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 230 km round trip from Yverdon-les-Bains - roughly 3 h 52 in the saddle. On the way it passes Port-Conty, Les Grèves, Spitz and Strandboden. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 950 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available.
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For about 21 km this is Jura Crest Scenic Road, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
At the southern tip of Lake Neuchâtel, just east of Yverdon-les-Bains, the shore curves into a shallow bay fringed with reeds, poplars and a beach where local families swim in summer. Behind it, in a meadow, stands a double row of tall grey stones. These are the menhirs of Clendy, raised by Neolithic farmers more than five thousand years ago and re-erected in the twentieth century after they were found toppled in the ground. Offshore and along the bay lie the remains of lakeside settlements of the same era, part of the UNESCO listing of prehistoric pile dwellings around the Alps.
Read the complete Baie de Clendy write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Baie de Clendy is where the day begins. Next is Port-Conty.
Under the shallow water off Port-Conty lie the remains of villages that were built on stilts more than five thousand years ago, and you will see none of them from the shore. The site, near Saint-Aubin-Sauges on the north-western side of Lake Neuchâtel, is one of the many locations in the UNESCO listing of prehistoric pile dwellings around the Alps. Archaeologists have found posts, tools, pottery and remains of food preserved in the lake mud, painting a picture of Neolithic and Bronze Age communities who farmed, fished and built their houses along the water's edge.
Read the complete Port-Conty write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Port-Conty comes up about 21 km into the recorded legs. Next is Les Grèves.
Reeds, mostly. That is the first thing you notice when you roll down to Les Grèves on the southern shore of Lake Neuchâtel: a soft wall of reed and willow between the fields and the water, with the Jura sitting long and blue on the far side of the lake. This stretch between Portalban, Gletterens and Chevroux belongs to the Grande Cariçaie, the biggest lakeshore marsh in Switzerland, and it only exists because people once moved an entire lake level.
Read the complete Les Grèves write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 77 km into the recorded legs you reach Les Grèves. Next is Spitz.
On the southern shore of the Murtensee, just west of the medieval town of Murten, a little point of land juts into the water at Greng, and here, beneath the shallows, archaeologists found the posts of prehistoric lake villages. Greng-Spitz is one of the Swiss sites in the UNESCO group of prehistoric pile dwellings around the Alps, and while there is nothing to see but reeds, water and the occasional marker, it is pleasant to know that people lived on this shore some five thousand years ago.
Read the complete Spitz write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Spitz, about halfway. Next is Strandboden.
Erlach sits at the south-western tip of Lake Biel, a little Bernese town of one steep street climbing to a castle, with vineyards on the slope behind and reed beds and beaches along the shore below. The flat ground by the water, the Strandboden, is where archaeologists have found traces of prehistoric lakeside villages, part of the network of pile dwelling sites around the Alps inscribed by UNESCO in 2011. Five or six thousand years ago farmers built their houses here on posts at the water's edge, and the waterlogged mud preserved timbers, tools, seeds and even textiles in astonishing detail.
Read the complete Strandboden write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Strandboden sits at 71 km, about halfway. Next is back through Spitz.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Spitz write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Spitz comes up about 136 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Les Grèves.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Les Grèves write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 155 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Les Grèves. Next is back through Port-Conty.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Port-Conty write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Port-Conty, late in the day. Next is Baie de Clendy.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Baie de Clendy write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 230 km.
Baie de Clendy → Port-Conty is 21 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Port-Conty → Les Grèves is 56 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Les Grèves → Spitz is 19 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Spitz → Strandboden is 20 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Strandboden → back through Spitz is 20 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Spitz → back through Les Grèves is 19 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Les Grèves → back through Port-Conty is 54 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Port-Conty → Baie de Clendy is 21 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.