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 232 km round trip from Namyangju - roughly 4 h 07 in the saddle. The stops in between: Seooreung Cluster, Seosan Getbol, Kanghwa Dolmen Sites and back through Seosan Getbol. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
A queen who outlived her husband by more than sixty years lies here. Sareung is the tomb of Queen Jeongsun, wife of King Danjong, the boy king of the Joseon dynasty who was deposed by his uncle in 1455 and later killed in exile. Jeongsun lived on in poverty outside the capital, and the story of her loyalty and grief became one of the most moving in Korean history. Her tomb, a grassy mound guarded by stone figures and approached along a path through pine forest, is one of the forty Royal Tombs of the Joseon Dynasty listed together as a World Heritage Site in 2009.
Read the complete Sareung Cluster write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Sareung Cluster is where the day begins. Next is Seooreung Cluster.
Joseon kings chose their final resting places with the same care they gave to their palaces, and the Seooreung cluster in Goyang, just north-west of Seoul, shows how. The name means the five tombs of the west, and the forested grounds contain the burial mounds of several Joseon kings and queens from the fifteenth to the eighteenth centuries. Each tomb follows the principles of pungsu, the Korean form of geomancy: a mountain behind for protection, open land in front, ideally with water flowing past. The mound sits on a terrace, surrounded by stone figures of officials, warriors and animals standing guard, and below is a T-shaped shrine where rites were held. The forty Joseon royal tombs were added to the World Heritage list together in 2009.
Read the complete Seooreung Cluster write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Seooreung Cluster comes up about 35 km into the recorded legs. Next is Seosan Getbol.
Korea's west coast has some of the largest tides on earth. Twice a day the Yellow Sea pulls back for kilometres, exposing vast shining mud flats, the getbol, laced with channels and alive with crabs, mudskippers, worms and shellfish. UNESCO has listed a series of these Korean tidal flats for their extraordinary biodiversity and for the millions of migratory shorebirds that stop here to feed on their way between Siberia and Australia.
Read the complete Seosan Getbol write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 71 km into the recorded legs you reach Seosan Getbol. Next is Kanghwa Dolmen Sites.
Ganghwa Island lies in the mouth of the Han River, just north-west of Seoul and Incheon, and on a clear day you can look across a narrow channel of tidal water straight into North Korea. The town of Kaesong is barely twenty-five kilometres away. That closeness gives the island an edge, with watch posts and fences along parts of the shore, but its fame is much older. The Ganghwa dolmens, together with those at Gochang and Hwasun in the south, were listed by UNESCO in 2000, and Korea holds a remarkable share of all the dolmens known in the world.
Read the complete Kanghwa Dolmen Sites write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Kanghwa Dolmen Sites, about halfway. Next is back through Seosan Getbol.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Seosan Getbol write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Seosan Getbol sits at 162 km, about halfway. Next is back through Seooreung Cluster.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Seooreung Cluster write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Seooreung Cluster comes up about 197 km into the recorded legs. Next is Sareung Cluster.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Sareung Cluster write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Sareung Cluster closes the day.
Sareung Cluster → Seooreung Cluster is 35 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Seooreung Cluster → Seosan Getbol is 36 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Seosan Getbol → Kanghwa Dolmen Sites is 46 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Kanghwa Dolmen Sites → back through Seosan Getbol is 45 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Seosan Getbol → back through Seooreung Cluster is 35 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Seooreung Cluster → Sareung Cluster is 35 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.