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 156 km round trip from Elst - roughly 3 h 31 in the saddle. The stops in between: Berg en Dal-aqueduct | Kerstendal, Kleve-Reichswald | West, Berg en Dal-aqueduct | Louisedal and Kleve-Keeken. It crosses from Netherlands into Germany - carry ID and check the toll rules.
Elst is a commuter town in the Betuwe, the flat river island between the Rhine and the Waal, halfway between Arnhem and Nijmegen. At first glance there is nothing remarkable about its big brick church on the market square. The surprise lies underneath it. Excavations in the twentieth century found the remains of two Roman temples beneath the floor, built one after another on the same spot, dedicated to a local god adopted into the Roman world. The site belongs to the Frontiers of the Roman Empire, Lower German Limes, inscribed by UNESCO in 2021, and the foundations can be seen in the church cellar when it is open.
Read the complete Elst-Grote Kerk write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Elst-Grote Kerk is where the day begins. Next is Berg en Dal-aqueduct | Kerstendal.
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 comes up about 16 km into the recorded legs. 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.
about 35 km into the recorded legs you reach Kleve-Reichswald | West. Next is Berg en Dal-aqueduct | Louisedal.
The Romans were water engineers, and the Berg en Dal aqueduct, near Nijmegen, is a trace of that skill in the Dutch landscape. Nijmegen was a major Roman centre, called Noviomagus, with a legion fortress on the Hunerberg and a town that grew beside it, and it needed a good water supply. The solution was to tap springs in the hills to the east, in the hills around Berg en Dal, and carry the water in a channel for several kilometres. Remains have been found near Louisedal, in the form of stone foundations and traces of the channel.
Read the complete Berg en Dal-aqueduct | Louisedal write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Berg en Dal-aqueduct | Louisedal, about halfway. Next is Kleve-Keeken.
Here the Rhine stops being a German river. Just downstream of the village of Keeken, the great river crosses the border into the Netherlands, and a few kilometres further on it divides, with the Waal carrying most of the water west and the Pannerdens Canal leading to the Nederrijn and the IJssel. In Roman times, this was the northern frontier of the empire, the Lower German Limes, and Keeken is one of the sites listed as part of the UNESCO frontier, with traces of Roman military installations along the old river course.
Read the complete Kleve-Keeken write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Kleve-Keeken sits at 69 km, about halfway. Next is back through Berg en Dal-aqueduct | Louisedal.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Berg en Dal-aqueduct | Louisedal write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Berg en Dal-aqueduct | Louisedal comes up about 99 km into the recorded legs. 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.
about 120 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Kleve-Reichswald | West. Next is back through 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 through Berg en Dal-aqueduct | Kerstendal, late in the day. Next is Elst-Grote Kerk.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Elst-Grote Kerk write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 156 km.
Elst-Grote Kerk → Berg en Dal-aqueduct | Kerstendal is 16 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
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 → Berg en Dal-aqueduct | Louisedal is 21 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Berg en Dal-aqueduct | Louisedal → Kleve-Keeken is 22 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Kleve-Keeken → back through Berg en Dal-aqueduct | Louisedal is 21 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Berg en Dal-aqueduct | Louisedal → back through Kleve-Reichswald | West is 21 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Kleve-Reichswald | West → back through Berg en Dal-aqueduct | Kerstendal is 19 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Berg en Dal-aqueduct | Kerstendal → Elst-Grote Kerk is 16 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.