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.
273 km from Nabatîyé et Tahta to Nabatîyé et Tahta, about 4 h 42 of riding. On the way it passes Junayn Garden, Tel Megiddo and back through Junayn Garden. 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 Junayn Garden.
On the coastal plain of western Galilee, between Nahariya and Akko, a small garden known as Junayn is one of the Bahá'í holy places in Israel. Bahá'u'lláh, the founder of the Bahá'í Faith, spent his final years in exile in this region in the late nineteenth century, after being banished by the Ottoman authorities from Persia and then from Baghdad, Istanbul and Edirne. Once his confinement in the prison-city of Akko was relaxed, he would visit gardens around the town, and this was one of them. The Bahá'í holy places in Haifa and western Galilee, including the Shrine of Bahá'u'lláh at Bahjí and the terraced gardens on Mount Carmel, were listed by UNESCO in 2008. The gardens are tended with remarkable precision by Bahá'í volunteers from around the world, and the atmosphere is serene.
Read the complete Junayn Garden write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Junayn Garden comes up about 74 km into the recorded legs. Next is Tel Megiddo.
From the top of Tel Megiddo, the whole of the Jezreel Valley spreads out below you, a green and gold checkerboard of fields stretching towards Mount Tabor and the hills of Galilee. You can see at once why so many armies fought here. The mound guarded the narrow pass where the ancient coastal road, the Via Maris, crossed from the Mediterranean plain into the valley, and anyone who held it controlled one of the great trade and military routes of the ancient world.
Read the complete Tel Megiddo write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 137 km into the recorded legs you reach Tel Megiddo. Next is back through Junayn Garden.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Junayn Garden write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Junayn Garden, 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.
Back at Qalaat al-Chakif. That is the ride.
Qalaat al-Chakif → Junayn Garden is 74 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Junayn Garden → Tel Megiddo is 63 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Tel Megiddo → back through Junayn Garden is 63 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Junayn Garden → Qalaat al-Chakif is 74 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.