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 230 km round trip from Bled - roughly 4 h 56 in the saddle. On the way it passes Idrija - Smelting Plant, Idrija - Old Town, Gorenja Kanomilja - Kanomilja or Ovcjak Wa and Idrija - Kamšt water pump with the Rake wa. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,100 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available.
Speed drops and stays down. Park rather than crawl through. 1 km through ground somebody thought worth listing. The road passes it rather than bypassing it.
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 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.
Idrija - Smelting Plant comes up about 80 km into the recorded legs. 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.
At least about 82 km into the recorded legs you reach Idrija - Old Town. 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, about halfway. Next is Idrija - Kamšt water pump with the Rake wa.
Idrija sits at the bottom of a narrow, steep-sided valley in western Slovenia, and for about five hundred years the town made a living from the red mineral cinnabar, the ore of mercury. The mine at Idrija was one of the largest mercury mines in Europe, second only to Almadén in Spain, and the two sites share UNESCO World Heritage status. The Kamšt is the best monument to that history: a huge wooden waterwheel, more than thirteen metres across, built in the late eighteenth century to drive pumps that kept the mine from flooding.
Read the complete Idrija - Kamšt water pump with the Rake wa write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Idrija - Kamšt water pump with the Rake wa sits at 76 km, about halfway. Next is back through Gorenja Kanomilja - Kanomilja or Ovcjak Wa.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Gorenja Kanomilja - Kanomilja or Ovcjak Wa write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Gorenja Kanomilja - Kanomilja or Ovcjak Wa comes up about 132 km into the recorded legs. 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.
about 148 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Idrija - Old Town. 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.
back through Idrija - Smelting Plant, 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 230 km.
Bled → Idrija - Smelting Plant is 80 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Idrija - Old Town → Gorenja Kanomilja - Kanomilja or Ovcjak Wa is 16 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Gorenja Kanomilja - Kanomilja or Ovcjak Wa → Idrija - Kamšt water pump with the Rake wa is 17 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Idrija - Kamšt water pump with the Rake wa → back through Gorenja Kanomilja - Kanomilja or Ovcjak Wa is 17 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Gorenja Kanomilja - Kanomilja or Ovcjak Wa → back through Idrija - Old Town is 16 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Idrija - Smelting Plant → Bled is 81 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.