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 468 km round trip from Dubrovnik - roughly 10 h 04 in the saddle. The stops in between: Vjetrenica Cave, St. Barbara, Grebnice and back through St. Barbara. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,100 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It crosses Croatia, Bosnia & Herzegovina and Montenegro - carry ID and check vignette or toll rules. A steady touring day rather than a sprint.
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For 31 km this is Adriatic Highway, Jadranska Magistrala, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
Dubrovnik was once an independent republic, called Ragusa, and it lasted for centuries by being clever. It was a small city-state that paid tribute to bigger powers, traded with everyone, banned slavery early, and kept a splendid ring of walls that still surrounds the old town. Walking the walls, about two kilometres of stone with towers and bastions, takes an hour or two, and offers views over terracotta roofs and a glittering sea. In 1991 and 1992 the city was shelled during the Yugoslav war, and the damage has been repaired, though a few signs remain. UNESCO added it to its list in 1979.
Read the complete Dubrovnik write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Dubrovnik is where the day begins. Next is Vjetrenica Cave.
The karst country inland from Dubrovnik is a landscape of grey limestone hills, stony fields and long, flat-bottomed valleys called poljes, which flood in winter and dry out in summer. Popovo Polje, on the Bosnian side of the border, is one of the largest, and at its edge, near the village of Zavala, lies Vjetrenica, the most famous cave in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Its name means wind cave, from the strong current of air that blows out of its entrance, cool in summer and noticeable from a distance.
Read the complete Vjetrenica Cave write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Vjetrenica Cave comes up 38 km in.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Vjetrenica Cave write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
76 km in you reach Vjetrenica Cave. Next is St. Barbara, 38 km on.
Konavle is the long, fertile valley that runs south east of Dubrovnik towards the Montenegrin border, and St. Barbara is a small church at Dubravka, near its upper edge, surrounded by a field of medieval tombstones. These stećci, heavy carved blocks of limestone dating from the late Middle Ages, are part of the cross-border UNESCO listing of stećci cemeteries shared by Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro and Serbia. The Dubravka group is one of the most accessible in Croatia, and the setting, with the church, the old stones and the view over the valley, is quietly beautiful.
Read the complete St. Barbara write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
St. Barbara, about halfway. Next is Grebnice.
Grebnice, a name that simply means something like grave-stones, is a field of stećci near Bileća in eastern Herzegovina. These are the massive carved tombstones of medieval Bosnia and its neighbours, cut from local limestone between roughly the twelfth and sixteenth centuries, shaped like chests, slabs or little houses with gabled roofs, and sometimes covered with spirals, rosettes, swords, shields and dancing figures. UNESCO listed a selection of the most important sites together in 2016, and the necropolis here is one of the eastern Herzegovinian groups. Standing among them on a still afternoon, with the grass grown up around the stones, is a strangely moving experience.
Read the complete Grebnice write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Grebnice sits at 152 km, about halfway. Next is back through St. Barbara, 38 km on.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete St. Barbara write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through St. Barbara comes up 190 km in. Next is back through Vjetrenica Cave.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Vjetrenica Cave write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
228 km in you reach back through Vjetrenica Cave.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Vjetrenica Cave write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Vjetrenica Cave, late in the day. Next is Dubrovnik.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Dubrovnik write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 468 km.
Dubrovnik → Vjetrenica Cave is 31 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Vjetrenica Cave → St. Barbara is 66 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
St. Barbara → Grebnice is 55 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Grebnice → back through St. Barbara is 55 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through St. Barbara → back through Vjetrenica Cave is 66 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Vjetrenica Cave → Dubrovnik is 31 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.