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.
911 km from Madīnat ‘Īsá to Madīnat ‘Īsá, about 16 h 33 of riding. On the way it passes Al Zubarah Archaeological Site and back through Al Zubarah Archaeological Site. It crosses from Bahrain into Qatar - carry ID and check the toll rules. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
The first thing to understand about Royal Mound 3 is that it is made of the island itself. Bahrain sits on a dome of limestone, laid down in ancient seas and cracked by millions of years of sun and salt, and the builders of the mounds quarried that very stone from nearby. The slabs are pale, flaky and layered, and where a mound has collapsed you can see them stacked like old books. Up close, you may also see small fossils in the rock, shells and tiny sea creatures that lived here when the whole area lay underwater.
Read the complete Royal Mound 3 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Royal Mound 3 is where the day begins. Next is Al Zubarah Archaeological Site.
Out on the north-west coast of Qatar, where the desert slides into a shallow turquoise sea, stand the low ruins of Al Zubarah, once one of the busiest pearling and trading towns in the Gulf. In the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries the town thrived on pearls dived from the oyster beds offshore, traded on to India, Persia and beyond. Then it declined, was abandoned in the early twentieth century, and the sand covered it. Archaeologists have since uncovered streets, houses, a souk, mosques and a long town wall running in an arc around the old harbour. UNESCO inscribed the site in 2013.
Read the complete Al Zubarah Archaeological Site write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Al Zubarah Archaeological Site comes up about 456 km into the recorded legs. Next is Hayr Bū-l-Thāmah.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Al Zubarah Archaeological Site write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Al Zubarah Archaeological Site, late in the day. Next is Royal Mound 3.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Royal Mound 3 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Royal Mound 3. That is the ride.
Royal Mound 3 → Al Zubarah Archaeological Site is 456 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Al Zubarah Archaeological Site → back through Al Zubarah Archaeological Site is 0 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Al Zubarah Archaeological Site → Royal Mound 3 is 456 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.