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.
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Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
A 552 km round trip from Rijeka - roughly 9 h 19 in the saddle. It goes by way of Krokar, Škocjan Caves, Episcopal Complex of the Euphrasian Basili and back through Škocjan Caves. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 800 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It crosses from Croatia into Slovenia - 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 78 km this is Croatia Istrian Hill Town Route, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
Rijeka is a port city that does not try to be pretty, and that is its charm. It lies at the head of the Kvarner Gulf, where the mountains come down steeply to a deep harbour, and it has been a trading city since Roman times. Under the Habsburgs it was Fiume, Hungary's sea gate, and between the wars it was Italian, briefly the plaything of the poet Gabriele D'Annunzio, who occupied it in 1919 and ruled it as a self-styled commandant for fifteen months. Today it is Croatian, and it is the third largest city in the country.
Read the complete Rijeka write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Rijeka is where the day begins. Next is Krokar.
Krokar is one of the last true virgin forests in Europe, a reserve of beech and fir on a steep slope above the Kolpa river in southern Slovenia, where humans have never logged or managed the woods. Trees grow, fall and rot as they have done since the end of the Ice Age, and the result is an extraordinary tangle of giant trunks, dead wood and fresh saplings, home to fungi, beetles and birds that need old, undisturbed forest. Since 2017, Krokar has been part of the UNESCO site of the Ancient and Primeval Beech Forests of the Carpathians and Other Regions of Europe. The reserve itself is strictly protected and not open to visitors; you can walk along its edge, but the heart of it is left alone, which is precisely the point.
Read the complete Krokar write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Krokar comes up 52 km in. Next is Škocjan Caves.
Underneath the sleepy stone villages of the Slovenian Karst, a river called the Reka plunges into the earth and carves one of the largest underground canyons known anywhere. The Škocjan Caves, a UNESCO site since 1986, are the reason the word karst became the scientific name for this kind of limestone landscape everywhere in the world. Inside, a narrow footbridge spans the Reka gorge far above the roaring water, the chamber walls disappear into darkness, and the scale is so huge that your mind struggles to accept it is all underground.
Read the complete Škocjan Caves write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
104 km in you reach Škocjan Caves.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Škocjan Caves write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Škocjan Caves, about halfway. Next is Episcopal Complex of the Euphrasian Basili.
Poreč sits on a little limestone peninsula on the western coast of Istria, and the old town still follows the grid the Romans laid down, with the Decumanus running straight down the middle. The Euphrasian Basilica is tucked a few lanes from the main street, behind a quiet atrium, and it is easy to walk past if you are looking for something grand from the outside. Inside is the reason it earned its UNESCO listing: a sixth-century church, built under Bishop Euphrasius, that kept its Byzantine mosaics through a millennium and a half of earthquakes, Venetian rule and tourism.
Read the complete Episcopal Complex of the Euphrasian Basili write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Episcopal Complex of the Euphrasian Basili sits at 209 km, about halfway. Next is back through Škocjan Caves.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Škocjan Caves write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Škocjan Caves comes up 261 km in.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Škocjan Caves write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
313 km in you reach back through Škocjan Caves. Next is back through Krokar.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Krokar write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Krokar, late in the day. Next is Rijeka.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Rijeka write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 552 km.
Rijeka → Krokar is 47 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Krokar → Škocjan Caves is 83 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Škocjan Caves → Episcopal Complex of the Euphrasian Basili is 79 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Episcopal Complex of the Euphrasian Basili → back through Škocjan Caves is 79 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Škocjan Caves → back through Krokar is 83 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Krokar → Rijeka is 47 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.