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 390 km round trip from Haulerwijk - roughly 6 h 24 in the saddle. On the way it passes Key Planning Decision, National Park Wadden Sea Niedersachsen and back through Key Planning Decision. It crosses from Netherlands into Germany - carry ID and check the toll rules. The coast is the point of it.
In 1818 a former army officer named Johannes van den Bosch had a plan to cure poverty with heathland and a spade. His Maatschappij van Weldadigheid, the Society of Benevolence, bought up wasteland here on the border of Drenthe and Friesland and settled poor families from the cities on small farms, with a strict regime of work and discipline. Frederiksoord and Wilhelminaoord were the first colonies, and Veenhuizen, a little further east, later became a penal colony. UNESCO listed the Colonies of Benevolence in 2021, a rare case of a World Heritage Site that began as a social experiment.
Read the complete Colonies of Benevolence write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Colonies of Benevolence is where the day begins. Next is Key Planning Decision.
The name on the map is bureaucratic, but the place is anything but. Key Planning Decision is a translation of the Dutch legal designation used to protect the Wadden Sea, and the spot here sits on the coast near Delfzijl, at the eastern edge of the province of Groningen, where the Dutch Wadden meets the estuary of the Ems. The Wadden Sea is the largest unbroken system of tidal flats in the world, stretching along the coasts of the Netherlands, Germany and Denmark, and it was listed by UNESCO in 2009.
Read the complete Key Planning Decision write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Key Planning Decision comes up about 69 km into the recorded legs. Next is National Park Wadden Sea Niedersachsen.
Behind the dyke at Dornumersiel the land is flatter than a billiard table and nearly as green, and on the other side the sea comes and goes twice a day across a vast expanse of sand and mud. This is the Wadden Sea, the largest system of intertidal flats in the world, stretching along the coasts of the Netherlands, Germany and Denmark. The Lower Saxony section is a national park and part of a World Heritage site, and at low tide you can walk out across the seabed towards the East Frisian islands, ideally with a guide who knows the channels and the tides.
Read the complete National Park Wadden Sea Niedersachsen write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 199 km into the recorded legs you reach National Park Wadden Sea Niedersachsen. Next is back through Key Planning Decision.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Key Planning Decision write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Key Planning Decision, late in the day. Next is Colonies of Benevolence.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Colonies of Benevolence write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Colonies of Benevolence. That is the ride.
Colonies of Benevolence → Key Planning Decision is 69 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Key Planning Decision → National Park Wadden Sea Niedersachsen is 130 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
National Park Wadden Sea Niedersachsen → back through Key Planning Decision is 129 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Key Planning Decision → Colonies of Benevolence is 62 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.