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.
362 km from Ol’gino to Ol’gino, about 5 h 34 of riding. It goes by way of The Park «Nearest Dubki», Fort «Obrutchev», Fort «Ino» and The Water-bringing system of Peterhof. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For about 54 km this is Saint Petersburg Imperial Shore, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
The fountains of Peterhof run without a single pump, and that is the cleverest thing about them. When Peter the Great planned his gardens in the 1710s and 1720s, engineers led by Vasily Tuvolkov worked out that the water of the Ropsha hills, about twenty kilometres to the south, stood high enough above the Gulf of Finland to feed the fountains by gravity alone. They dug canals, built ponds and laid pipes, so that the water flows from the heights to the Upper Garden and down to the Great Cascade, where it shoots high into the air. The system, still essentially the same, is part of the UNESCO listing for Saint Petersburg.
Read the complete The Water-bringing system of Peterhof write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The Water-bringing system of Peterhof is where the day begins. Next is The Park «Nearest Dubki».
Dubki simply means little oaks, a common name for a patch of woodland, and the ride titles connect this spot with the Oranienbaum Springboard, which is the south shore, across the water, where a Soviet bridgehead held out through the siege of Leningrad from 1941 to 1944 while the city itself was encircled.
Read the complete The Park «Nearest Dubki» write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The Park «Nearest Dubki» comes up about 54 km into the recorded legs. Next is Fort «Obrutchev».
Fort Obruchev stands on a man-made islet in the shallows of the Gulf of Finland, one of the chain of sea forts that gave Kronstadt its reputation as the strongest naval fortress in the world. Named, as I understand it, for General Nikolai Obruchev, a leading military planner of the late nineteenth century, it belongs to the northern line of the defences, built of granite and brick with casemates facing the main channel. Eight kilometres from Kronstadt town, it is reachable by boat or visible from the ring road across the dam, and in practice many of these forts are closed, derelict and under military control, so view it from a distance rather than expecting to land.
Read the complete Fort «Obrutchev» write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 78 km into the recorded legs you reach Fort «Obrutchev». Next is Fort «Ino».
In pine woods on the northern shore of the Gulf of Finland, west of the resort strip of Zelenogorsk, lie the shattered concrete remains of Fort Ino. It was built from 1909 as part of the defences of Saint Petersburg, a key battery of Peter the Great's Naval Fortress, designed to close the gulf to enemy fleets with heavy guns. When Finland became independent, the fort ended up on Finnish territory, and under the Treaty of Tartu in 1920 its fortifications were to be dismantled, which is why what remains today is mostly blasted concrete, scattered among the trees and dunes.
Read the complete Fort «Ino» write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Fort «Ino», about halfway. Next is back through Fort «Obrutchev».
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete The Water-bringing system of Peterhof write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Fort «Obrutchev» sits at 101 km, about halfway. Next is back through The Park «Nearest Dubki».
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete The Park «Nearest Dubki» write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through The Park «Nearest Dubki» comes up about 307 km into the recorded legs. Next is The Water-bringing system of Peterhof.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete The Water-bringing system of Peterhof write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The Water-bringing system of Peterhof closes the day.
The Water-bringing system of Peterhof → The Park «Nearest Dubki» is 54 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
The Park «Nearest Dubki» → Fort «Obrutchev» is 24 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Fort «Obrutchev» → Fort «Ino» is 78 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Fort «Ino» → Back to The Water-bringing system of Peterhof is 97 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through The Park «Nearest Dubki» → The Water-bringing system of Peterhof is 55 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.