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 72 km round trip from Hengstdal - roughly 1 h 29 in the saddle. On the way it passes Kleve-Reichswald | West, Kalkar-Kalkarberg and back through Kleve-Reichswald | West. It crosses from Netherlands into Germany - carry ID and check the toll rules. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
Berg en Dal sits on the side of the Nijmegen ridge, a rare bump of ground in a country built mostly of rivers and polders. The ridge is a push moraine, a pile of gravel and sand shoved up by ice during the last glaciation, and it rises above the Waal and the German border forest of the Reichswald. In Dutch terms it is mountainous, with beech woods, steep lanes and villas set among trees, and the road through Kerstendal winds along the foot of the slope with real if modest bends.
Read the complete Berg en Dal-aqueduct | Kerstendal write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Berg en Dal-aqueduct | Kerstendal is where the day begins. Next is Kleve-Reichswald | West.
Kleve sits on the lower Rhine, a few kilometres from the Dutch border, in a landscape so flat that the one low hill outside the town counts as an event. West of it, the Reichswald is a big, dark forest of pine and beech, one of the largest wooded areas in this part of North Rhine-Westphalia, and for a rider coming from the Ruhr it feels like an exhale. The forest roads are straight and shaded, and the surrounding villages, Kranenburg among them, are neat, brick-built and utterly peaceful.
Read the complete Kleve-Reichswald | West write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Kleve-Reichswald | West comes up about 19 km into the recorded legs. Next is Kalkar-Kalkarberg.
Near the Dutch border, where the Rhine flows through wide meadows and dyked farmland, the small town of Kalkar holds a surprising amount of history. The Kalkarberg is a low rise near Altkalkar, and on it stood the Roman fort of Burginatium, one of the posts along the Lower German Limes, now part of the UNESCO-listed Frontiers of the Roman Empire. The rise would have given a valuable view over the river plain, and the fort controlled the road between Xanten and Nijmegen. Today it is fields and trees, but the shape of the land still hints at the old fortification.
Read the complete Kalkar-Kalkarberg write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 36 km into the recorded legs you reach Kalkar-Kalkarberg. Next is back through Kleve-Reichswald | West.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Kleve-Reichswald | West write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Kleve-Reichswald | West, late in the day. Next is Berg en Dal-aqueduct | Kerstendal.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Berg en Dal-aqueduct | Kerstendal write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Berg en Dal-aqueduct | Kerstendal. That is the ride.
Berg en Dal-aqueduct | Kerstendal → Kleve-Reichswald | West is 19 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Kleve-Reichswald | West → Kalkar-Kalkarberg is 17 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Kalkar-Kalkarberg → back through Kleve-Reichswald | West is 17 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Kleve-Reichswald | West → Berg en Dal-aqueduct | Kerstendal is 19 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.