Fortlet Ferbach and Dormagen

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. Fortlet Ferbach

   The Limes was a frontier made of many small pieces, and Ferbach is one of the little ones. It was a fortlet, a small stone-and-timber post on the Upper Germanic frontier that ran from the Rhine into the hills of the Westerwald, and it housed a handful of soldiers who watched the ground in front of them. Nothing here is grand. What you find is a wooded plateau with traces of ditches and the outline of a small enclosure, and the interest lies in imagining the daily routine of men on a frontier posted far from Rome.

   Read the complete Fortlet Ferbach write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Fortlet Ferbach is where the day begins. Next is Kottenforst Süd | Bellerbuschallee.

2. 2. Kottenforst Süd | Bellerbuschallee

   The Kottenforst is a big, flat, rather mysterious forest on the plateau south-west of Bonn, crossed by long, dead-straight avenues laid out by the Electors of Cologne in the eighteenth century as hunting rides. The Bellerbuschallee is one of them, and walking or riding along it you pass oak and beech, wet hollows and the occasional deer. Under the trees, though, lie traces much older than the Electors: the low ramparts of Roman practice camps, where legionaries from Bonn learned to dig defences quickly. These camps form part of the Lower German Limes World Heritage listing inscribed in 2021.

   Read the complete Kottenforst Süd | Bellerbuschallee write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Kottenforst Süd | Bellerbuschallee comes up about 82 km into the recorded legs. Next is Dormagen.

3. 3. Dormagen

   Dormagen is not the sort of place that ends up on postcards, and it does not try to be. It is a working town of some sixty thousand on the left bank of the Rhine between Cologne and Düsseldorf, dominated on its northern side by a huge chemical park whose pipes and stacks glow at night. Yet the name itself comes from Roman times: Durnomagus was a fort on the Lower German Limes, the Rhine frontier that UNESCO listed in 2021, and a cavalry unit was stationed here to patrol the river and the road along it.

   Read the complete Dormagen write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   about 165 km into the recorded legs you reach Dormagen. Next is back through Kottenforst Süd | Bellerbuschallee.

4. 4. back through Kottenforst Süd | Bellerbuschallee

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Kottenforst Süd | Bellerbuschallee write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   back through Kottenforst Süd | Bellerbuschallee, late in the day. Next is Fortlet Ferbach.

5. 5. Fortlet Ferbach

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Fortlet Ferbach write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Back at Fortlet Ferbach. That is the ride.