Uedem-Hochwald | Hochwald 9 and Tiel Inundation Canal
Plan this ride
Recorded distance
186 km
Riding-time estimate
3 h 16
Journey
Recorded itinerary
Distance and timing basis
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.
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Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
A 186 km round trip from Uedem - roughly 3 h 16 in the saddle. The stops in between: Kleve-Reichswald | East, Elst-Grote Kerk, Tiel Inundation Canal and back through Elst-Grote Kerk. It crosses from Germany into Netherlands - carry ID and check the toll rules. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Uedem-Hochwald | Hochwald 9
Come in late October and the sky over this corner of the Lower Rhine fills with noise. Tens of thousands of geese, mostly white-fronted and bean geese from the Arctic, winter on the wet meadows along the Rhine between Xanten and the Dutch border, and in the evening they stream in over the fields in long, restless skeins. Hochwald 9 sits in the forest just east of the flat farmland where they feed, about seven kilometres from Uedem, so you may well hear them before you see them.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Uedem-Hochwald | Hochwald 9 is where the day begins. Next is Kleve-Reichswald | East.
2. Kleve-Reichswald | East
South of Kleve, near the Dutch border, the Reichswald is one of the largest forests in the Lower Rhine region, a mix of oak, beech and pine on a low ridge of sand and gravel left behind by the glaciers of the Ice Age. On its edge, the Romans built military installations as part of the Lower German Limes, the frontier along the Rhine, and the remains in the Reichswald, including traces of camps, are part of the World Heritage site listed by UNESCO in 2021. There is little to see above ground, but the forest itself is a quiet, beautiful place to walk.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Kleve-Reichswald | East comes up about 25 km into the recorded legs. Next is Elst-Grote Kerk.
3. Elst-Grote Kerk
Elst is a commuter town in the Betuwe, the flat river island between the Rhine and the Waal, halfway between Arnhem and Nijmegen. At first glance there is nothing remarkable about its big brick church on the market square. The surprise lies underneath it. Excavations in the twentieth century found the remains of two Roman temples beneath the floor, built one after another on the same spot, dedicated to a local god adopted into the Roman world. The site belongs to the Frontiers of the Roman Empire, Lower German Limes, inscribed by UNESCO in 2021, and the foundations can be seen in the church cellar when it is open.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 55 km into the recorded legs you reach Elst-Grote Kerk. Next is Tiel Inundation Canal.
4. Tiel Inundation Canal
Tiel is a river town on the Waal, the main branch of the Rhine in the Netherlands, in the middle of the Betuwe, a region of orchards, dykes and meadows between the Waal and the Lower Rhine. Just outside the town, a wide, straight channel runs through the fields, crossed by bridges and lined by dykes. This is the Tiel inundation canal, built in the late nineteenth century as part of the New Dutch Waterline, the defensive system of controlled flooding that protected the heart of Holland, and it is now part of the UNESCO-listed Dutch Water Defence Lines.