comes up about 36 km into the recorded legs. Next is Jeongneung Cluster.
Jeongneung is a royal tomb in the middle of Seoul, in the wooded hills of Seongbuk district just north of the old city, and it carries one of the more spiteful stories of the early Joseon court. It belongs to Queen Sindeok, the second wife of the dynasty's founder, King Taejo. Her son was named crown prince ahead of Taejo's older sons by his first wife, and one of those older sons, Yi Bang-won, struck back violently, killing his half-brothers and eventually taking the throne as King Taejong.
Read the complete Jeongneung Cluster write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 57 km into the recorded legs you reach Jeongneung Cluster. Next is Pajusamreung Cluster.
Close to the most heavily fortified border in the world, three royal tombs of the Joseon dynasty lie in a quiet pine forest in Paju, north of Seoul. Pajusamreung, the three tombs of Paju, include the resting places of Queen Jangsun and Queen Gonghye, both married to kings and both of whom died young, and of King Jinjong, honoured after his early death. Like all the Joseon royal tombs, they follow a precise layout of spirit gates, stone paths, shrines and grass mounds guarded by stone officials and animals, and they are part of the World Heritage listing of the Royal Tombs of the Joseon Dynasty.
Read the complete Pajusamreung Cluster write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Pajusamreung Cluster, about halfway. Next is back through Jeongneung Cluster.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Jeongneung Cluster write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Jeongneung Cluster sits at 106 km, about halfway. Next is back through Sareung Cluster.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Sareung Cluster write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Sareung Cluster comes up about 141 km into the recorded legs. 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.
Area 1 closes the day.
Area 1 → Sareung Cluster is 36 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Sareung Cluster → Jeongneung Cluster is 21 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Jeongneung Cluster → Pajusamreung Cluster is 30 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Pajusamreung Cluster → back through Jeongneung Cluster is 33 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Jeongneung Cluster → back through Sareung Cluster is 21 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Sareung Cluster → Area 1 is 36 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.