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: planning record, not independently verified geometry.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distances and riding times are planning figures. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
308 km from Nabatîyé et Tahta to Nabatîyé et Tahta, about 5 h 19 of riding. It goes by way of Tyre, Qalaat Chakra, Qalaat Chama’ and Ridván Gardens. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,000 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It crosses from Lebanon into Israel - carry ID and check the toll rules. A steady touring day rather than a sprint.
Perched on a cliff edge some three hundred metres above the gorge of the Litani river in southern Lebanon, Beaufort Castle, known in Arabic as Qalaat al-Chakif, has watched over the borderlands of the Levant for nearly a thousand years. The Crusaders took and fortified it in the twelfth century, and it was finally surrendered to Saladin in 1190 after a long siege. Later it was held by the Mamluks, rebuilt and repaired by local rulers, and in the twentieth century it became a fiercely contested military position, occupied by Palestinian fighters and then by the Israeli army from 1982 until its withdrawal from southern Lebanon in 2000. Its stones have been battered by everything from siege engines to modern artillery.
Read the complete Qalaat al-Chakif write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Qalaat al-Chakif is where the day begins. Next is Tyre.
Tyre was already ancient when Alexander the Great arrived in 332 before Christ. Then it was an island city just off the coast of what is now southern Lebanon, famously rich and famously stubborn, and when its citizens refused to open their gates, Alexander built a causeway out to the island and besieged it for months. Sand piled up against that causeway over the centuries, and the island became the peninsula you see today, with the modern city of Tyre spreading across it and the old harbour still busy with fishing boats.
Read the complete Tyre write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Tyre comes up about 43 km into the recorded legs. Next is Qalaat Chakra.
Before anything else, the honest part: this place lies in southern Lebanon, a few kilometres from the border with Israel, in an area that has seen repeated war, most recently in 2024, and that remains militarised and unpredictable. The listed neighbours on the route sheet, from Kiryat Shmona to Tyre, sit on opposite sides of a frontier that is closed to ordinary travel. Check your government's travel advice and local conditions very carefully before even thinking about a visit, and do not try to approach from the Israeli side.
Read the complete Qalaat Chakra write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 81 km into the recorded legs you reach Qalaat Chakra. Next is Qalaat Chama’.
Before anything else: this is one of the most sensitive places on any of these routes. Qalaat Chama, or Shamaa castle, stands on a hilltop in southern Lebanon, a few kilometres north of the border with Israel and inland from Naqoura, in an area that has seen repeated conflict, including heavy fighting in recent years, and that many governments advise against visiting under any circumstances. Damage to historic sites in the area has been reported, and conditions may have changed. Do not go without checking current official travel advice, and if in doubt, do not go at all.
Read the complete Qalaat Chama’ write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Qalaat Chama’, about halfway. Next is Ridván Gardens.
In the spring of 1863, Bahá'u'lláh, the founder of the Bahá'í faith, spent twelve days in a garden in Baghdad that Bahá'ís now call Ridván, the Garden of Paradise, and the festival of that name still marks the most holy days in their calendar. The garden outside Acre that carries the same name is a different place, a quiet green island on the Na'amán river, east of the old city, which Bahá'u'lláh loved during his years as a prisoner and exile of the Ottomans in Acre. He called it the New Jerusalem, and visitors who enter its small gate understand why. The river runs around it, mulberry trees give shade, and the air is cool and smells of water.
Read the complete Ridván Gardens write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Ridván Gardens sits at 154 km, about halfway. Next is back through Qalaat Chama’.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Qalaat Chama’ write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Qalaat Chama’ comes up about 192 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Qalaat Chakra.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Qalaat Chakra write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 227 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Qalaat Chakra. Next is back through Tyre.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Tyre write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Tyre, late in the day. Next is Qalaat al-Chakif.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Qalaat al-Chakif write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 308 km.
Qalaat al-Chakif → Tyre is 43 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Tyre → Qalaat Chakra is 38 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Qalaat Chakra → Qalaat Chama’ is 35 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Qalaat Chama’ → Ridván Gardens is 38 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Ridván Gardens → back through Qalaat Chama’ is 38 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Qalaat Chama’ → back through Qalaat Chakra is 35 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Qalaat Chakra → back through Tyre is 38 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Tyre → Qalaat al-Chakif is 43 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.