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.
From Białystok it runs 488 km to Białystok; allow about 8 h 26 of riding. On the way it passes Bialowieza Forest, Białowieża Forest, back through Białowieża Forest and back through Bialowieza Forest. It crosses from Poland into Belarus - carry ID and check the toll rules.
Białystok is the capital of Podlasie, the north-eastern corner of Poland, and a city with a surprisingly cosmopolitan past. Around 290,000 people live here now, but the historical mix was far richer, with Poles, Jews, Belarusians, Lithuanians, Tatars and Russians all contributing to the character of the town. In the nineteenth century it grew into a textile centre, and before the Second World War, Jews made up a majority of its population, a history that ended in the Holocaust and is remembered in several memorials around the city.
Read the complete Bialystok write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Białystok is where the day begins. Next is Bialowieza Forest.
There is nowhere else in lowland Europe quite like Białowieża. The forest straddles the border between Poland and Belarus, and it is the last large remnant of the primeval woodland that once covered the plains of the continent. Some of its trees are centuries old, towering oaks, limes, hornbeams and spruces, and the ground is littered with fallen trunks, which are left to rot as they would be in nature, and which feed an astonishing variety of fungi, beetles and birds. UNESCO listed it in 1979 and later extended the listing to include the Belarusian side.
Read the complete Bialowieza Forest write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Bialowieza Forest comes up about 225 km into the recorded legs. Next is Białowieża Forest.
Here the forest gets closer to the border, and the history in the air gets heavier. For centuries this was a royal hunting ground, preserved by Polish kings and Lithuanian grand dukes and later by the Russian tsars, who made it one of the best-protected game reserves in Europe, and it was this protection that kept the forest alive.
Read the complete Białowieża Forest write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
At least about 243 km into the recorded legs you reach Białowieża Forest.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Bialowieza Forest write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Bialowieza Forest, about halfway. Next is back through Białowieża Forest.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Białowieża Forest write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Białowieża Forest sits at 325 km, about halfway. Next is back through Bialowieza Forest.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Bialowieza Forest write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Bialowieza Forest comes up about 260 km into the recorded legs. Next is Bialystok.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Bialystok write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Białystok closes the day.
Białystok → Bialowieza Forest is 90 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Bialowieza Forest → Białowieża Forest is 18 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Bialowieza Forest → back through Białowieża Forest is 0 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Białowieża Forest → back through Bialowieza Forest is 18 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Bialowieza Forest → Bialystok is 225 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.