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.
357 km from Qiryat Shemona to Qiryat Shemona, about 6 h 09 of riding. On the way it passes Qalaat Chama’, Ridván Gardens, Sites of Human Evolution at Mount Carmel: and Sebastia. It crosses Lebanon, Israel and Palestinian Territories - carry ID and check vignette or toll rules. The line favours views over speed.
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.
Qalaat Chakra is where the day begins. 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’ comes up about 35 km into the recorded legs. 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.
about 73 km into the recorded legs you reach Ridván Gardens. Next is Sites of Human Evolution at Mount Carmel:.
In the caves of Nahal Me'arot, on the western slope of Mount Carmel near the coast south of Haifa, people lived on and off for half a million years, and both Neanderthals and early modern humans left their bones here. The four caves, Tabun, Jamal, el-Wad and Skhul, contain one of the longest records of human evolution anywhere, and they were listed as a World Heritage Site in 2012. Tabun alone has layers spanning hundreds of thousands of years. The Natufian culture, among the first people to settle in villages before farming, also left traces in el-Wad.
Read the complete Sites of Human Evolution at Mount Carmel: write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Sites of Human Evolution at Mount Carmel:, about halfway. Next is Sebastia.
Sebastia, Sabastiya in Arabic, is a Palestinian village on a hill north-west of Nablus, in the northern West Bank, surrounded by olive groves and terraced hillsides. It stands on the site of Samaria, the capital of the northern Kingdom of Israel in the ninth and eighth centuries BC, later rebuilt by Herod the Great, who named it Sebaste in honour of the Emperor Augustus. The ruins on the hilltop above the village span a thousand years of history.
Read the complete Sebastia write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Sebastia sits at 179 km, about halfway. Next is back through Sites of Human Evolution at Mount Carmel:.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Sites of Human Evolution at Mount Carmel: write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Sites of Human Evolution at Mount Carmel: comes up about 243 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Ridván Gardens.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Ridván Gardens write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 283 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Ridván Gardens. 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’, late in the day. Next is 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.
The route ends here after 357 km.
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 → Sites of Human Evolution at Mount Carmel: is 40 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Sites of Human Evolution at Mount Carmel: → Sebastia is 65 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Sebastia → back through Sites of Human Evolution at Mount Carmel: is 65 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Sites of Human Evolution at Mount Carmel: → back through Ridván Gardens is 40 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through 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’ → Qalaat Chakra is 35 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.