CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
The recorded total and the leg detail need reconciliation. Inspect the leg notes before using this record for timing or navigation. 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 387 km round trip from Bled - roughly 7 h 00 in the saddle. On the way it passes Keutschacher See, Idrija - Smelting Plant, Idrija - Old Town and Gorenja Kanomilja - Kanomilja or Ovcjak Wa. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,100 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It crosses from Slovenia into Austria - carry ID and check vignette or toll rules. A steady touring day rather than a sprint.
Water arrives beside the road and stays for 33 km. The line follows the shore because there is nowhere else for it to go — slow enough to look. The surface follows the shoreline, so the corners arrive where the water decided, not where an engineer did.
1 km through ground somebody thought worth listing. The road passes it rather than bypassing it. Speed drops and stays down. Park rather than crawl through.
Bled looks like a stage set for an alpine fairy tale, and it has the grace to be real. A small glacial lake, deep green and still, is ringed by forested hills, with the pale wall of the Julian Alps rising behind it. On a rocky islet in the middle stands a white church with a baroque steeple, the Church of the Assumption, reached by traditional wooden boats called pletna, which are rowed by hand, and on a cliff on the north shore a castle looks down on the water. The castle is first mentioned in 1004, when the emperor gave the lands to the bishop of Brixen, and it claims to be the oldest in the country. The view from the terrace, with the island and the mountains, is the one on every postcard.
Read the complete Bled write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Bled is where the day begins. Next is Keutschacher See.
Keutschacher See is one of the warm little lakes of Carinthia, tucked into the rolling moraine country south of the Wörthersee, where glaciers of the last ice age left a jumble of hills, hollows and water. It is small and shallow, with reeds at the edges and pine and beech woods around it, and in summer it warms to a temperature that makes the Alpine lakes a few valleys away seem Arctic. Locals swim from jetties and lawns, and the nearby village of Keutschach am See is a quiet place of fewer than five hundred people.
Read the complete Keutschacher See write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Keutschacher See comes up 33 km in. Next is Idrija - Smelting Plant.
In 1490, so the story goes, a tub-maker soaking a wooden vessel in a spring found shiny drops of liquid metal at the bottom. It was mercury, and the mine that grew from that discovery at Idrija, in the hills of western Slovenia, became the second largest mercury mine in the world, operating for five centuries. Together with Almadén in Spain, it was inscribed by UNESCO in 2012. The smelting plant, where the ore was roasted to release the mercury vapour, was the heart of the operation, and its buildings and furnaces now tell the story of the industry and its toll on the workers.
Read the complete Idrija - Smelting Plant write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
At least 90 km in you reach Idrija - Smelting Plant. Next is Idrija - Old Town.
Mercury is a strange thing to build a town on. In 1490, according to the story, a local cooper was soaking a tub in a spring when he noticed a gleaming liquid metal in the bottom, and the find was the start of one of the biggest mercury mines in the world. Idrija, a small town in a narrow valley in western Slovenia, became rich on the metal, which was used for medicine, mirrors, gold extraction and later for gunpowder detonators. The mine ran for about five hundred years until it was closed in 1994, and together with the mine at Almaden in Spain, Idrija was inscribed as a World Heritage site in 2012.
Read the complete Idrija - Old Town write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Idrija - Old Town, about halfway. Next is Gorenja Kanomilja - Kanomilja or Ovcjak Wa.
Idrija is a small town in a narrow valley in western Slovenia, and for five hundred years it was one of the richest places in Europe, because under it lay mercury. The ore was found in 1490, and the mine became the second biggest in the world, after Almaden in Spain, and employed generations of miners. The two together were listed as a World Heritage site in 2012. Mercury was vital for extracting gold and silver, and for mirrors, medicines and later industry, and the Habsburg emperors treasured Idrija. The miners' wives and daughters made lace to earn money, and Idrija lace is still made today, taught in a school, and a local pride.
Read the complete Gorenja Kanomilja - Kanomilja or Ovcjak Wa write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Gorenja Kanomilja - Kanomilja or Ovcjak Wa sits at 132 km, about halfway. Next is back through Idrija - Old Town.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Idrija - Old Town write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Idrija - Old Town comes up 164 km in. Next is back through Idrija - Smelting Plant.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Idrija - Smelting Plant write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
197 km in you reach back through Idrija - Smelting Plant. Next is back through Keutschacher See.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Keutschacher See write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Keutschacher See, late in the day. Next is Bled.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Bled write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 387 km.
Bled → Keutschacher See is 33 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Keutschacher See → Idrija - Smelting Plant is 88 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Idrija - Old Town → Gorenja Kanomilja - Kanomilja or Ovcjak Wa is 10 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Gorenja Kanomilja - Kanomilja or Ovcjak Wa → back through Idrija - Old Town is 10 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Idrija - Smelting Plant → back through Keutschacher See is 88 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Keutschacher See → Bled is 33 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.