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.
From Gatchina it runs 404 km to Gatchina; allow about 6 h 17 of riding. The stops in between: Tallinskoe Highway, Oranienbaumsky Springboard, The Coastal Fort «Reef» and Schlisselburg. Old Ladoga and New Ladoga c. The line favours views over speed.
For 35 km this is Saint Petersburg Imperial Shore, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it — expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast.
Water arrives beside the road and stays for 34 km. The line follows the shore because there is nowhere else for it to go. Slow enough to look. The surface follows the shoreline, so the corners arrive where the water decided, not where an engineer did.
Gatchina is the kind of town you reach by flat, straight Ingrian roads, and the first impression is of birch, pine and wide skies rather than anything dramatic. Forty-odd kilometres south-west of St Petersburg, it sits on land that was once swampy and sparsely settled, until the eighteenth century decided otherwise. Catherine the Great gave the estate to her favourite Grigory Orlov, and the architect Antonio Rinaldi built him a severe, castle-like palace of local limestone beside a lake. After Orlov died it passed to her son Paul, who made it his private kingdom, drilled his soldiers on the parade ground and added the odd fortress-style touches that suited his nature.
Read the complete Historical Centre of the Town of Gatchina write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Historical Centre of the Town of Gatchina is where the day begins. Next is Tallinskoe Highway.
Not every historic road is a pretty one, and the Tallinn highway on the south-western edge of St Petersburg is not trying to win prizes for charm. It is, however, one of the old imperial routes out of the capital, the road toward Narva and Reval, today's Tallinn, and as such it forms part of the UNESCO listing of the historic centre of St Petersburg and its related monuments, which includes the network of roads tying the city to its palaces and estates. Along it, the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries planted suburban residences, military camps and post stations.
Read the complete Tallinskoe Highway write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Tallinskoe Highway comes up about 34 km into the recorded legs. Next is Oranienbaumsky Springboard.
The Oranienbaum Springboard is not a single building but a piece of ground, and once you know the story the low woods and fields south of the Gulf of Finland look entirely different. In September 1941, as German and Finnish forces closed the ring around Leningrad, a pocket of coast around Oranienbaum, today's Lomonosov, held out. It was cut off from the city by land, supplied across the water and under the guns of Kronstadt, and it never fell. In January 1944 the Second Shock Army broke out of this pocket as one jaw of the offensive that finally lifted the siege.
Read the complete Oranienbaumsky Springboard write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 67 km into the recorded legs you reach Oranienbaumsky Springboard. Next is The Coastal Fort «Reef».
In the shallow, grey waters of the Gulf of Finland, a chain of fortified islands guards the sea approach to Saint Petersburg. Peter the Great founded the naval base of Kronstadt on Kotlin Island in 1703, and over the following two centuries forts were built on artificial islets and reefs to the north and south, to form a defensive screen. In many cases the forts are military or ruined, and visits require permission.
Read the complete The Coastal Fort «Reef» write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The Coastal Fort «Reef», about halfway. Next is Schlisselburg. Old Ladoga and New Ladoga c, 53 km on.
The fortress at Shlisselburg is built on an island in the river, at the very spot where the Neva leaves Lake Ladoga, and whoever held it held the water road between the Baltic and the heart of Russia. The Novgorodians built the first wooden walls in 1323, and called the place Oreshek, which means little nut, after the island's shape. Over the next four centuries it passed between Russians and Swedes, until in 1702 Peter the Great stormed it on his way to the sea, and renamed it Schlusselburg, the key fortress, a key that would unlock the Baltic. Within a year he had founded Saint Petersburg downstream.
Read the complete Schlisselburg. Old Ladoga and New Ladoga c write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Schlisselburg. Old Ladoga and New Ladoga c sits at 210 km, about halfway. Next is back through The Coastal Fort «Reef».
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Historical Centre of the Town of Gatchina write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through The Coastal Fort «Reef» comes up about 287 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Oranienbaumsky Springboard.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Oranienbaumsky Springboard write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 333 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Oranienbaumsky Springboard. Next is back through Tallinskoe Highway.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Tallinskoe Highway write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Tallinskoe Highway, late in the day. Next is Historical Centre of the Town of Gatchina.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Historical Centre of the Town of Gatchina write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 419 km.
Historical Centre of the Town of Gatchina → Tallinskoe Highway is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Tallinskoe Highway → Oranienbaumsky Springboard is 33 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Oranienbaumsky Springboard → The Coastal Fort «Reef» is 33 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
The Coastal Fort «Reef» → Schlisselburg. Old Ladoga and New Ladoga c is 102 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Schlisselburg. Old Ladoga and New Ladoga c → Back to Historical Centre of the Town of Gatchina is 85 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Oranienbaumsky Springboard → back through Tallinskoe Highway is 33 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Tallinskoe Highway → Historical Centre of the Town of Gatchina is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.