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 384 km round trip from Kélibia - roughly 6 h 18 in the saddle. On the way it passes Village of Sidi Bou Saïd, Medina of Tunis, Sector of Bib Knissia Basilica and back through Sector of Bib Knissia Basilica. It suits an unhurried touring pace.
The necropolis at Kerkuane lies on the same flat, sea-fringed shelf as the Punic town, a short walk from it, and it is a different kind of visit: quieter, odder and more personal. The Carthaginians who lived here buried their dead in rock-cut tombs, some with painted plaster, with offerings of pottery and small objects. The tombs were found outside the walls, as the Punic custom was, and while the best finds have gone to museums, the site still gives a very direct sense of how close daily life and death were in this small coastal city.
Read the complete Necropolis write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Necropolis is where the day begins. Next is Village of Sidi Bou Saïd.
Sidi Bou Saïd is a village painted in two colours, white and a deep Mediterranean blue, and rising above the Gulf of Tunis on a cliff that falls to the sea. The whitewashed houses, blue doors and window grilles, studded iron nails and bougainvillea spilling over walls are known the world over, though it was a conscious choice: in the early twentieth century a French baron and musicologist, Rodolphe d'Erlanger, who built a palace here, helped to promote a local style and then the authorities protected it by rule. The village is named after a Sufi saint, Abu Said al-Baji, who lived and taught here in the thirteenth century and whose tomb draws pilgrims.
Read the complete Village of Sidi Bou Saïd write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Village of Sidi Bou Saïd comes up about 150 km into the recorded legs. Next is Medina of Tunis.
Tunis begins in the narrow lanes. The medina, the old walled city, lies on a low ridge between the salt lake and the Sebkha of Ariana, and the main street runs uphill from the Bab el Bahr, the Sea Gate, towards the Zitouna Mosque, the Mosque of the Olive Tree. The mosque's origins go back to the late seventh century, soon after the Arabs founded Tunis, and the city grew around it. Its great period came under the Hafsid dynasty in the thirteenth to sixteenth centuries, when Tunis was a wealthy capital with libraries, schools and merchants trading across the Mediterranean. Later came the Ottomans and the beys, who added palaces and fountains.
Read the complete Medina of Tunis write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
At least about 170 km into the recorded legs you reach Medina of Tunis. Next is Sector of Bib Knissia Basilica.
Carthage is a name that carries more weight than the site can show, because the Romans did their best to erase it. According to tradition, Phoenician settlers from Tyre founded the city in the ninth century BC, led by Queen Dido, and it grew into a naval and trading power that fought Rome in three wars. Hannibal came from here, the general who crossed the Alps with elephants. In 146 BC Rome destroyed the city after a long siege, and a century later it was refounded as a Roman colony and became one of the great cities of the western Mediterranean. The Vandals took it in 439, the Byzantines in 533, and the Arabs in 698.
Read the complete Sector of Bib Knissia Basilica write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Sector of Bib Knissia Basilica, about halfway. Next is Medina of Tunis.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Medina of Tunis write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Medina of Tunis sits at 151 km, about halfway. Next is back through Sector of Bib Knissia Basilica.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Sector of Bib Knissia Basilica write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Sector of Bib Knissia Basilica comes up about 223 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Medina of Tunis.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Medina of Tunis write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 240 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Medina of Tunis. Next is back through Village of Sidi Bou Saïd.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Village of Sidi Bou Saïd write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Village of Sidi Bou Saïd, late in the day. Next is Necropolis.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Necropolis write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 384 km.
Necropolis → Village of Sidi Bou Saïd is 150 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Village of Sidi Bou Saïd → Medina of Tunis is 20 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Medina of Tunis → Sector of Bib Knissia Basilica is 18 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Sector of Bib Knissia Basilica → Medina of Tunis is 17 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Medina of Tunis → back through Sector of Bib Knissia Basilica is 18 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Sector of Bib Knissia Basilica → back through Medina of Tunis is 17 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Medina of Tunis → back through Village of Sidi Bou Saïd is 20 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Village of Sidi Bou Saïd → Necropolis is 123 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.